  Course selection is a crucial activity for students as it directly impacts
their workload and performance. It is also time-consuming, prone to
subjectivity, and often carried out based on incomplete information. This task
can, nevertheless, be assisted with computational tools, for instance, by
predicting performance based on historical data. We investigate the effects of
showing grade predictions to students through an interactive visualization
tool. A qualitative study suggests that in the presence of predictions,
students may focus too much on maximizing their performance, to the detriment
of other factors such as the workload. A follow-up quantitative study explored
whether these effects are mitigated by changing how predictions are conveyed.
Our observations suggest the presence of a framing effect that induces students
to put more effort into course selection when faced with more specific
predictions. We discuss these and other findings and outline considerations for
designing better data-driven course selection tools.
