Academic Performance: Prompting Strategic Selection of Resource Use

Abstract

Student academic success depends on a variety of factors, one of which is self-regulation of learning. An important part of self-regulation involves selecting from a myriad of course resources available and planning to use those resources. This study explores the use of an online tool to help undergraduate students improve self-regulation by prompting them to consider which course resources they will use and how they will use them. This method was shown to improve academic performance in a college level statistic course (Chen et al. 2017). However, it is unknown if this strategy will work in other types of courses or if student’s metacognitions might be impacted by such prompts. Prompts were provided to undergraduate students in a variety of courses prior to each exam, but the prompts did not improve their academic performance relative to a control group. However, students with higher levels of self-determination and implementation had better course and average exam grades than other students, affirming the role of self-regulation in academic performance. We conclude that educators should frequently encourage students to reflect on effectiveness of study resources, plan for their use, and follow-through with these plans.