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Student Procrastination And An Open Testing Environment

Decent Essays

Academic procrastination is an established area of research in higher education and psychology. This phenomenon has been studied with many forms of student assignments, including those in online courses (e.g., Goda, Yamada, Kato, Matsuda, Saito & Miyagawa, 2014; McElroy & Lubich, 2013; Klingsieck, Fries, Horz, & Hofer, 2012; Rabin, Fogel, & Nutter-Upham, 2011). Up to 70% of university students consider themselves to be procrastinators (Goda et al., 2014; Schouwenburg, Lay, Pychyl, & Ferrari, 2004). Researchers have focused on students’ timeliness in turning in assignments, their performance on those assignments, and their perceptions of their experiences. Studies have frequently found that there is a negative relationship between procrastination and learning (e.g., Tan, Ang, Klassen, Yeo, Wong, Huan, & Chong, W 2008). This paper investigates whether student procrastination occurs in an open testing environment, which until recently has not been available for study.

Steel (2007) defines procrastination as voluntarily delaying action despite worry of consequences and without external reasons for waiting. In contrast, delay is procrastination without considering consequences (Corkin, et al., 2011). Out of necessity, procrastination research has focused on out-of-class assignments that have specific due dates. Researchers could then examine student performance and their perceptions in relation to when the assignment was due.

Research has shown a number of adverse academic

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