Digital Design Thinking Toolkit

Last registered on March 07, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Digital Design Thinking Toolkit
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015439
Initial registration date
March 04, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
March 07, 2025, 8:13 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Kassel

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-01-21
End date
2026-05-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We aim to test the digital version of the design thinking tool kit developed by East Kent Colleges Group (EKC Group) with the support of the Innovation Growth Lab. This toolkit is designed to help students to tackle complex challenges systematically by fostering skills in empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Asanov, Igor and Gerhard Riener. 2025. "Digital Design Thinking Toolkit." AEA RCT Registry. March 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15439-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We aim to test the digital design thinking toolkit having the next three treatment arms:

1. Digital design thinking toolkit.
2. Enhanced Digital design thinking toolkit.
3. Control.
Intervention Start Date
2025-06-01
Intervention End Date
2025-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Knowledge of the material covered in the design thinking toolkit.
2. Expectations for education level
3. Future employment and salary expectations

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Wellbeing (WHO-5 Well-Being Index – Topp et al. 2015)
Growth mindset (three-item ‘Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale for Children’ – Blackwell et al. 2007)
Zero-sum mindset (seven-item scale – Fearon et al. 2021)
Grit (Short Grit Scale – Duckworth et al. 2009)
Empathic concern (Davis 1983, Sommerlad et al. 2021)
Perspective-taking (Davis 1983, Sommerlad et al. 2021)
Adaptation–innovation (Kirton Adaption–Innovation Inventory – Bagozzi and Foxall, 1995)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We randomly assign students to three treatment arms:
1. Digital design thinking toolkit.
2. Enhanced Digital design thinking toolkit.
3. Control -only baseline/endline survey

Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done in the office with help of R software.
Randomization Unit
Student
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Expected: not less than 3000 students randomized on an individual level
Sample size: planned number of observations
Expected: not less than 3000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Expected: not less than 1000 student by treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Southampton Institutional Review Board (IRB)
IRB Approval Date
2025-01-21
IRB Approval Number
ERGO 100453