Abstract:

Since Success Center creation in September 2017, 1,042 students have participated in the center academic experiences. This represents approximately 25% of the University population. The participation of the students is undoubtedly due to the strategies implemented by the center to generate engagement with students.

The meaning of student engagement varies from author to author. For this article, we will define student engagement as the degree of involvement, interest, motivation, and attention that students display in their learning process and how connected they are with:
1) the university environment,
2) the university activities,
3) their peers, teachers and the academic staff.

For Hobsons, (2019) there are three types of engagement:
“Academic engagement refers to how students react to their classwork, lessons, homework, testing, and the hands-on learning that occurs in a school environment. Social engagement contains any participatory activities that happen in school, such as friendships with other students, clubs and activities, special events, or sports. Emotional engagement refers to the personal relationships that students make with adults in their school community (p.6)”

This paper presents how Success Center, an academic center for students in Universidad Panamericana, has increased university students' engagement in extracurricular non-mandatory academic experiences. To attract students' attention, involvement, interest, and motivation it is necessary to take into account and to implement strategies in the three types of engagement exposed above. This article will cover the basic principles to do this, will show specific successful examples, and a guide for anyone that wants to implement this practice in their learning environment.

Keywords:

Students’ engagement, extracurricular activities, academic experiences, students’ motivation.