Blended learning experience, student engagement, and civic engagement in university physical education with ideological and political education.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined how Community of Inquiry (CoI)-based perceived blended learning experience and student learning engagement were associated with civic actions and civic intentions in university physical education incorporating ideological and political education. The study links three forms of learning presence and three dimensions of engagement with behavioral and intentional civic outcome scores in a large multi-site Chinese sample.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,035 undergraduate students from 15 universities in Sichuan Province, China. CoI-based perceived blended learning experience was represented by teaching, social, and cognitive presence, and student learning engagement by behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. A 69-item hierarchical structural equation model was estimated using robust maximum likelihood; ordered-indicator WLSMV, Monte Carlo interval estimation, and an equal-loading unmeasured latent method construct were used for sensitivity analyses. Exploratory fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis examined configurations associated with high and non-high civic action and intention scores.

RESULTS

Under robust maximum likelihood, perceived blended learning experience was positively associated with student learning engagement (β = 0.530), civic actions (β = 0.490), and civic intentions (β = 0.447), while student learning engagement was positively associated with civic actions (β = 0.375) and civic intentions (β = 0.396; all p < 0.001). Indirect associations through student learning engagement were significant for civic actions (β = 0.199) and civic intentions (β = 0.210), and the conclusions were unchanged under ordered-indicator WLSMV, Monte Carlo interval estimation, and the admissible method-factor model. Civic action and intention factors showed substantial empirical overlap. Exploratory configurational solutions were threshold-sensitive and largely reflected profiles in which many learning-presence and engagement conditions were jointly high or low.

CONCLUSION

CoI-based perceived learning experience and student engagement were consistently related to self-reported civic outcomes in this university physical education context. The findings support an associational account centered on coordinated teaching, social, cognitive, and engagement dimensions; the cross-sectional, single-source design does not establish temporal or causal ordering.