Abstract:

Distance education is gaining popularity among adults due to its advantages in flexible schedule, accessibility and lack of travel time. There are two types of online learning: synchronous and asynchronous. In synchronous learning, the time of classes is certain, and with asynchronous learning, the student can study at any time convenient for him (Singh & Thurman, 2019).

Online education provides a unique environment for self-regulated learning. Students need to rely on their own motivation, time management skills, and self-regulation to achieve success . Self-regulated learning is associated with student engagement and achievement of personal learning goals (Littlejohn et al, 2016). Research has shown that students who scored higher on measures of self-regulated learning also achieved higher grades and were more likely to complete their courses (Kuo и др., 2014).

Research has shown that women differ from men on terms of self-regulation skills. According to a study conducted by McSporran & Young, 2001, female distance education students tend to use more self-regulated learning strategies, such as time management, effort regulation, and help-seeking than male students. Female students are better at using self-regulation strategies, especially when planning and determining aims (Özsoy-Güneş et al., 2014). Detailed real-time recording of the students’ interactions with online learning environments provide new opportunities for observing and measuring self-regulation (Cicchinelli и др., 2018). A study by Li et al., 2020 proposed a model that allows determining time management skills based on clickstream data. Clickstream indicators - timely learning, training in advance and intervals between classes - were significantly correlated with students' self-reports conducted after completing the course on time management skills. The purpose of this study is to reveal gender differences in time management strategies using clickstream data and applying model from Li et al, 2020 to homeworks.

We analyzed data from 161,000 adult students of an online English language school in 2019-2020. First, we calculated the time differences between when homework was assigned and when students started it, as well as the differences between when students started and finished the homework. Then, we constructed three variables of interest: timely learning (if homework was finished before the next lesson), advance preparation (time from the beginning of homework to the beginning of the next lesson), and intervals between homework assignments.

Preliminary results from the first set of variables indicated that women tend to start their homework earlier than men (mean number of hours were 167.07 for women, 179.07 for men, t = 20.95, p<0.001). However, women spent more time completing their homework (mean number of hours were 191.34 for women, 174.80 for men, t = 22.63, p<0.001). Women were also slightly more likely to finish their homework than men (the percentage of completed tasks was 68.04 for women, 67.10 for men, p<0.01).

Thus, we contribute to the existing literature on gender differences in self-regulation skills by supporting previous findings with large-scale objective data. Since we used automatically collected data about real behavior, we were able to overcome potential issues with social desirability or other factors that could lead to biases in self-reports.

Keywords:

e-learning, SRL, self-regulated learning, clickstream data, time management, homework, online learning.