Altering Study Habits with Email Reminders

Abstract

Students were motivated to acquire a new study habit of reviewing within 24 hours of the weekly lecture. We sent email reminders to students during the first term to reinforce this habit. At the end of the full year course, students reported whether they have acquired and maintained the new habit during the second term without the reminder support. While there are more failures than successes in their attempts to acquire the new habit, we found evidence for a correlation of the email reminders and the successful habit formation. We also found the new study habit to have a positive effect on student performance. We conclude that the effort to improve the study habits of university students even in their senior years has paid off. Some students also reported that their reviewing is not useful or only somewhat useful in their learning experience. It is an indicator that assistance may be in order for students to overcome challenges in their study.