Online Assignment Submission Delay as a Behavioral Indicator of Procrastination

Abstract

Procrastination has long been recognized as an important topic in higher education, and various tools for measuring procrastination have focused on either behavioral or subjective components of the phenomenon. This study examines how online assignment submission delay, used as an objective measure of procrastination, relates to several conceptualizations of procrastination and pacing style measured through self-report questionnaires. It was hypothesized that median assignment submission delay would have a positive relationship with the included self-report measures, a positive relationship with the deadline action pacing style, and a negative relationship with the steady pacing style. Data was collected from 66 students in an online experimental psychology course across 14 lab assignments and six surveys. The analysis included correlations of median assignment submission delay with each of the self-report measures as well as number of assignments turned in and average exam score. A multiple linear regression was conducted with submission delay as the outcome variable and these same variables as predictors. The hypotheses were only partially and weakly supported in that submission delay correlated with some, but not all, measures and few predictors were uniquely significant in the regression model. Submission delay was positively related to the deadline action pacing style but not related in either direction to the steady pacing style. These results should be interpreted with caution due to a limited sample size and a dataset that failed many assumptions for parametric analysis