Nudging students to reduce procrastination in office hours and forums

Abstract

In this article, we present the results of a study aiming to understand the impact of email nudge notification on students’ procrastination in office hours, and Piazza (QA forum) in a CS1 course at a large research university. With this study, we sought to understand if email nudges can be a useful tool in improving student’s learning behaviors, especially procrastination. After the first two homeworks, we randomly split students into two groups; the treatment group received the email, and the control group did not. The treatment group was further divided into two groups: one for the students who performed above the median (of the combined grades of homework 1 and 2) and those who performed below the median. Each sub-group received a slightly different version of the email. We found that students in the treatment group did not change their office hours’ attendance and Piazza interactions. We also found no difference in homework grades. However, students in the treatment group used more free late days on the following (third) homework. However, the change was short-lived, and they reverted to the pre-email level of late days usage on the fourth homework.