Comparing Student Engagement in a Blended Synchronized Course across Campuses: Face-to-Face (F2F), Online-to-F2F, and F2F-to-Online

Many first-class universities operate several campuses, making the Blended Synchronized Course across Campus (BSCaC) a "new norm" for sharing high-quality courses among these campuses. This study investigated student engagement during attending a BSCaC - Thinking Skills Training & Learning Power Improvement. A total of 148 students enrolled in the course and attended the classes in three ways: the F2F Group completed all the classes face to face, the F2F to Online Group attended 8 weeks face-to-face classes followed by 8 weeks of live broadcasting, and the Online to F2F Group attended 8 weeks of live broadcasting followed by 8 weeks face to face. Participants anonymously and voluntarily completed an online questionnaire incorporating the Student Engagement Scale (SES) by Reeve and Tseng, yielding 91 valid responses: 23 from the F2F Group, 65 from the F2F to Online Group, and 3 from the Online to F2F Group. The results indicate that: (1)The F2F Group reported significantly higher engagement than the F2F to Online Group, followed by the Online to F2F Group. (2)The F2F to Online Group reported higher engagement during face-to-face sessions compared to their online sessions.(3)All three groups reported relatively lower agentic engagement compared to their reported behavior, cognitive, and emotional engagement. (4)No gender difference appeared in the student engagement during attending the course. The implications for the construction and implementation of BSCaC are discussed.