The Effect of a Minor Informational Intervention on Courseload and Time to Degree

Last registered on June 02, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The Effect of a Minor Informational Intervention on Courseload and Time to Degree

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002234

Initial registration date

June 02, 2017

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

June 02, 2017, 6:33 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

California

Primary Investigator

Name

Nick Huntington-Klein

Affiliation

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV-FULLERTON

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Andrew Gill

PI Affiliation

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV-FULLERTON

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2017-06-12

End date

2023-07-31

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

Information, education, time-to-degree

JEL code(s)

I23, D83

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This experiment is designed with the intent of increasing the proportion of students at a regional public university taking a full course load (five courses per semester) rather than a partial course load (four or fewer courses per semester). Partial course loads are partially responsible for a high proportion of students at the university taking more than four years to complete their degree. In the intervention, students are provided with different forms of encouragement to take a full course load. Different college orientation groups are randomly assigned to receive (1) no encouragement, (2) encouragement to take a full course load with no reasoning, (3) encouragement with financial reasoning, (4) encouragement with social-normalizing reasoning, and (5) encouragement with both financial and social-normalizing reasoning. We then observe course-taking and persistence behavior in the following years.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Gill, Andrew and Nick Huntington-Klein. 2017. "The Effect of a Minor Informational Intervention on Courseload and Time to Degree." AEA RCT Registry. June 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2234-1.0

Former Citation

Gill, Andrew and Nick Huntington-Klein. 2017. "The Effect of a Minor Informational Intervention on Courseload and Time to Degree." AEA RCT Registry. June 02. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2234/history/18239

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

In the intervention, students are provided with different forms of encouragement to take a full course load. Different college orientation groups are randomly assigned to receive (1) no encouragement, (2) encouragement to take a full course load with no reasoning, (3) encouragement with financial reasoning, (4) encouragement with social-normalizing reasoning, and (5) encouragement with both financial and social-normalizing reasoning. These information sheets are provided during orientation. There is no other intervention aside from the information being presented and being made available through the information sheet.

Intervention Start Date

2017-06-12

Intervention End Date

2017-08-17

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Outcomes will be observed in several stages. In each case, we will use administrative data to calculate whether each student is taking a full or partial course load, and link this information to the orientation group they were in.

The first report will examine differences in the rate of taking a full course load between treatment groups during the Fall and Spring semesters following orientation.
The second report will examine differences in the rate of taking a full course load between treatment groups during the first four years after enrollment, as well as differences in four-year graduation rates.
The final report will examine differences in the rate of taking a full course load between treatment groups during the Fall and Spring semesters following orientation.
The second report will examine differences in the number of terms in which a student took a full course load between treatment groups during the first six years after enrollment, as well as differences in four, five, and six-year graduation rates.

In each case, students in STEM orientation groups will be evaluated separately, looking for differences between treatment groups specifically for students with intentions to major in STEM.

In total, there are seven outcomes: taking a full course load in the Fall term after the intervention, taking a full course load in the Spring term after the intervention, number of terms taking a full course load in the first four years after the intervention, number of terms taking a full course load in the first six years after the intervention, and four, five, and six-year graduation rates. These outcomes will be evaluated for the sample as a whole as well as for the STEM subsample.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Randomization occurs at the level of orientation groups. Each orientation group will be randomly assigned to receive one of five treatments. Each orientation group is made up of students intending to major in the same college within the university. For example, one orientation group might be made up entirely of students planning to get a degree from the business school. There are 18 orientation days, and so students within each college will be observed under multiple treatments.

Experimental Design Details

There are no additional hidden details. Each orientation group will be randomly assigned to receive one of five treatment information sheets.

Randomization Method

Randomization will be done in office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

There are 18 days in which orientation activities are held. On each of these days, roughly 450 students register. These students are then divided into groups based on the college in which their intended major is housed. These groups are the randomization unit.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

7000

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Comparing each treatment to the control and assuming independence between individuals in the same orientation groups, there is 80% power to detect a difference of 5 percentage points in any of the rates being studied (the rate of taking a full course load in a given term, the proportion of terms in which a full course load is taken, or graduation rate in a given year). The base rates of each of these is similar enough that the minimum detectable effect size is effectively the same.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB