Interesting.

When I saw this last week, my first thought was to bury it, because it showed how little effect later submission had on grades. The hourglass graphic is striking, but the difference between a 64% and 60% would, I fear, have little power to motivate students achieving such low grades.

I agree with Mark that this research by itself can't tell us anything about procrastination and with all that we can use data like to identify students who need extra support.

Rachelle

Rachelle Thibodeau, Ph.D.

Coordinator, Academic Support Programs

Centre for Initiatives in Education

1518 Dunton Tower, 613-520-2600 ext. 1024

Carleton University | Ottawa, Canada

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-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Stevenson
Sent: September-25-14 11:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Interesting piece about the impact of study skills on coursework grades

Hi Ed,

Interesting, but let me go out on a limb here.

I would like to suggest that, pending further evidence, all the experiment shows is that stronger students (students who have the skills and knowledge base to get good grades combined with adequate time or time management, more on this last below) get their work in earlier, and, in addition, that strugglers are indeed struggling and working right up to the last minute. The published data only tells us when students submitted their assignments, not when they commenced work on them, and it is the last that is relevant to the question of procrastination.

Procrastination, unless someone wants to assign the word a special meaning, was not detectable within the research design described. As for warning students on the ills of procrastination, I'd go out on another limb and suggest that that is already the most mentioned topic of advice when presenting students with their tasks.

What the data does give people working in learning development is a means to identify strugglers (people who need additional assistance) through the timing of their electronic assignment submissions. But their grades tell us that anyway!

On the evidence so far I think it would be *highly* dangerous to the approach students with the assumption they are procrastinating and begin advising them on that basis. Many students I teach, particularly those who are are not strong communicators in English, commence work early and submit late because they know they are starting on the back foot.

Dr Arnott's concludes from his research that it "demonstrates that delaying submission due to poor study habits has a serious and detrimental effect on performance," but no data was collected on poor study habits or otherwise. We don't know that late submission is a result of poor study habits or other underlying problems, or their combination. We already knew it could be a sign someone is struggling and needs help.

If I could go out on a further limb, I'd like to suggest that, until more data is in, educators and managers in education take every precaution when reading interpretations of data that have anything to do with marketing departments, offices or consultancies!

Mark

________________________________________

From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Foster, Ed [[log in to unmask]]

Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 12:21 AM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Interesting piece about the impact of study skills on coursework grades

Happy New Academic Year everyone (HNAY)

This floated around twitter last week, I thought it was really interesting and potentially valuable for colleagues

http://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/leaving-essays-to-the-last-minute-ruins-students-grades/

Ed

[cid:3E46C381-8294-4A62-BB53-4E794E3ACD59]

Monday 8th September

NTU Student Dashboard Launches

www.ntu.ac.uk/studentdashboard

Ed Foster

Student Engagement Manager

Centre for Academic Standards & Quality

Nottingham Trent University

0115 848 8203

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