Using procedural scaffolds, with and without interactivity, to support the self-regulation of learning in community college online composition students

This study addressed some of the challenges of supporting self-regulation of students for weekly tasks in community college online English composition; in a course that used a flexible learning design, a choice of procedural scaffolds was provided to support self-regulation of tasks by students. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of these procedural scaffolds, an instructor-designed, interactive checklists tool and a non-interactive calendar tool, and the core assignment submission and metacognition of community college online English composition students. Measures included clickstream data for procedural scaffold usage, a count of core assignment submissions, and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) scores. Results indicated that use of the instructor-designed, interactive checklists tool better supported submission of core assignments by students than the non-interactive calendar tool. While MAI scores from students did increase across the study, no significant association with procedural scaffold use was found. Implications for future practice support the continued and extended use of interactive procedural scaffolds to support online students through task completion for complex processes such as writing.