Student pacing in a master's level course: Procrastination, preference, and performance

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Student procrastination is a prevalent issue, with many learners wishing to overcome it.
• Previous research explored contingent access to study materials to manage study behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate and extend previous research on contingent versus noncontingent access to study materials.
• To evaluate student preference for different access conditions using a choice procedure.
• To assess the impact on study behavior and academic performance.

Main Methods:

• Replication of Perrin et al. (2011) in a graduate-level course.
• Utilized a choice procedure to determine student preference between contingent and noncontingent access.
• Employed varied measures to evaluate performance outcomes.

Main Results:

• Contingent access to study materials effectively reduced procrastination behaviors.
• Despite reduced procrastination, students predominantly selected the noncontingent access condition.
• End-of-semester survey preferences mirrored in-semester choices.

Conclusions:

• While contingent access can mitigate procrastination, student preference often favors noncontingent access.
• Findings suggest a need to re-evaluate graduate course design to balance pacing with student preferences.
• Recommendations are provided for future research on optimizing course structures for student self-regulation and satisfaction.