How can students’ academic performance in statistics be improved? Testing the influence of social and temporal-self comparison feedback in a web-based training environment

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine how social or temporal-self comparison feedback, delivered in real-time in a web-based training environment, could influence the academic performance of students in a statistics examination.First-year psychology students were given the opportunity to train for a statistics examination during a semester by doing online exercises in a web-based training environment. Once connected, students received in real-time either social comparison feedback (their score was compared to the mean score of all first-year students) or temporal-self comparison feedback (their score was compared, week by week, with their own previous score). The fact that students were free to connect to the webbased training environment heightened self-regulation differences such as academic procrastination, which was considered as a moderating variable in this study. Because academic performance was measured, the students' background in mathematics and statistics was also controlled. Irrespective of the students' background, the results reveal a positive influence of social comparison feedback on statistics exam performance, but only among students who did not delay doing exercises in the web-based training environment. By contrast, temporal-self comparison feedback did not have any effect on performance. Some recommendations for optimizing the efficacy of web-based training environments can be proposed, taking into account both social comparison feedback and academic procrastination. ARTICLE HISTORY

The Relation between Academic Procrastination of University Students and Their Assignment and Exam Performances: The Situation in Distance and Face-to-Face Learning Environments

“…It is possible that, these types of negative study habits can be handled by using the curvilinear function of procrastination for exams. It can be a solution to send automatic reminders via e-mail in order to stimulate students' interest in taking part in the online exercises (Delaval et al, 2017). Yet, it is seen that it is not easy to overcome this behavior during the whole semester regularly for a couple of assignments for students in DL.…”

Effectiveness of online learning interventions on student engagement and academic performance amongst first-year students in allied health disciplines: A systematic review of the literature

“…While some studies used online teaching interventions to meet the assessment needs of a course (such as Cordier et al, 2016;James, 2016;Nutan & Demps, 2014), other studies extended the online learning approach to encompass all aspects of teaching and learning (Curtis et al, 2013;Lewis & Sewell, 2007;North et al, 2018;Suleman, 2016). Some studies utilised online learning interventions as targeted strategies to achieve a single outcome as part of the course delivery, such as preparation for the final assessment (Delaval et al, 2017), while other studies used these strategies with a focus on promotion of discussions among the student cohort (Lin & Crawford, 2007). Some studies reported the development and evaluation of bespoke online teaching initiatives that tapped into technologies such as social media (Gagnon, 2015;McClean et al, 2016).…”

“…Six of the 19 studies reported on the effect of the online intervention on measures of academic performance. Four of these studies involved online formative learning exercises performed in addition to other study strategies (Delaval et al, 2017;Sando & Feng, 2018;Soh et al, 2013;Stamper et al, 2017). Student performance was primarily assessed with multiple-choice questions (Delaval et al, 2017;Sando & Feng, 2018;Stamper et al, 2017), but Soh et al (2013) used eye-tracking software to investigate how students visually searched and detected abnormalities on a mammogram image.…”

“…The effects of the online formative learning interventions on academic performance are unclear. For example, Delaval et al (2017) delivered a web-based formative learning intervention in a first-year statistical course for psychology students. Once connected, students received feedback on their performance in two ways-social comparison (their score compared to the mean of all first-year students) and temporal-self comparison (their score compared each week with their previous score).…”

A Low‐Intensity, High‐Frequency Intervention to Reduce Procrastination

“…Naturalistic task interventions, such as scheduled daily writing tasks and random compliance checking (Boice, 1989), are more scalable, do not need highly trained therapists, and are often able to use more objective measures of task delay to quantify efficacy. However, studies evaluating these interventions are scarce and findings have been inconsistent, with recent examples producing mixed success in reducing procrastination (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Delaval, Michinov, Le Bohec, & Le Hénaff, 2015).…”