A Preliminary Exploration of on-Line Study Question Performance and Response Certitude as Predictors of Future Examination Performance

This research evaluated an online study task intended to improve the study metacognition and examination performance of inexperienced college students. Existing research has commonly operationalized metacognition as the accuracy of examination score predictions. This research made use of the average discrepancy between rated confidence in individual study question responses and the accuracy of the responses to these questions as a second way to assess metacognition. Study questions accuracy, average study question confidence discrepancy, and examination predictions were contrasted as predictors of examination performance. Study question accuracy and examination predictions were significant predictors of performance. The usefulness of the accuracy of confidence ratings in predicting examination performance may have been diminished by the decreasing use of the online study questions by those who performed most poorly on examinations. Those students who ended up scoring in the bottom third on course examinations made significantly less use of the study system after the first examination. The results indicate that performance on study questions offers a useful way to predict future examination performance. The accuracy of rated confidence did improve across examinations possibly indicating students become more aware of the accuracy of their understanding and the variable may have potential value if student compliance with the proposed use of online study questions can be improved.