Dynamic nature of procrastination in the online learning environment

Abstract

Procrastination has chronically affected college students for decades. While some researchers have considered procrastination to be an individual trait, others have suggested that procrastination has a dynamic nature over time in face-to-face classrooms. However, whether changes in procrastination over time can be found in the online learning environment remains unclear. In this study, we investigate the dynamic nature of students’ procrastination by comparing procrastination in the online learning environment during the first and second halves of an academic quarter. A deadline rush model is adopted to compute students’ procrastination across the quarter based on their online webpage activity. The results show that the students experienced greater procrastination in the second half of the quarter than in the first half of the quarter. Our findings highlight the importance of the time variable in research on students’ procrastination.