Examining the effect of time constraint on the online mastery learning approach towards improving postgraduate students' achievement

Time control plays a critical role within the online mastery learning (OML) approach. This paper examines the two commonly implemented mastery learning strategies – personalised system of instructions and learning for mastery (LFM) – by focusing on what occurs when there is an instructional time constraint. Using a large data set from a postgraduate finance course offered at an Australian university, we explore students’ online quiz-completion patterns, then empirically investigate whether the imposition of an instructional time constraint in the OML approach has an impact on their final-examination performance. Our results suggest that the LFM strategy with an instructional time constraint has a positive impact on students’ learning behaviour and contributes to better overall academic performance. Further, our findings suggest that facilitators should be encouraged to implement an instructional time constraint when adopting an OML approach.