L9 1 5

=Students are provided with regular reminders of upcoming deadlines. =

Evidence
Particularly in online courses, there should be frequent pointers and reminders to students as to where they should be focusing their energies and the upcoming deadlines that they should be aware of. Clearly communicated course timetables and assignment deadlines, with explicit expectations and guidelines, encourage and motivate learners to make the most effective use of time, and enable teachers to facilitate effective time management by learners (Clarke, 2004).

Resources
The use of course LMSs is one way that students can be reminded of deadlines, either automatic communications, or by providing the schedule online (see Yueh & Hsu 2008). E-learning lends itself to multiple and automatic reminders but the information in various places must be consistent.

Other possibilities for communicating deadline and timing information to students include the use of SMS messaging which may help reduce drop out, and could target ‘at-risk’ students as well as being used for administrative issues (Nix et al. 2006).