NEXTlearn - New strategies for digital learning and assessment

All students attend the same lecture and take the same lecture exam. The content of the
discussion sections is identical. The difference lies solely in how the sections are organized.

• Treatment condition: NEXTlearn format: students receive access to digital take-
home quizzes that include both assignments to be discussed in class and additional
exercises, which are automatically graded. These take-home exercises can be repeated
multiple times during the week for practice. They are graded but contribute only
marginally to the overall grade. In the discussion sections, students discuss their solu-
tions in groups and with the instructor. At the end of each session, a short (15-minute),
paper-based exam on the previous week’s content is administered. The discussion sec-
tion grade is primarily based on these short tests, with minor contributions from the
take-home quizzes.

• Control condition: Traditional course structure: students receive PDFs with as-
signments to be solved before the respective session, but assignments are not graded.
The solutions are discussed in class. The assignments are not graded. The discussion
section grade is based on a midterm and end-of-term exam.

2025-10-02

2026-01-31

• Exam participation at the first sitting
• Passing exam at the first sitting (unconditional)
• Exam score at the first sitting (conditional on participation)
• Interest in economic topics (anticipated probability of taking a voluntary economic
class in the future)
• Engagement score (survey-based)

Differentiation of exam scores by question type:
– Calculation tasks
– Factual knowledge
– Conceptual understanding
• Interest in economic topics in general (overall, components)
• Supportiveness of the course for a) exam preparation and b) general understanding of
economics
• Time use for all introductory modules (economics, mathematics, business)
• Enrollment in subsequent economics courses

Mechanisms:
Attendance in discussion sessions (number of sessions attended)
• Perceived usefulness of study materials
• Time use related to the economics course (weekly hours across main learning activities)
• Study behaviors and learning strategies
• Exam preparation and attitudes before the first sitting (intention to participate, time
investment, preparedness, confidence, stress)

Discussion sections - grouped by instructors - are randomly divided into a control and a treatment group. Students enroll in a discussion section using the regular enrollment process. The treatment condition is revealed only after enrollment is completed.

Not available

We randomized at the discussion section-instructor level using complete enumeration of all possible assignments. We applied pre-specified constraints on seminar types and instructor pairings, calculated a balance score for time slots, and retained only assignments meeting all constraints and achieving optimal balance. One final assignment was randomly drawn from this restricted set. All assignments, balance scores, and the final draw were archived for full replicability.

Instructors for discussion sections

Yes

12 instructors, 27 discussion sections

700 students

About 50% in each treatment arm.

For binary outcomes, we consider a baseline success rate of p1 = 0.65 and a treatment effect of 10 percentage points (p2 = 0.75). Under these assumptions, the estimated power equals 0.29 at the 5% significance level and 0.40 at the 10% level. For continuous outcomes, we assume standardized variables with a unit standard deviation (SD = 1) and an expected treatment effect of 0.2 standard deviations (δ = 0.2). Under the same assumptions, the estimated power equals 0.25 at the 5% significance level and 0.36 at the 10% level. We expect that the inclusion of highly predictive baseline measures will significantly improve precision and power. Thus, we consider the provided numbers as conservative.