The Effectiveness of a Leadership Subject Using a Hybrid Teaching Mode during the Pandemic: Objective Outcome and Subjective Outcome Evaluation

Abstract

Positive youth development (PYD) is an innovative approach to protect students from mental health problems and promote their positive and holistic development. Although there are many studies on the beneficial effects of PYD programs on youth in high school and community contexts, it is not clear whether subjects adopting PYD principles can promote positive development for university students. Moreover, it is unclear whether such subjects are effective under COVID-19, where subjects are commonly taught via the “hybrid” mode (i.e., face-to-face plus online teaching). The present study examined students’ changes in the PYD, wellbeing, and desired graduate attributes after they had taken a leadership subject utilizing PYD principles taught by the “hybrid” mode (N = 630). Adopting the one-group pre-test and post-test design (i.e., objective outcome evaluation), we found that students showed significant positive improvement in PYD indicators, wellbeing, as well as desired graduate attributes. Additionally, students had high satisfaction with the course design and teaching staff, and perceived many benefits from this subject based on the subjective outcome evaluation conducted at the end of the subject. Results also showed that students’ satisfaction with the curriculum significantly and positively predicted their positive change in PYD indicators, indicating the convergence of subjective outcome evaluation and objective outcome evaluation. The results highlight the positive impacts of the hybrid mode leadership subject with PYD principles in higher education.