Planner–Doer – Self-control and Regular Study

Abstract

The systematic acquisition of knowledge is an important skill. Nevertheless, students seem to have problems with proper planning of their education and preparing their tasks on time. Referring to behavioral economics, this can be explained with the planner and doer model. This draws attention to the problems with self-control and describes the dilemma caused by internal tension between favorable long-term plans and short-term actions distracting attention from implementation of the former. The aim of the article was to analyze student activity in e-learning classes. The analysis concerned a group of students regularly performing assigned tasks and the spread of their activities within the given period. It also allowed investigations into whether the time of submitting the task affected its quality and whether systematic work during the semester affected the exam result. The analysis of student activity in the e-learning classes shows that: • There was a large group of students regularly submitting tasks, but there was also a group who never prepared any of them. • The spread of activity over particular days showed that most posts were published on the last two days of the given period. • There was a relationship between the time of submitting the task and its evaluation – the posts from the final two days received a lower average number of points than those from previous days. • There was a positive relationship between the ongoing performance of the tasks and the exam results. The analysis presented here is a preliminary study but shows some trends among the students