Both effort regulation and intrinsic motivation among online graduate students in this study had a significant unique influence on procrastination. Results indicated that as intrinsic motivation to learn and effort regulation decrease, procrastination increases. Since procrastination has a negative influence on student performance, the findings provide important information for online teachers trying to develop strategies that will improve student achievement in online courses.
Individually, both effort regulation and intrinsic motivation influence procrastination behavior and can be viewed as characteristics that can be influenced by specific strategies that can be used by online instructors in an effort to reduce procrastination. The results of this study indicate that together, these two factors powerfully influence procrastination.