Assessing Moldovan Undergraduate Students’ Learning Engagement In Correlation With Course Experience

With the education reformation in the Republic of Moldova,after joining the European Higher Education Area,the governmental and public attention was partially redirected to the higher education,mainly focusing on the bachelor’s and master’s degrees.Little to nothing is known regarding Moldovan Student Learning Engagement and Course Experience despite being widely discussed on an international scale.In this quantitative study,Moldovan undergraduate students’experiences are being assessed to gain a deeper understanding of how Learning engagement and Course Experience are being handled in Moldovan higher education institutions and how elements of the course experience influence cognitive,behavioral and emotional learning engagement.The conceptual framework of the study employs Higher Order Learning,Student-faculty Interaction,Effective Teaching Practices,Supportive Environment and High Impact Practices as the Course Experience elements,used as independent variables to assess the three types of Learning engagement.Cognitive engagement is assessed through Reflective and Integrative Learning,and Learning Strategies;behavioral engagement is assessed through Collaborative Learning and Discussions with Diverse Others;and emotional engagement is determined by the Quality of Interactions and Overall Institutional Satisfaction.The data collection was completed through an online questionnaire of learning engagement and course experience distributed to students across multiple institutions in the major cities of the Republic of Moldova in the 4^th quarter of 2019–1^st quarter of 2020.The response rate to the questionnaire has been 52.84%,with 502 undergraduate students completing it.The findings revealed high frequencies of Moldovan students experiencing academic challenge,learning with peers,effective teaching practices,positive campus environment and high impact practices and lower levels of student-faculty interaction and discussions with diverse others.The findings also displayed that course experience explain 32%of the variance in Reflective and Integrative Learning,37%of variance in Learning Strategies,21%of variance in Collaborative Learning,16.6%of variance in Discussions with Diverse Others,17.7%of the variance in the appreciation of the Quality of Interactions,and 33.3%of the variance in the students’Overall Institutional Satisfaction.This study contributes to an essential part of existing literature regarding Learning engagement and Course experience and reveals their specifics in the Republic of Moldova,where until this moment,these concepts constituted a gray zone.Furthermore,the study recommends faculty members and policy makers to put more emphasis on higher order learning,effective teaching practices and student-faculty interaction for increasing the level of reflective and integrative learning and learning strategies among students.To facilitate behavioral engagement,it is recommended to support student-faculty interaction and high impact practices,additionally higher order learning can facilitate collaborative learning.Finally,for increasing the satisfaction among Moldovan students regarding the educational process,it is recommended to increase the effective teaching practices,the supportive environment,and high impact practices.Joint efforts of faculty members,policy makers and students are necessary in order to improve the experiences and engagement in Moldovan higher education.