Extracurricular activities and programs are the most developed methods that give the students many benefits and make them develop their skills that increase their efficiency, The aim of these activities is to discover and refine the various talents and abilities of the students, to develop the collective spirit of the students by engaging them in collective work, to promote the spirit of competition among the students, to develop the student's professional. This research is about the perception of the students toward college activities and programs. Some of the students use the college activities and programs however the majority of them do not join and do not care these activities and do not aware of how to use the college programs and they do not know the importance of these activities and programs. We conduct this research to help educational institutions, especially colleges and universities to know how they attract students to engage in college activities and programs and increase students' awareness of the importance of participating in college activities.
1.1 Statement of the problem
“Students' perception toward Higher College of Technology activities and programs” Despite the importance of student activities and the opportunities for students to take advantage of them, it is noted that the level of student participation in the activities offered by colleges are below the required level and do not match the intensity of the activities offered and their diversity. Many students are unaware of this aspect and try to ignore it for fear of their low level of education and scientific achievement. They consider these activities are time-consuming and useless. They also see that they consume their energy and their time.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
To investigate student awareness toward college activities.
To examine the factors that influence students’ participation in college activities.
To explore the role of the student affair in student engagement.
1.3 Research questions
How to investigate student awareness toward college activities?
What are the factors that influence the student’s participation in college activities?
What is the role of the student’s affair toward the student’s engagement?
1.4 Scope and limitations of the project
This research will focus on the perception of students toward college activities and programs. The limitation we expected to be faced is not getting enough information to build our report and the lack of time. Second, since the data from this study are from one college in Oman, caution is needed in generalizing the findings of the study.
1.5 Significance
When we finish the research, the benefit of study does not include us only but may include all or certain parties to take benefit of it Such as students and educational institutions in how to participate and implement the activities of the college and how to develop curricula and programs in the college to satisfy the students. In addition, we will publish our research in newspapers or Magazines or journals.
1.6 Defining of terms
Hyperactivity issues: deficit of attention toward lessons.
Curricula: the lessons given by the college to the students.
Extracurricular activities refer to the additional academic activities that fall outside the domain of the ordinary educational programs in college that are performed by the students.
Significance: who is going to benefit from the study?
Student's affairs: department of service in college to support, develop and enhance the students to be successful.
Student engagement: refers to the physiological venture in learning in terms of passion, attention, curiosity, interest, and optimism by the students
Perception: interpretation to present and understand the information.
1.7 Conclusions
In this chapter, we discussed the clarification of the research idea related to the participation of students in the activities of the College in clarifying the introduction, statement of the problem, aim &objectives, research questions, scope and limitation, significance and providing the terms. These steps enabled us to know how to do the research to provide findings, answer the questions and results. This helps the readers to know the goals and activities that the college seeks to satisfy different students, teachers, and management. In the next chapter, we will discuss the literature review what people say about our topic and we will collect articles from different sources like online journals, websites, and books.
Chapter 2. Literature review
2. Introduction:
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with a comprehensive review of relevant literature and research related to students’ perceptions of college activities and programs. This review notes a variety of researchers who observed an interesting perception of students towards the activities that’s held in the college campus and its relationship to their academic achievements. It also discusses the benefits of those programs in the workplace. The information presented in this chapter will provide an understanding of the related literature and it is organized into two main sections. First, the activities that take place in the college, its types, benefits and its relationship with student academic achievements. The second part will be providing mostly relevant review studies about the factors influencing student participation (Student behavior) and role of student affairs in creating awareness among students about the importance of being part of these activities.
2.1 College activities and programs:
It is no secret that most colleges and universities have some activities or programs held inside their campus other than the natural academic classes. Those activities are designed to allow students to get more participated in teamwork or clubs which they can use their skills or hobbies or even gain them through different type of programs in a form of events, clubs or student organizations.
Like those other colleges, also Higher College of Technology have various type of activities and programs which is announced in each academic year. HCT make a full calendar of activities that will be done throughout the academic year in order to inform the students to be prepared and participate in the events, the activities calendar is posted on the college website.
2.2 Types of activity:
'There are many educational missions that most of the colleges and universities have. These are for the benefit of their students. 'Students participating in other activities that are not related to their education, help them to improve their abilities even if they want to enjoy. Each university or college has its own extracurricular activities. Depending on the students needed. As a result, students have many sectors that can join. For example:
2.2.1 Sports activities.
In order to be concerned about the health of the student and improve their physical skills, the college or university council adds this sector.
2.2.2 Islamic culture group.
Religious and cultural lectures aimed at self-development and cultivating values of interest to youth, learn the Quran and encouraging students to memorize the Quran is the most effective thing.
2.2.3 Media activities.
Improve the level of media by refining the talents of students, preparing them to enter the media field with confidence. Like: Workshops (Media Skills), College announcer.
2.2.4 Literature activities:
Development of poetic talents within the college, and provide them a suitable environment to improve this talent effectively.”(HCT 2018)
2.3 The relationship between extracurricular activities and academic achievements:
A more recent and comprehensive review of literature on extracurricular activities for high school students in the United States (Feldman & Matjasko, 2012) found that while such activities are viewed as being highly important “developmental settings for adolescents,” little is understood about the contextual influences affecting that development, or the relationship between participation and outcomes (pp. 160–161).
. Other studies found a strong link between participation in athletics and the likelihood of students dropping out of school (Mahoney & Cairns 1997; McNeal, 1995); still, more have found that participation in sports is linked to improved school attendance, academic outcomes, social relationships, and self-esteem (Marsh & Kleitman, 2002; McCarthy, 2000; Silliker & Quirk, 1997).
In this article, Reeves (2008) also described how Woodstock High School in Illinois, which served more than 2,000 students, showed drastic improvements in academics and student behavior. Although there were many changes that led to these results, the most significant one was the 400% increase in student participation in extracurricular activities.
2.4 Awareness:
According to (Mashour 2010) awareness is the ability to control one’s own attention. In other words, awareness is the cognitive reaction to perceiving conditions or events as they are happening.
And (Vassilis 2009) stated that awareness is a relative concept. It may be focused on an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception.
Sadker & Mittleman, (2010) stated that in many high schools had clubs for all interests, and today about 1 in every 4 students participate in academic clubs.
2.5 Importance & Benefits of college activities:
Almost every college emphasizes the importance of extracurricular activities for the students, but sometimes it seems difficult for those students who don't participate or join to see the great benefit of those programs.
Reeves (2008) defined student achievement as levels in which students acquire measurable and attainable educational goals according to which activities the student participated. Student goals were measured by grade point averages, standardized test scores, and by the particular extracurricular activity, the student took part in during school.
Many schools have invested significant resources into extracurricular activities (Bartkus et al., 2012) and are expected to offer a wide range of extracurricular activities to provide a balanced education (Shulruf, Tumen, & Tolley, 2008).
The impact of participation in extracurricular activities on student development has been widely examined in the general education literature (Feldman & Matjasko, 2005/2012; Shulruf, 2010).
Some students may not be aware of the college activities that held inside the college either if it’s the normal college activities or even extracurricular activates which consist of join in a club or student organization, this may be the fault of the student from not exploring or even the lack of support from college to those activities.
2.6 Factors influencing student participation:
2.6.1 Human factors are related to the characteristics of individuals that influence working behavior in such a way that they can affect health, and safety, as well as environmental, organizational, and professional factors. 'Everyone influences how students learn and affect their satisfaction.
2.6.2 Student factors: There are a number of factors that affect the student's educational attainment, which is classified into three main groups: the first group of factors pertains to the person, the second group relates to the surrounding family, and the last set of factors is that surrounding class environment.
2.6.3 Physiological factors: Interpersonal issues with vital others, and untreated or accommodated mental issues, for example, learning disabilities, attention/hyperactivity issues, and chemical imbalance range issue that influence in grades of students (Isabel Sagenmüller, 2018).
2.7 Student affairs and student engagement.
2.7.1 Student engagement.
Is the interest and the attention that the students give when they are learning something or when they are excited to know about something. Student engagement is a meeting between learning and techniques that motivate students. According to Kuh (2001), Student participation is being done by providing both the time and the energy that they invest it in interacting with others through educational activities. According to Trowler (2010), the way that student participates by interacting between both the time and efforts which is invested by them and the colleges aims to improve their experience and to develop their performance and enhance the outcomes of their learning.
2.7.2 Student affairs.
is the department responsible for the student's services which provide services and support for the student's success at institutions of higher education to enhance students' growth. Most of universities and colleges they have student affairs and they are responsible to support the students to achieve their goals during staying in college.
2.7.3 The role of the college in the development of student engagement.
Student activities and programs are the spaces in which the student expresses his talents and skills within the college. Therefore, the college should stimulate and encourage the student to practice the activities and programs and it must remind them the importance of these activities and programs. Extracurricular activities are important for the college and for the students. The college has developed activities and programs so that they become more diverse and give students the opportunity to develop their skills through their participation in activities they like to do. According to Tchibozo & Pester (2007), extracurricular activities add many dimensions to a student's college experience and it supports the goals of the college.
Conceptual framework (figure1)
2.8 Research gap:
According to relevant research studies we have found that there is a significant gap of researchers on the factors that make the students to not join and participate in college activities in the Arab region specifically, as well as the role of student affairs in motivating and helping the student’s organization to create greater success, so we believe that this research can reduce the gap of studying the student's behavior towards the college activities and students organizations in the Arab region as well as it can reduce the gap of supporting the student's affairs to explore the areas where to focus on creating interest and develop a better success for those activities.
Chapter 3. Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction:
The research methodology chapter of research describes in detail the research methods, approaches, and designs used within the study, justifying my choice by describing the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and design taking into account their practical applicability to our research.
3.2 Type of research:
A descriptive type of study will be used in this research based on Kothari (2004) descriptive research studies are those studies which are concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular individual or group.
As our title is to study the student’s perception the study of their characteristics is needed in our research. A mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative types of research will be followed in this research to ensure the accuracy of data that can be gathered from both types.
3.3 Research design:
According to Zikmund (2003) “research design is a master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information. It is the framework or blueprint that plans the activities for the research project.'
As the research was conducted in the college and the college population is about 12.000 students approximately, divided into different specializations and studies. We decided to target the business department students exactly marketing specialization with more than two years in college which are second-year, advanced and bachelor-level students.
3.4 Research respondent:
There are three kinds of respondents in our research. The first respondent will be those students who are aware of college activities and participated or joined in one of students clubs, Second are those students who are aware but did not join in any of students' clubs, Third responders are those students who have never been aware of college activities and students clubs.
As we mentioned before our sample size will be only marketing students who completed at least two academic years (second-year, advanced, and bachelor students). The convenience sampling technique will be used in this case as it is applicable in both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
According to Zikmund (2003), convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected because of their convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher.
3.5 Research instrument:
A questionnaire survey was rated by category scale and one open question.
3.6 Research procedure.
3.6.1 Gathering of data:
The ethical implication will consider the most when it comes to data gathering as any misunderstanding or bad treatment can be a result of a failure, misunderstood, or even failure for our research information.
According to Bryman and Bell (2007) the following ten points represent the most important principles related to ethical considerations in dissertations:
Research participants should not be subjected to harm in any way whatsoever.
Full consent should be obtained from the participants prior to the study.
The protection of the privacy of research participants has to be ensured.
Any type of communication in relation to the research should be done with honesty and transparency.
Any type of misleading information, as well as the representation of primary data findings in a biased way, must be avoided.
3.6.2 Treatment of data:
Editing, coding, classification, and tabulation. These techniques will be used in order to analyze and organize our data.
(Multivariate analysis). Multiple regression analysis: This analysis is adopted when the researcher has one dependent variable which is presumed to be a function of two or more independent variables. The objective of this analysis is to make a prediction about the dependent variable based on its covariance with all the concerned independent variables. (Kothari 2004)
3.7 Conclusion:
In this chapter, five main sections were contributed to the description of the research methodology. The first three sections were about the type of research that we used in our research, the research design of the research describing the sample size, and the research respondent which was representing the sampling method used. The next two sections were about the research instrument of collecting primary data, and ethical implications of gathering data plus the statistical tool that was used to treat the data.