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Abstract
This paper presents research on graduate student access patterns to internet courses, procrastination, and time spent completing online course work. This study investigated the extent of this phenomenon in several courses in a Master of Science in Engineering Management online program. Students in the program have a wide variety of backgrounds, enabling multiple factors related to the phenomenon to be analyzed. Specifically, work procrastination (Student Syndrome) was measured as related to students' professional backgrounds, academic experience, and course performance. The Student Syndrome, modeled graphically by a hockey stick-shaped time-series curve, is characterized by the significant surge of activity toward completing a task as the task completion deadline approaches. It is commonly observed in traditional classroom settings and is also seen in the manufacturing industry as end-of-month production deadlines approach. Student syndrome was observed in all of the subjects studied, regardless of background. Students who had more academic and professional combined total work load procrastinated less. Students in the introductory and mid-level courses who procrastinated most had the poorest level of academic performance, whereas students in the capstone course who procrastinated most had the highest level of academic performance, The results of this study present a baseline for future research, such as comparing the existence of the syndrome in traditional (face-to-face) courses versus online learning setting, and provide insight beyond online education into remote and virtual teamwork, work-from-home jobs, and other deadline-focused settings.
1. Introduction
Student syndrome is described as the phenomenon where study activities get postponed until the last moment [1], This pattern has been recognized both in academia and industry. The expansion of "work-from-home" arrangements, virtual teams and other distributed work arrangements increase concern for student syndrome affecting virtual work and collaboration performance. This study evaluated performance behaviors of the students in online courses. Since the setting for virtual work is similar to on-line courses and remote workplaces, the results provide some insight into the industrial setting.
2. Population sampling
The study analyzed student access patterns in three on-line courses in a Master of Science in Engineering Management (MSEM) program. While sampling of the working population was not randomized, student demographics showed that a wide cross-section of the working population was studied. In total, 40 students were included in the study. The...