Year two: Effect of procrastination on academic performance of undergraduate online students

Procrastination presents problems not only for undergraduate students, but also for undergraduate faculty, and the effects of student procrastination on academic performance is a joint concern. This two-year follow up study seeks to better understand the relationship between academic performance and the actual time of submission of assignments relative to the deadline imposed on those submissions. The authors investigated the effect of academic assignment submission time and the academic grades earned before, on, and after the assignment submission deadline. These results continue to suggest that the earlier assignments are submitted, the higher the grades tend to be. Therefore, online faculty need to encourage undergraduate online students to develop a better understanding of the potential benefits of adopting the habit of earlier submission of assignments

Online Learning in Higher Education During A Global Pandemic: An Explorative Study On Norwegian Students

Through an exploratory study we aimed to address challenging factors related to learning during the Coronavirus pandemic. We have investigated and identified procrastination, self-regulation, and exam anxiety as important factors associated with learning success. Since the educational sector has shifted radically towards online learning, we have additionally examined previous literature related to learning analytics, learning during disasters, and online learning. To address our research objective, we initially applied a survey to map out procrastinators and non- procrastinators to include for our semi-structured interviews with students. We additionally conducted a small sample of interviews with teachers, and one teaching technology manager, to acquire their perspective on the current situation. While prior studies under Covid-19 found that online learning has been perceived positive by students, our findings revealed challenges related to engagement in online lectures, and thus, suggesting that engagement is not properly facilitated through the current learning management systems. This paucity of engagement is further argued to reduce the students’ overall learning outcome in terms of both practical knowledge and informal understanding of subjects. However, it does not reflect on the grades as the evaluation system has become more lenient. Our findings further revealed significant differences amid procrastinators and non-procrastinators when investigating the students’ study behavior and habits, and we see that procrastinators in higher degree encounter challenges related to motivation, allocating time to study, and structure, as opposed to non-procrastinators. Nevertheless, our findings reveal that the teachers are not able to sufficiently follow-up students-at-risk themselves because of time constraints and limited resources, and a lack of an appropriate framework is hindering the university to adequately adopt learning analytics. Keywords: Online Learning, Covid-19, Learning Analytics, Procrastination, Self-regulation, Test Anxiet

Using GitHub in Large Software Engineering Classes: An Exploratory Case Study

GitHub has been recently used in Software Engineering (SE) classes to facilitate col- laboration in student team projects. The underlying tenet is that the technical and social feature of GitHub can help students to communicate and collaborate more effectively as a team as well as help teachers to evaluate individual student contribution more objectively. To shed more light on this, in this case study, we explore the benefits and drawbacks of using GitHub in SE classes. Our study is conducted in a software engineering class of 91 students divided into 18 teams. Our research method includes an entry and an exit surveys and a qualitative analysis of students’ commit behavior throughout the period of the project. Our findings show that a) enforcing GitHub in SE classes can be an effective approach for enhancing students’ skills in configuration management and version control, and b) despite the steep learning curve, most teams managed to optimize their commit behavior over time. In terms of student evaluation, our analysis exposed the risks of using GitHub for individual effort assessment. The work in this paper provides several valuable insights for researchers and makes several recommendations for practitioners (teachers) about integrating GitHub in SE classes

Psychological and behavioral outcomes of social media-induced fear of missing out at the workplace

The intense proliferation of social media platforms into every facet of human lives has engaged researchers' attention towards understanding their adverse influences, referred to as the dark side of social media (DoSM) in the evolving literature. A relatively unexplored context in this regard is employees' personal use of social media during work hours and its impact on work-related outcomes. Since using social media during work hours can have implications for work performance and productivity, the lack of research in the area needs to be addressed by scholars sooner rather than later. Specifically, it is important to understand the drivers and outcomes of such behaviour. We have thus conceptualized a theoretical model based on the associations among individual tendencies (exhibitionism and voyeurism), fear of missing out (FoMO), and individual-level psychological (compulsive use of social media) and behavioral (work performance decrement and procrastination) outcomes of social media use during work hours. Grounded in the stressor-strain-outcomes (SSO) framework, the hypothesized associations were tested by a path analysis of 312 responses collected from individuals working in the United States. The results confirmed significant relationships between individual tendencies and FoMO, as well as psychological and behavioural outcomes. The findings contribute to the evolving literature around DoSM in the workplace and offer useful and practical insights

Fear of missing out on social media: implications for private and professional lives

The “dark side” of social media use is a topic of vivid discourse in academia and mass media. Within this discourse, various negative effects, such as social media fatigue, addictive or compulsive use, and social media use-related sleep problems have garnered attention. The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is a particular dark side of social media phenomenon that has significant implications for diverse segments of social media users. In the past decade, since the operationalization of FoMO, scholars, especially those researching social media, have made continuing progress in understanding FoMO’s conceptual foundations as well as the capacities in which FoMO can influence the well-being of social media users. Despite the growing scholarly interest, research on FoMO is fragmented and features significant knowledge gaps, such as a limited understanding of its consequences and a lack of focus in prior studies beyond young adults and teenagers as a respondent group. These gaps need to be addressed as myriad mass media reports and academic studies have linked social media users’ experience of FoMO with indicators of diminished well-being, which in turn has implications for these users’ personal and professional lives. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how FoMO, as a context-specific psychological trigger, predicates users’ experience of phenomena associated with the dark side of social media such as social media fatigue, compulsive social media use, and social media stalking. It further investigates the influence of such FoMOdriven experiences on individual users’ professional and personal lives. This dissertation examines FoMO within the social media environment and investigates theoretically grounded frameworks that illustrate the pathways through which FoMO may lead to negative consequences. The dissertation comprises five articles: one systematic literature review (Article I) and four quantitative studies (Articles II–V) developed based on the review findings. Following a systematic review of 58 empirical publications on FoMO, Article I provides foundational knowledge on FoMO’s known antecedents and consequences, indirect influencers (moderators and mediators), study contexts, conceptualization, and operationalization. The results are used to present an overarching framework and five key propositions for advancing research on FoMO. The findings of Articles II and III provide new insights into FoMO’s influence on the personal well-being of social media users. Discerning significant links between FoMO and the compulsive use of social media, online social comparison, social media stalking, and disruptions in sleep hygiene (i.e., sleep-related habits and routines), these articles argue that FoMO could culminate in social media users’ experiences of problematic sleep and social media fatigue. The findings also show that FoMO may have an amplification effect on the users’ dark side of social media experiences on these platforms, albeit through different manifestations among young adults and working professionals. Articles IV and V focus on FoMO-driven social media use in the workplace and the subsequent consequences. In doing so, this research empirically investigates employees, who are a relatively less-studied demographic in the FoMO research compared to young adults. The findings show that FoMO has the capacity to predict diminished work performance, work procrastination, phubbing (the problematic use of smartphones during social or workplace interactions), workplace exhaustion, and work incivility. Further, these articles show that individual characteristics, such as regulatory focus and social media envy, play an important role in users’ experiences of negative consequences. Collectively, the findings of this dissertation provide novel insights into the mechanisms through which FoMO can trigger the problematic use of technological platforms, such as social media and smartphones, and users’ engagement in activities that are intrinsically linked with the dark side of social media. The dissertation suggests that FoMO and the dark side of social media phenomena may indeed have a cyclical relationship wherein one may trigger another, causing a vicious loop. In addition to advancing the understanding of ways in which FoMO can negatively influence an individual’s life, the findings hint at its potential to indirectly, but positively, benefit individual performance in the workplace. In doing so, the dissertation creates new knowledge on the dual effects of FoMO. Cumulatively, the findings of this dissertation, particularly Article I, provide several avenues that scholars can pursue to further advance the frontier of knowledge on FoMO in particular and the dark side of social media in general. KEYWORDS: Fear of missing out, dark side of social media, compulsive use, phubbing, problematic sleep, work performanceSosiaalisen median ei-toivotut vaikutukset (sosiaalisen median pimeä puoli) palvelujen käyttäjille ovat viime vuosina olleet vilkkaan julkisen keskustelun ja akateemisen tutkimuksen kohteena. Aihepiirin tutkimus on tarkastellut mm. käyttäjien väsymystä sosiaalisen mediaan, riippuvuutta sosiaalista mediaa kohtaan, sosiaalisen median pakonomaista käyttöä, sekä sosiaalisen median käytön vaikutusta uneen. Paitsi jäämisen pelko (Fear of Missing Out, FoMO) on ilmiö sosiaalisen median pimeiden puolin kentässä, jolla on havaittu merkittäviä, tyypillisesti kielteisiä vaikutuksia palvelujen käyttäjiin. Lisääntyneestä tutkimuksesta huolimatta ymmärrys FoMO:sta on pirstaloitunutta. Tutkimuskirjallisuus on korostanut erityisesti tarvetta FoMo:n käsitteellis-teoreettisen taustan ymmärryksen vahvistamiselle ja tarvetta ymmärtää FoMO:n vaikutuksia sosiaalisen median palvelujen käyttäjien hyvinvoinnille. Tämän väitöstutkimuksen tavoitteena on osaltaan täyttää em. aukkoja aiemmassa tutkimuksessa tutkimalla FoMO:a kontekstisidonnaisena psykologisena laukaisevana tekijänä, jolla on vaikutuksia sosiaalisen median käyttäjiin niin yksityis- kuin työelämässäkin. Väitöskirja koostuu viidestä artikkelista: yhdestä systemaattisesta kirjallisuuskatsauksesta (Artikkeli I) ja neljästä kvantitatiivisesta kyselytutkimuksesta (Artikkelit II–V), jotka on kehitetty kirjallisuuskatsauksen tulosten perusteella. Artikkeli I perustuu 58 empiiriseen julkaisuun FoMO:sta ja tarjoaa perustiedot FoMO:on vaikuttavista tekijöistä ja seurauksista, epäsuorista vaikuttajista (moderaattorit ja välittävät muuttujat), tutkimuskonteksteista, käsitteellistämisestä ja operationalisoinnista. Tuloksia käytetään esittämään tutkimuksellinen viitekehys ja viisi keskeistä suuntaa FoMO:n tutkimuksen edistämiseksi. Artikkelien II ja III tulokset tarjoavat uusia näkökulmia FoMO:n vaikutukseen sosiaalisen median käyttäjien henkilökohtaiseen hyvinvointiin. Artikkeleissa havaitaan merkittäviä yhteyksiä FoMO:n ja sosiaalisen median pakonomaisen käytön, verkossa tapahtuvan sosiaalisen vertailun, sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvan vainoamisen (stalking) ja unihygienian häiriöiden (eli unen laatuun vaikuttavien tapojen ja rutiinien) välillä. Artikkelit osoittavat, että FoMO voi johtaa sosiaalisen median käyttäjien kokemaan ongelmalliseen uneen ja väsymykseen sosiaalista mediaa kohtaan. Artikkelit IV ja V keskittyvät FoMO:n ajamaan sosiaalisen median käyttöön työpaikalla ja siihen liittyviin seurauksiin. Tulokset osoittavat, että FoMO voi ennustaa heikentynyttä työsuoritusta, työn viivyttelyä, puhelinten liiallista käyttöä sosiaalisissa tilanteissa tai työympäristössä (phubbing), työuupumusta ja epäkohteliasta käyttäytymistä työpaikalla. Lisäksi nämä artikkelit osoittivat yksilön ominaisuuksien tärkeän roolin käyttäjien kokemuksissa näistä negatiivisista seurauksista. Kokonaisuutena väitöstutkimukseen sisällytettyjen artikkeleiden tulokset tarjoavat uutta tietoa FoMO: on vaikuttavista tekijöitä ja sen seurauksista niin ihmisten yksityiselämässä kuin työkontekstissakin. Tulokset tarjoavat viitteitä FoMO:n ja sosiaalisen median pimeän puolen välisestä toisiaan vahvistavasta syklisestä suhteesta. Tulokset tarjoavat myös, osin yllättävästi, viitteitä, että paremmin tunnettujen kielteisten vaikutustensa lisäksi FoMO:lla voi olla myös positiivisia vaikutuksia yksilön suorituskykyyn työpaikalla. Väitöstutkimus tarjoaa kattavan viitekehyksen, jota erityisesti FoMO:n ja yleisemmin sosiaalisen median pimeän puolen tutkimuksessa. ASIASANAT: Paitsi jäämisen pelko, sosiaalisen median pimeä puoli, pakonomainen käyttö, phubbing, uniongelmat, suorituskyky töiss

the influnce of social media among adolescents

Social media platforms are part of everyone’s life. Teenagers share these spaces with adults, which to exposes them to variety of content that can threaten their mental health. Therefore, this study explores whether social media is the main reason for depression in teenagers. The research uses a descriptive approach to explore the psychiatric and psychological problems teenagers face. The methodology used in this research was influenced by four domains: philosophical stances and assumptions, sociopolitical commitments, research practice guidelines, and inquiry logic. Key variables in the study include the teenager’s personality, age, and sex. The study finds that social media (passive and active users) is the primary cause of depression in teenagers. The discussion is centered on depression and social comparison, nomophobia, and fear of missing out, confounding factors, and cyberbullying. This is achieved by combining data derived from different literature sources through a systematic review. Keywords: social media, teenagers, addiction, depression, and anxiet

A Prediction-Based Framework to Reduce Procrastination in Adaptive Learning Systems

Procrastination and other types of dilatory behaviour are common in online learning, especially in higher education. While procrastination is associated with worse performance and discomfort, positive forms of delay can be used as a deliberate strategy without any such consequences. Although dilatory behaviour has received attention in research, it has to my knowledge never been included as an integral part of an adaptive learning system. Differentiating between different types of delay within such a system would allow for tailored interventions to be provided in the future without alienating students who use delay as a successful strategy. In this thesis, I present four studies that provide the basis for such an endeavour. I first discuss the results of two studies that focussed on the prediction of the extent of dilatory behaviour in online assignments. The results of both studies revealed an advantage of objective predictors based on log data over subjective variables based on questionnaires. The predictive performance slightly improved when both sets of predictors were combined. In one of these studies, we implemented Bayesian multilevel models while the other aimed at comparing various machine learning algorithms to determine the best candidates for a future inclusion in real-time predictive models. The results reveal that the most suitable algorithm depended on the type of predictor, implying that multiple models should be implemented in the field, rather than selecting just one. I then present a framework for an adaptive learning system based on the other two studies, where I highlight how dilatory behaviour can be incorporated into such a system, in light of the previously discussed results. I conclude this thesis by providing an outlook into the necessary next steps before an adaptive learning system focussing on delay can be established

Self-regulated resource management in emergency remote higher education: status quo and predictors

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring term 2020, students faced a sudden change from on-campus learning to online learning with synchronous and asynchronous online courses (emergency remote teaching). To study successfully, students not only needed to be prepared in terms of digital readiness (workspace, IT equipment, previous online learning experiences, and sharing information online), they also faced challenges that pertained to the self-regulated management of external resources (environment structuring, time management, and help-seeking). In the current study, we investigated students’ digital readiness for the sudden switch to online learning; differences between students’ intended and actual use of external resource management strategies; and the influence of students’ digital readiness on their actual use of resource management strategies. Students enrolled in a full-scale, German university (N = 662) answered two online questionnaires (before and in the middle of the term). Descriptive statistics indicated that students seemed to be ready to study online. However, repeated measures ANOVA showed that students were not able to manage their resources during the term as frequently as intended. Finally, separate regression analyses revealed that availability of workspace and IT equipment predicted the use of environment structuring strategies. Additionally, IT equipment and information sharing behavior predicted students’ help-seeking. Based on the current results, we discuss implications for the promotion of student self-regulated learning (SRL) in online emergency remote teaching based on both external resources and digital readiness

Indicators for enhancing learners’ engagement in massive open online courses: A systematic review

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have paved a new learning path for the 21st-century world. The potential to reach a massive geographically dispersed audience is one of the major advantages of MOOCs. Moreover, they can be offered on a self-paced and self-regulated basis and have become an integral part of lifelong learning, especially in workplaces. However, one persistent problem is the lack of learners’ engagement. A harmonisation of studies providing a holistic view into aggregating indicators for enhancing learners’ engagement in MOOCs is lacking. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated MOOC adoption, and learners’ engagement in MOOCs has become even more essential for the success of this educational innovation. We examine the existing literature to derive indicators important for enhancing learners’ engagement in MOOC learning environments. Using a systematic approach, 83 empirical studies were examined, and 10 indicators were identified as important considerations for enhancing learners’ engagement while designing MOOCs—from initiatives for individual learners to platform and instructional design perspectives. We also present a table describing these indicators and offer a structured discussion on each one. We believe the results provide guidelines for MOOC designers and instructors, educational policymakers, higher education institutions, and MOOC engagement researchers.Peer reviewe

A study of online exams procrastination using data analytics techniques

Procrastination appears to be an inevitable part of daily life, especially for activities that are bounded by deadlines. It has implications for performance and is known to be linked to poor personal time management. Although research related to procrastination as a general behavior has been well established, studies assessing procrastination in the context of online learning activities are scarce. In the exploratory investigative phase of this study, advanced data analytic techniques were used to gather information about online exams. The dataset included 1,629 online exam records over a period of five terms in an academic institution in the southeastern United States. The online exams were provided during a weeklong timeframe where students were asked to take them based on material they studied the previous week. Task performance time and task performance window were fixed for all records extracted. Results of this study indicate that when it comes to online exams, over half (58%) of the students tend to procrastinate, while the rest (42%) stage their work to avoid procrastination. However, those who procrastinated appeared to perform significantly lower than those who staged their work. Clear trends were also observed based on whether the students attempted exams in the morning or the evening, their academic level, and gender