What to do? A Review of the Academic Time-Based Decision-Making Literature

Time-based activities at Universities are shifting toward a more transactional approach, yet there is little understanding of the time management capabilities of students in adapting to a more flexible structure. Although many studies report on efforts to address engineering students being stressed, surfacelearning oriented, and prone to missing class, few studies address how these relate to students’ time management.  In an effort to explore how students value, prioritize, and spend their time, this paper proposes a new term, “Academic Time-Based Decision-Making” (ATBDM), which lies at the crossroads of time management, selfefficacy, and self-regulated learning.  Factors influencing ATBDM are currently mostly speculative, although class scheduling, social norms, and the internet and social media are frequent causal suggestions.  It is also unknown as to how ATBDM is conducted across the breadth of students, which skills or “tools” are employed, and whether the process or influencing factors change over the course of time.  A research study to explore why and how engineering students make academic decisions is proposed. By providing deeper insights into the factors influencing ATBDM, it may be possible to develop more effective support or intervention to assist students in making balanced and positive choices.