As a result of theoretical thematic coding of the interviews of students, the following themes were extracted. As previously mentioned, the semi-structured interviews were based on time management process model. Therefore, one of the focus areas of the questions was about the first factor of time management which was goal setting. Interviewees were asked if they set goals for doing their tasks beforehand, and what tools or criteria they use for their goal settings? The first finding about goal setting was that students were not able to set long-term goals at the beginning of the semester or for a period of time more than 2 weeks. However, they set goals for each of the tasks or assignments that they should deliver when they are introduced by …show more content…
Students stated that they use due dates of the assignments as a criterion for setting their main goals. They stated that they find due dates on the calendar and to-do list. One of the problems that students expressed related to their goal setting based on to-do list was that it does not show all the deadlines for the next few weeks and do not let them to customize the list. The other problem they had was with calendar. They mentioned that although readings are necessary for their learning process, calendar do not show them because they do not have due dates. The second extracted theme related to short-term goal settings were about assignment’s structures. They use the structure that the instructor provided in the descriptions of the assignments for their short-term goal settings. Some instructors provide a list of bullet points items as the requirements of doing an assignment, suggest a sequence of activities, or provide a guidance for completing a task. This division of the main task into several sub-tasks is considered a form of scaffolding. Scaffolding in this setting refers to the learning process that happens by the interaction of the student with the guidance of instructor to gain a new level of skill or knowledge. This new level could not have been reached without this interaction. Thus, scaffolding is a tool in the learning process of students. More scaffolding of the assignments by the instructor, led to setting shorter term goals by the students and these goals were easier to follow and