Does 3600 Student Engagement Work for the Generation Z?

Pamela M H Kwok and Doreen Y P Tse
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hong Kong SAR, China

Student engagement is always a challenging but imperative issue for both educators and researchers. Fredricks et al. (2004) propose that student engagement covers three major components: behavioural, cognitive and affective. Nowadays, it may be difficult for educators to adopt a traditional approach to motivate and engage the Generation Z in their learning. Modern pedagogy or specific learning design in terms of blended learning may be needed because Generation Z is characterized by multi-tasking, self-centredness, and being with “always on” technology that allows them to be connected with others easily. The target respondents in this study are 110 final year marketing students studying the two-year self-financed associate degree programme in Hong Kong. Primary data were collected from both a qualitative survey and observational study (on both online and off-line learning behaviour) to study the impact of 3600 student engagement in their learning experiences.