Abstract:

This study reports on an attempt to foster university students' learning outcomes via extra-curricular engagement. It aims to reveal how students perceive the international collaborative activities conducted utilizing hybrid methods concerning three aspects: attaining academic excellence, acquiring intercultural communication knowledge, and developing inter and intra-personal skills. The data were collected from university students who joined the activities that involved theme-based project work, mainly as an extra-curricular activity. The study employed three surveys. The first survey was conducted to confirm what students expected from the event participation. The second survey was conducted to verify the preparation progress. Finally, the third survey was carried out to confirm the overall learning outcomes, challenges, and future expectations. The quantitative questions, comprising a six-point Likert scale (1=low; 6=high), showed that students’ self-assessment was high regarding their contribution in preparations (with an average of 4.15 and 0.69 standard deviation) and making presentations (with an average of 4.85 and 0.90 standard deviation). Furthermore, the qualitative data confirmed that students perceived success in participation in the intended events based on six-staged accumulative progress. These results confirm that pedagogically well-planned extra-curricular activities offer an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their learning outcomes. Therefore, this study suggest that university extra-curricular engagement can support students in developing a process that fosters academic and social skills.

Keywords:

International academic exchange, multilingual & multicultural awareness, socialization, ICT exchange, peer-assessment.