This study examines the engagement of psychology students with a virtual learning environment (VLE) and its impact on academic performance, revealing that over 75% of students did not engage with necessary resources for cognitive psychology, perceived as a difficult module. Data from the 2012-13 academic year indicates that low VLE engagement correlates with lower examination scores in cognitive psychology compared to social psychology, suggesting that self-handicapping is a common behavior among students. The research recommends further investigation into student awareness of self-handicapping and its effects on performance in challenging modules.

1. The Ostrich Problem: Student Self-Handicapping
Illustrated by VLE Activity
Paul M. Grey & Paul B. Hutchings
1
1
1
University of Wales: Trinity Saint David
RESULTS
INTRODUCTION
This study sought to examine student usage of a virtual learning
environment (VLE), explore levels of inter-module variation, and establish
whether a lack of engagement in low activity modules was reflected in
performance at subsequent examinations.
METHOD
Quantitative data of individual student user VLE engagement and overall
cohort VLE activity for academic year 2012-13 were harvested from the
University Moodle VLE system for all Psychology and Counselling modules
of a joint degree.
2500
100
2258
Cognitive
2000
90
Social
Social
75
1500
1000
70
60
60
1003
52
847
50
577
500
40
403
364
358
Exam Pass Rate
190
162
Figure 3. Comparative Examination Results for Cognitive Psychology and Social
Psychology Modules for Semester 2, 2012-13.
0
Feb
March
April
May
Mean
Figure 1. Monthly and Mean VLE Activity for Cognitive Psychology and Social Psychology modules for
Semester 2, 2012-13.
In addition, over 75% of the 2012-13 cohort failed to access requisite resources via
the VLE for Cognitive Psychology seminars, compared to peak non-engagement
level of 42% for Social.
70
Cognitive
60
Percentage of Cohort
Mean Exam Score
89
80
Social
50
DISCUSSION
Uploading folders that contain numerous resources to the VLE makes
some user activity difficult to monitor effectively. Ensuring staff
upload resources as individual files provides the only means to
accurately monitor user activity across modules.
Students appear to find Cognitive Psychology a ‘difficult’ module
and may be guilty of self-handicapping by failing to engage with
resources - as illustrated by the VLE activity for the module being
approximately half the level for Social Psychology.
This research indicates that in self-handicapping students may
preserve self-esteem in the short term, but at the cost of lower rates
of success and lower mean scores in examinations.
40
30
Additional psychology modules at Level 6 also show relatively low
mean VLE activity, suggesting self-handicapping may be a general
problem for modules that students perceive as more ‘difficult’.
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Figure 2. Percentage of cohort that did not engage with individual VLE resources of Cognitive Psychology
and Social Psychology modules for Semester 2, 2012-13.*
* - Initial score of 4.11% for Cog Psych relates to a single folder containing all lecture slides, impacting on effective comparison.
References:
•Rhodewalt, F., & Davison Jr, J. (1986). Self-handicapping and subsequent performance: Role of outcome
valence and attributional certainty. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 7(4), 307-322.
•Thomas, C. R., & Gadbois, S. A. (2007). Academic self‐handicapping: The role of self‐concept clarity and
students' learning strategies. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77(1), 101-119.
Cognitive
89
80
Data of individual VLE engagement and overall activity in relation to the
individual resources were further analysed with reference to academic
performance. Cognitive Psychology and Social Psychology provide a
convenient comparison as commensurate Level 5 modules, as both are
taught in semester 2 only and are assessed by combined long and short
answer examinations.
Methods of uploading resources to the VLE were also analysed for impact
on user activity.
The overall pass rate for the cohort - the percentage achieving a
passing grade – at the end of term exam for Cognitive (75%) was
considerably lower than Social (89%), and at a lower mean
percentage score (Cognitive = 52% ; Social = 60%), suggesting that
non-engagement with a VLE has a detrimental effect on academic
performance
Percentage
To avoid negative attributions regarding ability and emotions associated
with failure, students may fail to access course material or prepare
adequately for an exam (Thomas & Gadbois, 2007). This provides
temporary relief but induces further self-doubt when grades are released,
and necessitates additional self-handicapping.
Social Psychology showed higher levels of VLE activity than Cognitive throughout
the semester (mean activity per month 847 vs. 403 hits). Both modules followed
the same monthly pattern of moderate initial VLE activity (577 vs. 358 hits
respectively) with a progressive drop-off (364 vs. 162 hits in month two, and 190
vs. 89 hits in month three), and peak usage shortly before the exam period (2258
vs. 1003 hits).
Total VLE Activity (‘Hits’)
Previous research (e.g. Rhodewalt & Davison, 1986) suggests that some
students may self-handicap the chance of academic success by
adopting non-engagement strategies to preserve self-esteem.
We thank The Higher Education Academy for funding this project.
Further research is planned to establish whether a) students
acknowledge self-handicapping behaviour, b) a statistically
significant effect of self-handicapping exists for ‘difficult’ modules,
and c) whether this behaviour is exhibited in successive cohorts.
Paul M. Grey, email: paul.grey@sm.uwtsd.ac.uk
University of Wales: Trinity Saint David
School of Psychology and Counselling
Swansea, SA2 0UT, Wales, UK.