This presentation demystifies modern approaches to causal inference by exploring the concept of the counterfactual to encourage research on service-learning and community engagement that yields defensible causal conclusions about the effectiveness of engagement practices. While many of these approaches apply higher order statistical and quantitative methods, this presentation will break down the complex concepts to introductory and exploratory levels for an audiences without backgrounds in applied statistical methods. We will root the conversation in the potential outcomes framework, which is at the heart of the modern approach to and understanding of many causal designs.
Participants will be able to identify how applications of the potential outcomes framework can be applied to research projects in SLCE. The presentation will review and clarify the core assumptions of the potential outcomes framework, enabling participants to evaluate how these assumptions may affect a design and plan their research designs accordingly.