Procrastination in Online Courses: Performance and Attitudinal Differences

This study investigated the relation between dilatory behaviors and performance in students whom we randomly assigned to either an online or a traditional, lecture introductory psychology class. Both sections had full access to a class Web site. There were no reliable differences between the 2 sections of the class on the measures of procrastination, exam performance, or attitudes toward the class. Yet, procrastination was negatively related with exam scores and with attitudes toward the class for the online students, but not for the lecture students. This difference may partially explain why online courses designed to increase the educational efficacy of a course often show no difference in performance when compared to lecture classes. Online courses are becoming increasingly common; Newman and Scurry (2001) stated that more than 1,100 institutions of higher education in the United States offer courses online. They further claimed that enrollment in such courses is increasing. Given the number of students taking online classes, it becomes important to explore the possible impact that these classes have on the students. Although many studies have found no statistically reliable difference in the performance of students in online and traditional classes (Russell, 1999), these studies do not necessarily address whether the learning experience in online classes is different from that of traditional classes. One difference may be that online classes that have no strict study schedule provide more opportunities for procrastination than their traditional counterparts. Why might the effects of procrastination be a greater problem in online classes than traditional lectures? One possible reason is that although students in traditional lecture classes may procrastinate, going to class exposes them to the material on a regular basis. Thus, at least part of their study time (e.g., time spent listening to the lectures) is distributed across time. Students in an online class may not access any of the class material until the day before the exam. Thus, online students may mass a larger part of their study time compared to those students in lecture classes. In our introductory psychology online course, we found that the number of Web pages accessed per day peaked either the day before or the day of each exam. Leasure, Davis, and Thievon (2000) reported that one of the reasons that nursing students preferred classroom instruction over Web-based instruction was the decreased potential for procrastination in the classroom. Wilkinson and Sherman (1990) queried eight educators who taught telecommunication-based distance education classes about student procrastination. The courses were offered in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, business, economics, history, and psychology. The opinion of nearly all of the educators was that the distance education classes needed more structure and those students who began work early and paced themselves were more likely to complete the course than those who did not. Tice and Baumeister (1997) found negative correlations between self-reported tendencies to procrastinate and grades on exams and papers. Tice and Baumeister found negative correlations between procrastination and symptoms of illness and stress when measured early in the semester. When measured late in the semester, positive correlations were found between procrastination and symptoms of illness, stress, and visits to health-care professionals. Tice and Baumeister concluded that the health problems procrastinators tend to face later in the semester outweigh the health benefits enjoyed by the procrastinators early in the semester. Melton (1970) reviewed the large body of experimental literature on massed versus distributed practice and concluded that cramming, or massing all of the study time into a single session, has deleterious effects on retention of material. Thus, procrastination, which forces learning into a shorter period, should also have a negative effect on long-term retention of material. Procrastinators do not distribute their learning over a long period; instead, they tend to “cram” or have a long duration study session just prior to the exam (assuming that they do study for the exam). If procrastination is a problem in online classes, it would be desirable to know which students are most at risk for procrastination. Instructors could then offer the at-risk students interventions designed to reduce dilatory behaviors. Watson (2001) and Schouwenburg and Lay (1995) correlated self-reported procrastination with five factors of personality. Both found a reliable relation between self-reported procrastination and low conscientiousness. Watson found a reliable relation between procrastination and neuroticism. Schouwenburg and Lay also found some, but not all, facets of neuroticism to be related to procrastination. This study examined the relation between dilatory behaviors and exam performance in both a traditional and an online section of an introductory psychology class. We randomly assigned students to a Web-based class or to a traditional, lecture-oriented class. Students in the traditional class also had