Procrastinating until very last moments to take online exams

[cathwen]

When I started teaching, my children were attending the earliest school in the district.  I was up anyway, so I always volunteered for the 8am classes.  My supervisors loved me because no one else wanted to teach at that hour!

As for the students, the ones who signed up on purpose (pre-registered) were usually bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to go.  The ones who were placed in the early section because the others were filled were...not. 

[smallcleanrat]

Question: If 20% of the students in my online class think that taking the exam between 11pm - midnight is the optimum time (out of 48 possible hours), are we perhaps doing students a disservice by making them take in-class exams during daytime hours? Is it possible that college students actually perform better closer to midnight? Maybe we should restructure the entire classroom schedule, so that we run from 8pm to 6am instead of 8am to 6pm? This would allow everyone to sleep in!!!

No!  American adolescents perform poorly in the morning in studies for culturally-determined reasons (They're allowed to stay up all night staring at screens, instead of getting a good, consistent night's sleep), not because an inability to function in the morning is an eternal fact of adolescent biology.  Their habits have already been catered to more than enough.  College needs to be a time when they are made to buckle down and start accepting the sort of real-world discipline that they will face in the workplace.  Stuff like this is a part of why employers complain so much about the quality of the recent graduates that they hire.

I got the sense arcturus was joking, but...

This seems like a pretty confident statement. Is it that you've looked at the studies claiming evidence for a biological component and found them faulty? Or is this more of a "oh, come on, everyone knows..."-type conclusion?

My read of the literature is that no one is claiming external factors like screen-time do not contribute, but there are multiple lines of evidence supporting the contribution of internal (biological) factors as well. I started making up a "brief" summary list but it quickly became not-so-brief, especially as I realized it might require explaining many of the different elements of sleep regulation (circadian rhythms vs. homeostatic regulation, sleep depth vs. duration, variations in response to environmental cues, and that's not even touching on the methodology...).

If you're actually interested, I could get more into it, but for now I'll just say this:

The idea that there is an underlying physiological contribution to changes in sleep patterns in adolescents is based on a lot more than a few studies noting that many teens are not functioning at their best first thing in the morning.

For one thing, a shift in the release-time of sleep-promoting molecules like melatonin corresponding with the physiological changes associated with puberty has been documented in monkeys and rodents, as well as humans. If the production of molecules involved in initiating sleep don't begin until later in the night, it is more difficult to get to sleep until later in the night.

This does support an ancient 'fact of biology' if not an "eternal" one. And the monkeys and rats were not allowed to play on smart phones (at least not in the hormone studies I read).



As for external factors, 'coddling' isn't the only explanation for why a teen is staying up late to stare at screens. For example, studying and working on assignments generally requires screen-time nowadays.

Stress and anxiety can also make it difficult to sleep.

And internal and external factors can interact (in a 'vicious cycle' situation). If you can't sleep, you'll be strongly tempted towards reaching for some distraction (like your phone), which might exacerbate your sleep issues. You might use caffeine to get through the day which may also contribute to disrupting your sleep. And with insufficient sleep, it becomes harder to exercise the kind of self-control necessary to resist such temptations, thus making it harder to attain good sleep-related habits.



Anyway, none of that is to say that students ought to be catered to or coddled.

Students need to figure out how to juggle their priorities, manage their time, handle stress, and take care of their health. But if a student seems to be doing these things poorly, there are other explanations beyond 'spoiled, lazy snowflake.'

Aside from the fact that their physiology (including neurophysiology) is still developing, they may be legal adults, but they are novices in this role. It takes time and experience to gain competency in these types of life skills.

IMHO, this is sufficient reason to dial back the sweeping condemnation of 'kids these days.'

Sure, some students are lazy and entitled, but plenty are simply people making a genuine effort who still have a ways to go.

You don't need to baby them, but you don't need to sneer either.

[marshwiggle]

As for external factors, 'coddling' isn't the only explanation for why a teen is staying up late to stare at screens. For example, studying and working on assignments generally requires screen-time nowadays.

Unless a significant portion of their assignments and other work are only assigned the day before they are due, the fact that they're working late at night instead of other times, like early in the morning, are matters of some choice. To the extent that they're following their preferences, then the consequences are theirs.

(Sleep, like nutrition and exercise, requires discipline for effectiveness. While there may be external factors making each of those harder, rarely is the situation completely beyond anyone's control.)

[smallcleanrat]

As for external factors, 'coddling' isn't the only explanation for why a teen is staying up late to stare at screens. For example, studying and working on assignments generally requires screen-time nowadays.

Unless a significant portion of their assignments and other work are only assigned the day before they are due, the fact that they're working late at night instead of other times, like early in the morning, are matters of some choice. To the extent that they're following their preferences, then the consequences are theirs.

(Sleep, like nutrition and exercise, requires discipline for effectiveness. While there may be external factors making each of those harder, rarely is the situation completely beyond anyone's control.)

Yes, there are choices and consequences for those choices. I didn't say students don't have choices or that they should be absolved from meeting their obligations because they may be having a hard time managing.

And waiting until the last hour to take an online exam (whether it was pure procrastination or there were other factors) means there is a risk that you will hit a snag and have no time to remedy it.



I often made the choice to do my work at night and not early morning, because I knew from experience I was more alert at this time and the quality of my work was better this way. I knew from experience that even being strict about bedtimes and shutting off lights and avoiding naps and other forms of sleep cycle regulation was not going to be enough to change this. I used the mornings for tasks that required less focus.

Some people insist this is a lie and that I was being irresponsible, because they had the notion early-to-bed/early-to-rise indicates some sort of virtue.

I was saying physiology actually can be a factor. And it is a student's responsibility to figure out how to work around any limitations or obstacles related to that or to external factors. I was only pointing out that for some people this might take some time.

I tried to make clear I wasn't saying students shouldn't be held responsible for missing deadlines or whatever.

Just that some of the explanations for why students do this or that are sometimes overly simplistic.

[marshwiggle]

I was saying physiology actually can be a factor. And it is a student's responsibility to figure out how to work around any limitations or obstacles related to that or to external factors. I was only pointing out that for some people this might take some time.

I tried to make clear I wasn't saying students shouldn't be held responsible for missing deadlines or whatever.

Just that some of the explanations for why students do this or that are sometimes overly simplistic.

I don't have a problem with any of that. But I tire of the people arguing that 20-somethings' "incomplete brain development" is some kind of excuse for everything. As someone who started university at 16, and never failed out, became a substance abuser, got arrested, etc., I get annoyed at the implication that I must be some sort of rare anomaly. (Mainly, I was raised to be responsible for myself. I think you'd still find that's going to be the case for most of the students who do well; brain development notwithstanding.)

[smallcleanrat]

I was saying physiology actually can be a factor. And it is a student's responsibility to figure out how to work around any limitations or obstacles related to that or to external factors. I was only pointing out that for some people this might take some time.

I tried to make clear I wasn't saying students shouldn't be held responsible for missing deadlines or whatever.

Just that some of the explanations for why students do this or that are sometimes overly simplistic.

I don't have a problem with any of that. But I tire of the people arguing that 20-somethings' "incomplete brain development" is some kind of excuse for everything.
[...]

Is that really what you think I am saying?

[FishProf]

I don't have a problem with any of that. But I tire of the people arguing that 20-somethings' "incomplete brain development" is some kind of excuse for everything.

An explanation isn't (necessarily) an excuse.  You are making a naturalistic fallacy in reverse.

[jerseyjay]

I am somewhat puzzled by the fact that we are looking so far for possible explanations. People in general do not like to do unpleasant tasks and often put them off until the last minute. People often have too much to do in general. People also often realize that deadlines are not as solid as they appear, or will in fact be changed. Academics are probably as bad as others if not worse.

Some examples. I am working as an editor for a collection of essays. It is very common for contributors to turn stuff in at the last minute, or even later.

I have not yet done my tax return, and will probably get to it in late March or early April. I usually have to pay thousands of dollars and am in no rush to do this.

I am taking an online course and each week we have an essay due on Sunday night. I have not yet written mine. Nor did I write it last week until Sunday after dinner. The professor, meanwhile, has not graded the last two weeks' worth of assignments yet.

Department chairs at my school needed to get in revisions to the semester schedule last week. Most of them got them in around 11pm the day they were due. I know at least one chair who still has not turned them in.

The editor of a journal promised me a response a month ago. No response.

There are many reasons for these examples. People are overworked. People don't have confidence in their ability to do the work. People are doing other things they like more. People are passive aggressive.

When my students wait till the last minute to do their work, I don't think they are being different than many people. Being mature means that you have to be able to plan out your enough to make sure you do it in time. Waiting till the last minute is usually not a good idea, because if one thing happens, it might make you late. I know that, but it doesn't stop me from doing things late at times. I think that most students also know it, and it doesn't stop them, either.

[marshwiggle]

I don't have a problem with any of that. But I tire of the people arguing that 20-somethings' "incomplete brain development" is some kind of excuse for everything.

An explanation isn't (necessarily) an excuse.  You are making a naturalistic fallacy in reverse.

An explanation becomes an excuse when a person implies that other people should act differently because of it. So if someone says "People are more reckless before they turn 25 because of ongoing brain development", that's an explanation. But if they say "Because of incomplete brain development before 25, students shouldn't have to do X" (or "be allowed to do X"),  (whatever "X" is), then that's an excuse.  So suggesting accommodations that instructors or institutions ought to make is an excuse. Suggesting accommodations that could be made to make less hassle for instructors would be OK as part of an explanation.

[smallcleanrat]

Yeah, there are plenty of reasons people put things off, and it's certainly not limited to students.

But with experience, people can learn to make shrewder judgments about which things they can get away with putting off and which things need to be treated as high priority.

I've TA'ed for profs who procrastinated to a point that astonished me. One would wait to write exam questions until there was almost no time for the TAs to get the 200+ copies printed before exam time. Another would do things like assign a term paper due in five weeks, but not give students any assignment guidelines until the week before due date. I had to intervene for the panicked students and talk him into changing the timeline.

But they are both tenured so I guess for things that matter towards that end they deliver.

[smallcleanrat]

I don't have a problem with any of that. But I tire of the people arguing that 20-somethings' "incomplete brain development" is some kind of excuse for everything.

An explanation isn't (necessarily) an excuse.  You are making a naturalistic fallacy in reverse.

An explanation becomes an excuse when a person implies that other people should act differently because of it. So if someone says "People are more reckless before they turn 25 because of ongoing brain development", that's an explanation. But if they say "Because of incomplete brain development before 25, students shouldn't have to do X" (or "be allowed to do X"),  (whatever "X" is), then that's an excuse.  So suggesting accommodations that instructors or institutions ought to make is an excuse. Suggesting accommodations that could be made to make less hassle for instructors would be OK as part of an explanation.

But I didn't say the instructor ought to excuse them from having to do anything or allow them to do anything...

Did I imply it? Because I didn't mean to. Actually, I explicitly tried to make clear I was only talking explanations and not excuses.

It was an "is" point, not an "ought" point.

Like if someone says, "Oh, that kid failed the test? Obviously too lazy to study."

And someone else saying, "That's possible. It's also possible that he did study, but just didn't understand the material."

It's just offering another possible explanation.

There is nothing in there to suggest "Well, maybe he did study. If that's the case, he should get a passing grade even if he couldn't answer the questions correctly. It's not his fault he didn't understand the material. He tried."

At least, I don't think there is anything in there that suggests that...

[Caracal]

I've TA'ed for profs who procrastinated to a point that astonished me. One would wait to write exam questions until there was almost no time for the TAs to get the 200+ copies printed before exam time.

Oh, I almost never write my essay questions till an hour before class. The difference is that I don't have a TA so it doesn't really matter. That's sort of the point. Some things you can do at the last minute and it won't result in a worse product or cause problems for anyone else. I'm not going to spend more than 20 minutes writing my essay question, so it doesn't really matter if I do it right before class. Probably most of the department chairs at Jeryseyjay's school had sent the schedule out for review, they just waited till the last minute to actually sit down and make the changes and send the thing in.

What students are sometimes particularly bad at is knowing what you can't get away with procrastinating on. You really only learn that from experience. I have a cover letter for a job coming up. I'm certainly not going to wait till the night its due to write it, but that's because I've learned from painful experiences that if I don't give myself time to revise and edit things, I'm going to make embarrassing mistakes and I want to make sure that if I don't get this job it isn't because I didn't give myself enough time.

[ergative]

I had to take a required training sequence when I started my job. Multiple half-semester classes, with actual classrooms, actual lectures, actual assignments given actual letter grades. It was wildly infantilizing, especially because the letter grades were meaningless. I needed to complete the course by passing; the difference between an A and a C was meaningless.

I made sure never to start any assignment until the day before it was due, or sometimes the afternoon of the same day, to prevent myself spending more time on it that I could otherwise have spent on teaching or research. I got an A or two, and a B (can't remember), but by far my favorite grade is the C- I earned in one class, because that was the proof I had successfully budgeted my time to put forth the bare minimum effort to satisfy the requirement. Anything higher meant I had budgeted my time and effort inefficiently.

[arcturus]

I had to take a required training sequence when I started my job. Multiple half-semester classes, with actual classrooms, actual lectures, actual assignments given actual letter grades. It was wildly infantilizing, especially because the letter grades were meaningless. I needed to complete the course by passing; the difference between an A and a C was meaningless.

I made sure never to start any assignment until the day before it was due, or sometimes the afternoon of the same day, to prevent myself spending more time on it that I could otherwise have spent on teaching or research. I got an A or two, and a B (can't remember), but by far my favorite grade is the C- I earned in one class, because that was the proof I had successfully budgeted my time to put forth the bare minimum effort to satisfy the requirement. Anything higher meant I had budgeted my time and effort inefficiently.

ergative - you are describing perfectly the behavior of many of my GenEd students, for precisely the same reason as you describe: they need a D- to fulfill the requirement. Unfortunately, they are not as skilled as you at determining the minimum effort to pass and often end up on the wrong side of the boundary line. As the instructor, it is frustrating to see such behavior, as the point of my class (from my perspective) is to have them learn a little bit about science, not do the minimum to check a box.

smallcleanrat: to followup on your posts, yes, I was being sarcastic about flipping the schedule. I have heard studies that indicate that k-12 schools should start a little later in the day, due to physiological aspects of adolescents, but no one is advocating for a full 12 hour shift, as I suggested. I was posting on the procrastinating thread for a reason... For myself, I am glad that I have a job that lets me start at 10am and work in the evening, as I am more efficient after I have been awake for a while (and sometimes that means I am on a writing streak at 2-3am...).

[ergative]

I had to take a required training sequence when I started my job. Multiple half-semester classes, with actual classrooms, actual lectures, actual assignments given actual letter grades. It was wildly infantilizing, especially because the letter grades were meaningless. I needed to complete the course by passing; the difference between an A and a C was meaningless.

I made sure never to start any assignment until the day before it was due, or sometimes the afternoon of the same day, to prevent myself spending more time on it that I could otherwise have spent on teaching or research. I got an A or two, and a B (can't remember), but by far my favorite grade is the C- I earned in one class, because that was the proof I had successfully budgeted my time to put forth the bare minimum effort to satisfy the requirement. Anything higher meant I had budgeted my time and effort inefficiently.

ergative - you are describing perfectly the behavior of many of my GenEd students, for precisely the same reason as you describe: they need a D- to fulfill the requirement. Unfortunately, they are not as skilled as you at determining the minimum effort to pass and often end up on the wrong side of the boundary line. As the instructor, it is frustrating to see such behavior, as the point of my class (from my perspective) is to have them learn a little bit about science, not do the minimum to check a box.

Yes, I did feel a bit sorry for the instructors, who approached the whole exercise in good faith, were extremely sympathetic to the fact that we were there under duress, and cared deeply about their topic. I just couldn't get involved in debating the minutiae of the theory of student places vs. student spaces.

I'm reminded a bit by an article or op-ed by some economist or other saying that we should all be missing more airplanes. The idea is that our time is valuable, and time spent waiting in departure lounges is wasted. So we should always cut it as close as we possibly can, because the inconvenience incurred by missing the occasional airplane is offset by the hours and hours saved not waiting for all the flights we do make--or, perhaps he was thinking in the aggregate about the sum total person-hours saved if everyone did as he proposed, which offsets the subset of people who miss their flights. It sounded to me like an argument devised by someone who (a) flies a lot and (b) probably is able to eat the ticket-change fees when he misses a flight and has to reschedule.

A senior colleague also discussed this reasoning with me about gender equality and applying for promotions: Women tend to wait until they meet more of the criteria than their male counterparts before applying, which means that each individual woman is more likely to receive the promotion, but on the whole more men will make it, because their confidence in applying earlier means that more men squeak through, offsetting the greater probability that any individual man might not be promoted. (Is that a Simpson's paradox thing? I think it might be.)