2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Accelerated online courses place strong demands on students’ self-regulated learning, particularly in the areas of planning and time management. Grounded in Zimmerman’s self-regulated learning framework, this study examined a forethought-focused self-regulation intervention implemented in a fully online introductory programming course for engineers offered during an accelerated Summer A term of approximately eight weeks at a large public university in the southeastern United States. The intervention consisted of short, guided reflection prompts completed at the start of each module, asking students to identify upcoming tasks, outline a plan for the next hour of work, and note questions or areas of uncertainty. Students were encouraged to complete these reflections throughout the term, with extra credit awarded for sustained participation.
Students completed a validated online self-regulation questionnaire at the beginning and end of the course. Results showed significant changes in several self-regulation dimensions over time, reflecting the increasing demands of the accelerated course structure. Although overall self-regulation levels were similar across participation groups at both time points, students who did not engage or only minimally engaged with the intervention showed declines on selected self-regulation scales. In contrast, students who consistently participated in the self-regulation activities generally maintained stable self-regulation scores across the semester. About half of the class engaged consistently with the intervention. These findings highlight the difficulty of sustaining self-regulated learning in compressed online courses and suggest that simple, forethought-focused self-regulation supports may help students maintain planning and time-management skills when course demands are high.