Hsin-Nan Chien

We investigated the relationship between the personal backgrounds, learning experiences, and learning outcomes of college students serving as student association cadres by applying the indicators of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) in the United States. The participants of this study were students at the university student associations in Taiwan, and the sampling was carried out through purposeful sampling. We distributed 1850 questionnaires, and 1761 valid questionnaires were received with a recovery rate of 95%. The self-assessed learning outcomes of the student association cadres were good. Among them, “integration and speculation of cognition” was the highest, followed by “integration and application of knowledge”, “inner self-development”, “interpersonal interaction ability”, “practice ability”, and “social care and civic literacy”. The self-assessment of the student association cadres in their learning experience was also positive. Among them, “experience in engagement” was the highest, followed by “experience in management”, “experience in handling activities”, and “experience in training courses”; while “experience in participating in activities” was the lowest. Through a hierarchical linear regression analysis of the American CAS learning outcome indicator, the student association cadres’ personal background and learning experience had significant explanatory power. The R-squared value of each aspect ranged from 39.6% to 61.1%. It was obvious that the American CAS indicator could be used to examine the learning outcomes of higher education student associations in Taiwan. The results confirm that studying student associations could become an essential approach for cultivating students’ learning outcomes and become an essential reference for Taiwan’s universities and colleges to promote community education.

This study explored college students’ learning experiences and outcomes as club committee members. Using a linear regression model, it investigated the relevance of personal background variables and club learning experiences to club learning outcomes. This study selected 15 universities and colleges’ student club committee members in TaiwanA total of 1850 questionnaires were distributed, and 1761 valid questionnaires were recovered, with a recovery rate of over 95%. The study findings are as follows: Regarding learning experiences and learning outcomes, the student club committee members was good. According to this study’s linear regression analysis: The personal background of student club committee members and their club learning experience had significant explanatory power on the learning outcomes, with R² values ranging from 39.6% to 61.1% for each dimension. This indicates that learning from club activities can be an essential pathway to cultivating students’ learning outcomes and a valuable reference for promoting club education in colleges and universities in Taiwan. Higher education practitioners should plan activities or programs for student club leaders with learning outcomes in mind, and design learning programs to meet the needs of student club leaders in each school so that students can achieve higher quality learning outcomes. In addition, this study also found that the assessment indicators of learning outcomes of the CAS of the U.S. can be applied to check the learning outcomes of student clubs in higher education in Taiwan.