More evidence for my thesis that online education will screw silly everyone lacking in Conscientiousness:

Result: "There were no reliable differences between the 2 sections of the class on the measures of procrastination, exam performance, or attitudes toward the class. Yet, procrastination was negatively related with exam scores and with attitudes toward the class for the online students, but not for the lecture students. This difference may partially explain why online courses designed to increase the educational efficacy of a course often show no difference in performance when compared to lecture classes."

Background: "If procrastination is a problem in online classes, it would be desirable to know which students are most at risk for procrastination. Instructors could then offer the at-risk students interventions designed to reduce dilatory behaviors. Watson (2001) and Schouwenburg and Lay (1995) correlated self-reported procrastination with five factors of personality. Both found a reliable relation between self-reported procrastination and low conscientiousness. Watson found a reliable relation between procrastination and neuroticism. Schouwenburg and Lay also found some, but not all, facets of neuroticism to be related to procrastination."

"One question asked in the end-of-semester questionnaire was whether the student disliked the class because it was easy to get behind in the class. In the online class, 19 of 21 students reported that they disliked the class because it was easy to get behind. Only 13 of 23 students in the lecture class reported that they disliked the class because it was easy to get behind. "

"However, the magnitude of the relation between procrastination and class performance and attitudes seemed to be larger for the online class than for the traditional class. Procrastination was a good predictor of performance for each of the five tests in the class for the online students, but not a good predictor of performance for any of the five tests for the lecture students."

Finally, the quote that really sums it all up:

"Pedagogy suggests that activities such as online discussions, group writing projects, and immediate feedback on performance should lead to better performance. Thus, students in online classes, which often contain these activities, should have better performance in the class compared to traditional lecture classes, which often lack these activities. However, this is rarely the case. Russell (1999) cited more than 300 studies that failed to find any reliable difference in performance between traditional classes and classes at a distance (including correspondence courses, online courses, and telecourses). The observation that the magnitude of the relation between procrastination and exam scores was larger in this online class than in the lecture class could be a possible explanation for these null results. The additional activities in online classes that should increase performance may do just that. However, the decrements associated with dilatory behaviors in online classes may attenuate the increments associated with the additional activities. By reducing dilatory behaviors, the benefits of online classes may become more apparent."

Words to live - and die - by.