Is Doing More A Good Idea? Students’ Views of the Impact of Involvement on Academic Outcomes

Evidence exists that how students spend their time while pursuing an academic degree is linked to academic success. However, this link for commuting students needs to be further examined. To this end, this action research study specifically examined undergraduate students’ participation in student life activities and their perceptions of the impact of such activities on academic performance, academic engagement, and more broadly, university experience. A survey was administered to a convenience sample of full-time undergraduate students at an English-medium university who commuted daily. The findings of this study illustrate low participation rates as well as students’ subjective views that academic performance and campus life activities are unconnected. The latter views were supported by the absence of an objective relationship between students’ GPA and participation in campus life activities. Students, however, had more favorable views of the impact of campus life activities on academic engagement and, more broadly, on their overall experience in higher education. These findings inform an action plan for enhancing the integration between campus life activities and classroom learning. The goal is to ensure that classroom learning is practiced in the real world outside the confines of the classroom walls.