Examining Classroom Interventions to Reduce Procrastination

Procrastination is a common problem for students. Many believe procrastination may keep otherwise competent students from succeeding. However, the most effective interventions for procrastination are resource-intensive-providing supplemental training or courses in study skills and self-regulation. These techniques do not scale to large courses. This paper investigates three new classroom interventions designed to be low-cost and low-effort to implement. Reflective writing assignments ask students to reflect on how their time management choices affect their work. Project schedule sheets require students to plan out and schedule specific tasks on their projects. E-mail situational awareness alerts give students feedback on how their progress compares to others, and to expectations. 353 students over two semesters of a junior-level advanced data structures course participated in a study where these interventions were investigated. While neither reflective writing assignments nor schedule sheets produced any significant effect, e-mail alerts were associated with both significantly reduced rates of late program submissions, and increased rates of early program submissions. As a result, this intervention shows promise for further investigation as a potential strategy for reducing late submissions among students.