You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Back to History

Fields Changed

Registration

Field Before After
Trial Start Date July 01, 2024 September 30, 2024
Trial End Date June 30, 2025 September 30, 2025
Last Published June 03, 2024 11:24 AM October 17, 2024 12:36 PM
Intervention Start Date July 01, 2024 September 30, 2024
Intervention End Date June 30, 2025 September 30, 2025
Primary Outcomes (End Points) Measure of performance: • overall grade • number of lessons passed Measures of engagement: • number of lessons completed • student goal • whether the student completed their learning goal • whether the student upgraded to receive a paid certificate for the course whether the student achieved a badge in the course Measure of performance: • overall grade • number of graded quizzes passed Measures of engagement: • number of lessons completed • student goal • whether the student completed their learning goal • whether the student upgraded to receive a paid certificate for the course
Intervention (Hidden) Students of a Coursera Contracts course will be randomly assigned to one of the five groups. In each group, the substantive content will remain the same – same words spoken and same words shown in powerpoint slides and photos, but the groups will differ with the visual image and voice of the professor. Here is a description of the specific groups: • Control group: Students in this group will learn the course material by being shown the preexisting videos with the professor delivering the material throughout the course • Treatment group 1: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a black male avatar instructor. • Treatment group 2: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a black female avatar instructor. • Treatment group 3: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a white male avatar instructor. • Treatment group 4: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a white female avatar instructor. The following list presents specific questions of interest along with the appropriate statistical approaches to studying them: 1. Do students perform better or have better engagement when they are taught by avatar instructors than when they are taught by the professor? Method 1: OLS regression examining the effect of the type of instructor (whether they were taught by any one of the avatars or by the real professor) on students’ overall grade (or the number of items passed) (1) Without student controls • Dependent variable: students’ overall grade (or any of the other outcome variables) • Independent variable: indicator if they were taught by an avatar instructor (2) With student demographic (age, race, gender, level of education) controls Method 2: OLS regression examining the effect of the specific type of instructor (black male avatar, black female avatar, white male avatar, white female avatar, or real professor) on students’ overall grade (or the number of items passed). This method allows us to see a more detailed effect of each of the treatment groups on the student outcome. (1) Without student controls • Dependent variable: students’ overall grade (or any of the other outcome variables) • Independent variables: - indicators for each of the four avatar types (black male, black female, white male, white female) (2) With student demographic (age, race, gender, level of education) controls (3) To observe heterogeneous treatment effects: • Dependent variable: students’ overall grade (or any of the outcome variables) • Independent variables: - indicators for each of the four avatar types (black male, black female, white male, white female) - Uninteracted student demographic indicators (age, race, gender, level of education categories) - Interaction of the avatar indicators with the student demographic category indicators *** We will use interact coefficients to test whether particular types of students had superior outcomes with particular avatars (4) Perform post-estimation (f-test) to see if each treatment effect various across different subgroups of student characteristics. *** Significant coefficients here would indicate that the effect of instructor type differs across different student characteristic groups when it comes to students’ overall grades (or the number of items passed) as a measure of performance 3. Do students who are taught by an avatar instructor of the same race or gender as them perform better or have better engagement outcomes than those who are taught by an avatar instructor of a different race or gender? Method 1: Regression examining the effect of students’ race (or gender) and the instructor’s race (or gender) on students’ overall grades (or the number of items passed), a measure of performance (1) Without student controls: • Dependent variable: students’ overall grade (or any of the outcome variables) • Independent variables: - Student’s race (gender) - Instructor’s race (gender) - Interaction of the student race and instructor race (2) With student controls. This model also accounts for the heterogeneous treatment effects. • Dependent variable: students’ overall grade (or any of the outcome variables) • Independent variables: - Student’s race (gender) - Instructor’s race (gender) - Interaction of the student race (gender) and instructor race (gender) - Student characteristics (age, gender/race, level of education) (3) Perform post-estimation (f-test) to see if each treatment effect various across different subgroups of student characteristics. *** Significant coefficients here would indicate that the effect of instructor type differs across different student characteristic groups when it comes to each measure of performance Method 2: Regression examining the effect of students’ race (or gender) and the instructor’s race (or gender) on students’ number of lessons completed (or whether the student completed their learning goal), a measure of engagement (1) Without student controls: • Dependent variable: the number of lessons completed (or whether the student completed their learning goal) • Independent variables: - Student’s race (gender) - Instructor’s race (gender) - Interaction of the student race and instructor race (2) With student controls. This model also accounts for the heterogeneous treatment effects. • Dependent variable: the number of lessons completed (or whether the student completed their learning goal) • Independent variables: - Student’s race (gender) - Instructor’s race (gender) - Interaction of the student race (gender) and instructor race (gender) - Student characteristics (age, gender/race, level of education) (3) Perform post-estimation (f-test) to see if each treatment effect various across different subgroups of student characteristics. *** Significant coefficients here would indicate that the effect of instructor type differs across different student characteristic groups when it comes to each measure of engagement Students of a Coursera Contracts course will be randomly assigned to one of the five groups. In each group, the substantive content will remain the same – same words spoken and same words shown in powerpoint slides and photos, but the groups will differ with the visual image and voice of the professor. Here is a description of the specific groups: • Control group: Students in this group will learn the course material by being shown the preexisting videos with the professor delivering the material throughout the course • Treatment group 1: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a black male avatar instructor. • Treatment group 2: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a black female avatar instructor. • Treatment group 3: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a white male avatar instructor. • Treatment group 4: Students in this group will learn the course by being shown videos in which the professor is replaced by a white female avatar instructor.
Secondary Outcomes (End Points) • upward/downward trend in quiz grades • number of items completed • number of in-progress items (started but never finished) • number of skipped items • number of days between the date the student joined the course and the date the student made last progress on • whether the student passed the course • whether the student did not pass the course and the last progress made was more than 30 days ago • whether the student ever set learning goals • not setting any learning goals • whether the student is an overachiever • goal "not started" • among those whose goal status was always "Not_started", did they ever change their goals regardless? • Whether they ever changed their learning goals • If they ever changed their learning goals, how many times total? • Whether they completed any same item twice or more • If they ever completed any same item twice or more, how many items total? • Whether they ever unenrolled from the course (after enrolling as a learner) • After unenrolling from the course for the first time, whether they ever re-joined the course as the learner • Did they unenroll from the course multiple times, even after re-joining the course as the learner? If so, how many times? • If they re-joined the course as the learner, did they end up staying as the learner and not unenrolling again? (regardless of how many times they unenrolled) • whether they paid for the certificate • whether they ever left a rating on any item • Out of the items that they left a rating for, what's the proportion of positive ("LIKE") rating? • Did they ever finish an item and did not leave a rating? • What is their "leave rating" rate? • Did they complete a STAR survey? • Did they complete an NPS survey? • If they completed only one of NPS survey, did they complete the first week one? • If they completed only one of NPS survey, did they complete the end of the course one? • If they completed an NPS survey, did they complete both the first week and the end of the course surveys? • Did they complete all three? • What is their rating (in rate) for STAR? • What is their rating (in rate) for NPS FIRST WEEK? • What is their rating (in rate) for NPS END OF COURSE?
Back to top