Technological improvements have changed the way class content is delivered and absorbed, with new modes of communication and collaboration creating viable alternatives to the traditional classroom. While online learning has many benefits in terms of greater flexibility and convenience, the lack of face-to-face interaction creates potential consequences in the form of greater propensity for procrastination in completing coursework. Microcommitments, defined as small daily tasks accompanied by a soft commitment device delivered via an online platform providing social accountability, increase engagement with course content and have been shown to improve exam performance among students enrolled in online courses. We randomly assigned 276 online students into a treatment or control group and investigate whether reduced procrastination may be a channel contributing to the observed gains in academic performance. Our results support this hypothesis as we document a reduction in procrastination. Students exposed to microcommitments with social accountability are nearly twice as likely to complete at least some of the assigned work more than a week prior to the due date as opposed to leaving all of the work for the last week.

中文翻译：

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微观承诺：通过推动来缓解拖延

技术进步改变了课堂内容的传递和吸收方式，新的沟通和协作模式创造了传统课堂的可行替代方案。虽然在线学习在更大的灵活性和便利性方面有很多好处，但缺乏面对面的互动会产生潜在的后果，即完成课程作业时更容易拖延。微承诺被定义为日常小任务，并通过提供社会责任的在线平台提供软承诺装置，增加对课程内容的参与度，并已被证明可以提高参加在线课程的学生的考试成绩。我们将 276 名在线学生随机分配到治疗组或对照组，并调查减少拖延是否可能是导致观察到的学业成绩提高的一个渠道。我们的结果支持了这一假设，因为我们记录了拖延症的减少。接受具有社会责任感的微观承诺的学生在截止日期前一周多完成至少部分指定作业的可能性几乎是把所有作业留到最后一周完成的可能性的两倍。