Graduate Students’ Understanding, Perception, and Preference of Time Management in Online Learning

Abstract

The focus of this study is to explore graduate students’ understanding of time management in online learning environments. The study also explores how the graduate students perceive and prefer to receive regularity of learning feedback. Specifically, an exploratory study was conducted following a sequential mixed methods design, dominated by a qualitative approach. Thirty-three participants voluntarily agreed to participate in this study. Six participants out of the 33 agreed to participate in the in-depth interviews. The Constructivist Grounded Theory approach was applied to collect and analyze the qualitative data. The quantitative data was collected separately and analyzed statistically. From analyzing the qualitative data, two main themes were identified: Beliefs and strategies. Results of this study indicate that the concept of a regular and fixed learning schedule for online courses is a new concept for many of the participants. The results also indicated that online learners appreciate the flexibility in online learning, however, they would appreciate receiving support and feedback about their time management. While there were no significant differences among the participants’ SRL levels, age range, gender, enrollment, employment and the students’ perception toward regularity of learning feedback, the overall results the quantitative data indicated that students' perceptions of the feedback were positive.