Mining Student Time Management Patterns in Programming Projects

Computer science faculty members cite procrastination as one of the key causes of poor student performance in programming projects. In contrast, students cite conflicting demands for time. This study uses a tool-driven process of automated compilation and testing of student programs to collect student-project data. Data include when, for how long, how often, and with what magnitude of effort and accomplishment, students engage in work to complete programming assignments. Participation is voluntary, and data from auxiliary sources, including a questionnaire on conflicting demands on time, complement automatically collected data. Analyses reveal that procrastination and excessively brief work sessions are the main indicators of problems for students with inadequate prior success in earlier computer science courses. Some students with successful track records know when they can afford late starts and short sessions. The time of day that students work is a contributing factor to success. The goal is to build an automated warning system for at-risk