We examine the effectiveness of a planning prompt intervention to reduce procrastination on online homework for college students. The intervention asked students to indicate their intention to earn small amounts of extra credit for completing assignments earlier and form a plan to realize their intentions. Students' learning behavior is measured…

In this paper, we introduce 'Concept Questions,' a weekly writing assignment that has been incorporated into multiple upper-level engineering courses at a single university with the intent of enhancing students' conceptual understanding of the course content. To explore the influence of this activity on students in these courses, we compared…

Learning computer programming is a challenging task for most beginners. Demotivation and learned helplessness are pretty common. A novel instructional technique that leverages the value-expectancy motivational model of student learning was conceptualized by the author to counter the lack of motivation in the introductory class. The result was a…

Getting students to prepare well for class is a common challenge faced by instructors all over the world. This study investigates the effects that two frequently used techniques to increase student preparation--web postings and cold calling--have on student outcomes. The study is based on two experiments and a qualitative study conducted in a…

Lack of class preparation by students is an impediment to establishing an active-learning classroom community. Participation Preparation Assignments encourage students to complete assigned reading and to work with relevant concepts in active ways even before arriving in class. The author presents empirical data (both objective and attitudinal)…

We assess students' appreciation and use of various tools designed to extend effective learning beyond the classroom. For a given tool, results vary depending upon the overall pedagogical approach of the course.

Addresses the problem of students coming to tutorials not having done the assigned readings. Reviews three approaches to promote student reading and addresses why they failed. Reviews recent research on student motivation and cooperative learning and suggests ways to promote reading and interdependent learning. (MJP)