PERC 2020 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | The impact of extra credit incentives on students’ work habits when completing online homework assignments |
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| Abstract: | Instructors know that many college students tend to delay working on homework assignments until close to the due date. Such "cramming" behavior may lead to insufficient engagement with learning materials. In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of reducing "cramming" by offering small amounts of extra credit for completing parts of the assignments before the due date. Student learning behavior is characterized by first identifying clusters of clickstream records that represent a continuous study session, then analyzing the duration and starting time of each study session. We observed that after offering extra credit for early completion, the average duration of study sessions remains unchanged, but more study sessions took place earlier than the assignment due date, shortly before the extra credit due dates. We will discuss how extra credit impacts different student populations, as well as the quality of students' learning behavior. As institutions across the nation shift abruptly to online learning at the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic, students are facing significant challenges to keep up with regular course schedules when studying from home, and due dates for online assignments must be more flexible as to accommodate for those challenges. This study suggests that the use of extra credit can be an effective method to incentivize completion of assignments among some students. |
| Abstract Type: | Juried Talk |
| Parallel Session: | Juried Talks II |
| Contributed Paper Record: | Contributed Paper Information |
| Contributed Paper Download: | Download Contributed Paper |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Zachary Felker University of Central Florida Orlando, FL 32816-2385 Phone: 6163755353 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Matthew W Guthrie and Zhongzhou Chen; both at University of Central Florida |
