Higher education student engagement in learning activities: Clarifying concepts and introducing a short-scale

Student engagement plays a vital role in higher education due to its significant influence on academic outcomes, such as academic achievement and course completion. However, the concept of student engagement is often ambiguously defined, with a lack of distinction between engagement in learning and involvement in the academic community. Although the current student engagement measures have contributed to advancing knowledge in the area, they are often too long and exclude agentic engagement, which is seen as a key dimension in higher education. This research aimed to (a) clarify the concept of student engagement and the conceptual problems of the existing scales and (b) develop and validate a short, robust scale for measuring student engagement in learning activities, including agentic engagement. We conducted three studies with Portuguese higher education students: Study 1 developed the Higher Education Student Engagement in Learning Activities – a Short Scale, using exploratory factor analysis to assess cognitive, affective, behavioral, and agentic dimensions. Study 2 and Study 3, with different samples, evaluated the reliability and validity of the developed scale through confirmatory factor analysis. The results highlight the importance of a four-dimensional conceptual approach to student engagement and provide a validated framework for its measurement. This short scale clarifies the distinction between engagement in learning and in the academic community, and introduces agentic engagement as a key dimension. It offers a valuable tool for assessing student engagement in higher education, with implications for enhancing academic practices and outcomes.