Development and educational outcomes of a self-designed semester program for college students: Focusing on the case of K-university

The purpose of this study is to develop a self-designed semester for college students at K-University in Korea and to confirm its educational outcomes. In the process of developing the self-designed semester, the purpose and goals of the self-designed semester were established based on the cases of other universities and literature review. The self-designed semester was designed in a broad framework, and details necessary for program operation were developed. In order to investigate the effect of the self-designed semester, pre and post tests were conducted to the students participating in the program. As a result of paired sample t-test, there were statistically significant difference on problem solving ability, communication skills and self-efficacy between pre-test and post-test. Additionally, the feedback from participating students was also positive. Self-designed semesters can be utilized to meaningfully utilize the overwhelming capacity building in higher education as an educational activity. Therefore, it is concluded that the program is effective for college students to enhance competencies.