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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
Participants completed a baseline survey during the third week of the semester that identified their highest-priority area of concern from four domains: (1) study habits and preparing for exams, (2) time and workload management, (3) financial management and budgeting, and (4) building connections and friendships.
Following the baseline survey, course sections were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control condition. Randomization was conducted within instructor, such that each instructor's eligible sections were randomized separately with approximately equal numbers assigned to each condition. Students enrolled in multiple eligible sections were assigned to a single index section using a pre-specified rule based on the earliest scheduled class meeting during the week. Treatment assignment and study exposure were determined by the student's index section.
Students assigned to treatment sections received a 5-week personalized support intervention beginning approximately in Week 4 of the semester. Although treatment assignment occurred at the section level, intervention content was personalized according to each student's highest-priority concern identified in the baseline survey. The intervention was designed to provide scalable, proactive, strengths-based support through multiple communication channels and consisted of:
A personalized email acknowledging the student's primary area of concern, normalizing common student challenges, recommending evidence-based strategies, linking to short microlearning videos, and directing students to relevant campus resources.
Weekly SMS messages containing brief reflections, implementation prompts, and behavioral tasks aligned with the student's primary concern. Tasks encouraged students to practice evidence-based behaviors such as retrieval practice, time planning, financial planning, or social engagement.
A printed student journal containing weekly reflection exercises, behavioral activities, and self-directed learning tasks organized around the four concern domains. Journals were distributed during the student's index section, and students were encouraged to complete activities throughout the semester and report completion through QR codes embedded within the journal.
Weekly reminder emails encouraging students to continue engaging with intervention materials and report completed activities.
Within each concern category, all students received the same sequence of intervention materials. Intervention content emphasized low-cost, evidence-based behavioral strategies, normalization of common college challenges, reflection, goal setting, and increased awareness and utilization of existing university support services rather than individualized coaching.
Participants assigned to control sections received a thank-you email acknowledging their participation and a blank lined journal without personalized content, behavioral activities, or ongoing intervention messages.
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After
Participants completed a baseline survey during the third week of the semester that identified their highest-priority area of concern from four domains: (1) study habits and preparing for exams, (2) time and workload management, (3) financial management and budgeting, and (4) building connections and friendships.
Following the baseline survey, course sections were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control condition. The unit of randomization is the class section. Randomization is stratified by instructor so that, within each instructor’s set of participating sections, approximately half of sections are assigned to treatment and half to control. Some students are enrolled in more than one participating section. For these students, the analytic treatment assignment is determined by the student’s earliest participating section, ordered by first meeting day, class time, and class number. Students are counted once in the analytic sample. To improve balance, we used covariate-constrained randomization. We generated 5,000 instructor-stratified candidate assignments. For each candidate assignment, we calculated the difference in the number of students assigned to treatment versus control based on students’ earliest sections, and the number of students whose non-index section was assigned to the opposite arm. We retained assignments with a student treatment-control difference of no more than 5 students and no more than 30 mixed-section students. One assignment was then randomly selected from the retained acceptable set.
Students assigned to treatment sections received a 5-week personalized support intervention beginning approximately in Week 4 of the semester. Although treatment assignment occurred at the section level, intervention content was personalized according to each student's highest-priority concern identified in the baseline survey. The intervention was designed to provide scalable, proactive, strengths-based support through multiple communication channels and consisted of:
A personalized email acknowledging the student's primary area of concern, normalizing common student challenges, recommending evidence-based strategies, linking to short microlearning videos, and directing students to relevant campus resources.
Weekly SMS messages containing brief reflections, implementation prompts, and behavioral tasks aligned with the student's primary concern. Tasks encouraged students to practice evidence-based behaviors such as retrieval practice, time planning, financial planning, or social engagement.
A printed student journal containing weekly reflection exercises, behavioral activities, and self-directed learning tasks organized around the four concern domains. Journals were distributed during the student's index section, and students were encouraged to complete activities throughout the semester and report completion through QR codes embedded within the journal.
Weekly reminder emails encouraging students to continue engaging with intervention materials and report completed activities.
Within each concern category, all students received the same sequence of intervention materials. Intervention content emphasized low-cost, evidence-based behavioral strategies, normalization of common college challenges, reflection, goal setting, and increased awareness and utilization of existing university support services rather than individualized coaching.
Participants assigned to control sections received a thank-you email acknowledging their participation and a blank lined journal without personalized content, behavioral activities, or ongoing intervention messages.
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