Microcommitments: The Effect of Small Commitments on Student Success

Abstract

We conducted a randomized control trial with nearly 1,000 students to test whether using a text-message-based tool that provides small commitments with social accountability helps students procrastinate less and maintain engagement with course material, yielding improved academic performance. All students received identical content via text message, but the treatment group engaged with an online platform encouraging commitments and featuring a social feed with rankings. The analysis reveals that microcommitments with social accountability improved academic performance relative to students who received simple nudges. The increase is equivalent to 3 percentage points on an exam, driven by online and hybrid classes.

Microcommitments: Mitigating procrastination with more than a nudge

“…The use of microcommitments can be a powerful force in changing the behavior of online students who often are from underrepresented groups and those who already face difficult time constraints. In Felkey et al (2021), we document that exposure to microcommitments with social accountability leads to a significant increase in exam scores among online students and students who self-identify as procrastinators. The results presented in the current study build on that research and point to the reduction in procrastination as one of the plausible channels of improved exam scores.…”

“…This finding is consistent with previous research that commitment devices can lead to better performance and learning outcomes, and suggests that mitigating procrastination may be an important channel. For example, Patterson (2018) finds that commitments increase students' course grades, and our previous work (Felkey et al, 2021) finds that microcommitments with social accountability increase post-intervention exam scores in online and hybrid courses, with a larger effect among students who self-report high levels of procrastination. These findings motivated the current research to investigate the pathway to enhanced performance and whether the intervention affected procrastination behavior directly through mitigating the delay of coursework.…”

“…Very few empirical studies have estimated the effect of commitment devices in an educational setting. Felkey et al (2023) find that while social accountability does not differentially impact students at the very top of the leaderboard, it does amplify the performance of students ranked second or third. In the present article, we build on this literature to investigate how the use of nudges accompanied by microcommitments with social accountability may affect procrastination.…”