The Effects of Procrastination Interventions on Programming Project Success

Abstract

In computer science, procrastination and related problems with managing programming projects are viewed as primary causes of student attrition. Unfortunately, the most successful techniques for reducing procrastination (such as courses in study skills) are resource-intensive and do not scale to large classrooms. In this paper, we describe three course interventions that are designed to be scalable for large classrooms and require few resources to implement. Reflective writing assignments require students to consciously consider how their time management choices impact their classroom performance. Schedule sheets force students to actively plan out the time required to solve a programming project. Email alerts inform students of their progress relative to their peers as they work on an assignment, and suggest ways to improve behavior if their progress is found to be unsatisfactory. We implemented these interventions in a junior-level data structures course and analyzed data from 330 students over two semesters. Separate analyses of reflective writing responses, schedule sheet contents, and e-mail alert contents are discussed, along with student opinions about the value and effectiveness of each treatment. We found a statistically significant relationship between the time when work is completed and its quality, with late work being of lower quality. We found that one of the three interventions had a statistically significant effect on reducing late work: e-mail alerts sent to students to make them more aware of how they were doing with respect to expectations were associated with both a reduction in assignments completed late, and an increase in assignments completed at least one day early. This result was found despite the fact that students reported subjectively that e-mail alerts were of marginal utility.