Missing the Mark: lessons From Failing to Foster Learner Engagement in a Co-Curricular Program

Learner engagement, loosely defined as the extent of a student’s cognitive and emotional investment in both academic and co-curricular activities, is argued to make a positive impact on both the student experience at university and student learning outcomes. Universities often implement co-curricular activities and programs to drive learner engagement, yet it continues to be the most lagging metric in nationwide student evaluations of higher education experience in Australia. This raises questions of how to design and deliver effective and engaging co-curricular programs, however, there is scant praxis-oriented knowledge available. This article draws on the experience of a team of academics in an Australian business school tasked with creating a co-curricular program to foster learner engagement amongst an undergraduate cohort. Drawing upon engagement data from 1 year of delivery, as well as a series of semi-structured long-form focus group discussions with participating students at varying stages of their learning journey, this article questions assumptions about learner engagement and co-curricular design and challenges the use of learner engagement as a metric for evaluating educators and educational institutions given the nature of students’ relationship with their education.