A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates

Community engagement is a phenomenon that has received increasing attention among institutions of higher learning in recent years, and students engaging with communities are generally seen as beneficial. Given this, surprisingly little is known about this form of engagement in Australian higher educ...

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Main Authors: Chung, Ellen, Coates, Hamish
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Sarawak 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/34857/1/34857.pdf
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author Chung, Ellen
Coates, Hamish
author_facet Chung, Ellen
Coates, Hamish
author_sort Chung, Ellen
collection UITM
description Community engagement is a phenomenon that has received increasing attention among institutions of higher learning in recent years, and students engaging with communities are generally seen as beneficial. Given this, surprisingly little is known about this form of engagement in Australian higher education, let alone methods to measure its benefits on students. This study discussed the development of the Student Community Engagement Benefits Questionnaire (SCEBS), a questionnaire that measures the perceptions of community engagement benefits among undergraduate students in Australia. The final questionnaire has 32 items allocated to four benefit scales: (1) Career skills, (2) Diversity skills, (3) Interpersonal skills, (4) Civic skills. Most benefit items had a factor loading of at least 0.40 with its own scale. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the four scales accounted for 53% of the total variance. The alpha reliability coefficient for the four scales ranged from 0.79 to 0.91. Based on these findings, the Student Community Engagement Benefits Scale (SCEBS) is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of education. Undergraduate students also reported statistically significant changes in the four dimensions after participating in community engagement activities.
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spelling oai:ir.uitm.edu.my:348572022-08-26T08:53:36Z https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/34857/ A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates ijsms Chung, Ellen Coates, Hamish Study and teaching. Research Malaysia Community engagement is a phenomenon that has received increasing attention among institutions of higher learning in recent years, and students engaging with communities are generally seen as beneficial. Given this, surprisingly little is known about this form of engagement in Australian higher education, let alone methods to measure its benefits on students. This study discussed the development of the Student Community Engagement Benefits Questionnaire (SCEBS), a questionnaire that measures the perceptions of community engagement benefits among undergraduate students in Australia. The final questionnaire has 32 items allocated to four benefit scales: (1) Career skills, (2) Diversity skills, (3) Interpersonal skills, (4) Civic skills. Most benefit items had a factor loading of at least 0.40 with its own scale. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the four scales accounted for 53% of the total variance. The alpha reliability coefficient for the four scales ranged from 0.79 to 0.91. Based on these findings, the Student Community Engagement Benefits Scale (SCEBS) is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of education. Undergraduate students also reported statistically significant changes in the four dimensions after participating in community engagement activities. Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Sarawak 2016-12 Article PeerReviewed text en https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/34857/1/34857.pdf A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates. (2016) International Journal of Service Management and Sustainability (IJSMS) <https://ir.uitm.edu.my/view/publication/International_Journal_of_Service_Management_and_Sustainability_=28IJSMS=29/>, 1 (1). pp. 1-21. ISSN 2550-1569 http://www.ijsmssarawak.com/
spellingShingle Study and teaching. Research
Malaysia
Chung, Ellen
Coates, Hamish
A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates
title A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates
title_full A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates
title_fullStr A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates
title_full_unstemmed A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates
title_short A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates
title_sort journey to measure student community engagement benefits evidence from australia ellen chung and hamish coates
topic Study and teaching. Research
Malaysia
url https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/34857/1/34857.pdf
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