Study Supporter Pilot

Last registered on April 02, 2014

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Study Supporter Pilot

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0000336

First published

April 02, 2014, 1:56 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

Primary Investigator

Name

Todd Rogers

Affiliation

Harvard Kennedy School

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Erin Frey

PI Affiliation

Harvard Business School

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2013-12-09

End date

2014-03-17

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

MOOC

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

We are interested in how mobilizing social support for students in MOOCs can affect student completion rates.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Frey, Erin and Todd Rogers. 2014. "Study Supporter Pilot." AEA RCT Registry. April 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.336-1.0

Former Citation

Frey, Erin and Todd Rogers. 2014. "Study Supporter Pilot." AEA RCT Registry. April 02. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/336/history/1479

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Students are recruited to participate in the study and asked to identify a Study Supporter. They are told that this “Supporter” may be contacted throughout the course and asked to inquire about the course and to encourage you. They are then randomly assigned to one of two conditions:
- Supporter condition
- Control condition

Intervention Start Date

2013-12-09

Intervention End Date

2014-03-17

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Credit earning and course grade

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Randomly assigned to one of two conditions

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

randomization done by computer

Randomization Unit

Individual students

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

We aimed for 1200 students, we did get ~700 students

Sample size: planned number of observations

~700 students

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

We aimed for ~600 students per condition. We did get ~350 per condition

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

We will have 80% power to detect effects of 9 percentage point increase in course credit earning, assuming 60% of control group earns course credit, using alpha of 5%. This does not account for possible precision gains from the covariates we intend to include (age, gender, and education level).

Supporting Documents and Materials

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