Personalized Support and Student Success

The intervention is a personalized student support program delivered throughout one academic semester to undergraduate students enrolled in Arizona State University's University College courses.

Following completion of the baseline survey, course sections are randomly assigned to the treatment or control condition. Randomization is conducted within instructor, such that each instructor's sections are randomized separately to ensure balance across treatment conditions and to account for instructor-specific teaching practices. Students remain in the condition assigned to their course section. Participants are not informed of their assignment. Students enrolled in multiple eligible sections will be assigned to one pre-specified index section prior to randomization; the study will not allow multiple trial assignments for the same student.

Students in treatment sections receive personalized behavioral support tailored to their highest-ranked concern identified on the baseline survey, including individualized email feedback, short microlearning videos, weekly SMS prompts, and a printed journal with weekly activities. Students in control sections receive a neutral thank-you message and a blank journal without personalized content.

2026-09-16

2026-11-18

End-of-semester GPA.
Persistence and retention
Student flourishing: Composite flourishing score measured using the end-of-semester student survey, capturing domains including purpose, relationships, and well-being

Flourishing Index. The primary survey outcome will be a composite flourishing score constructed from items measuring multiple domains of student flourishing, including purpose and meaning, relationships and belonging, and emotional well-being.

Self-reported use of evidence-based learning strategies, time management behaviors, help-seeking, and other behaviors targeted by the intervention.

Secondary outcomes will be measured using the end-of-semester survey. These include self-reported use of evidence-based learning strategies (e.g., retrieval practice, spaced studying, and self-testing), time management behaviors (e.g., planning, scheduling, and workload management), help-seeking behaviors (e.g., communicating with instructors, classmates, and use of campus support services), and other behaviors directly targeted by the intervention. Individual survey items will be coded so that higher values indicate more adaptive behaviors.

This study is a two-arm, cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of a personalized student support intervention among undergraduate students enrolled in Arizona State University University College courses. During the third week of the semester, eligible students complete a baseline survey and provide informed consent.
Randomization will occur after baseline survey completion and before intervention delivery. The primary randomization unit is the course section. Prior to randomization, students enrolled in multiple eligible sections will be identified using the course roster. To reduce cross-arm contamination, no student will be assigned to both treatment and control. When eligible sections are connected by shared students, those sections will be grouped into a single connected-section randomization cluster and assigned to the same treatment arm. If section grouping is not feasible for a specific case, the student will be assigned to one pre-specified index section before randomization. The index section will be the student’s earliest eligible classroom based on meeting day and start time, and that section’s treatment assignment will determine the student’s trial assignment and analytic treatment status.
The study will use constrained randomization. A large number of candidate allocations will be generated, and allocations will be retained only if they satisfy pre-specified balance criteria while preserving the contamination constraint described above. Balance will be assessed using the number of unique students assigned to each arm, the number of course sections assigned to each arm, course representation, and instructor representation where compatible with connected-section grouping. The final allocation will be randomly selected from the retained acceptable allocations.

Participants assigned to treatment sections receive personalized communications and behavioral support throughout the semester. This support is in the form of a Journal. Although treatment is assigned at the section level, intervention content is personalized according to each student's highest-ranked area of concern identified at baseline: (1) study habits and preparing for exams, (2) time and workload management, (3) financial management and budgeting, or (4) building connections and friendships. Participants assigned to control sections receive standard study communications without personalized intervention content. Follow-up outcomes are collected through an end-of-semester survey and linked administrative academic records. The unit of randomization is the course section, while the primary unit of analysis is the individual student, with analyses accounting for clustering of students within sections.

Not available

STATA

section level

Yes

65 sections

1,700 students

33 sections in each treatment arm (850 students by treatment arm)