Back to History

Fields Changed

Registration

Field Before After
Study Withdrawn No
Intervention Completion Date May 30, 2020
Data Collection Complete Yes
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization) We worked in total with 108 schools, containing 560 classes, and 15443 students. [Note sample sizes and registry entry refer to benchmarking treatment, which is published]
Was attrition correlated with treatment status? No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations 12,232 students reached the endline survey in July 2020
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms 54 schools to benchmarking, 54 to control
Public Data URL https://osf.io/kmgvu/
Is there a restricted access data set available on request? No
Program Files Yes
Program Files URL https://osf.io/kmgvu/
Data Collection Completion Date July 31, 2020
Is data available for public use? Yes
Back to top

Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract Many school systems across the globe turned to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This context differs significantly from the prepandemic situation in which massive open online courses attracted large numbers of voluntary learners who struggled with completion. Students who are provided online courses by their high schools also have their behavior determined by actions of their teachers and school system. We conducted experiments to improve participation in online learning before, during, and right after the COVID-19 outbreak, with 1,151 schools covering more than 45,000 students in their final years of high school in Ecuador. These experiments tested light-touch interventions at scale, motivated by behavioral science, and were carried out at three levels: that of the system, teacher, and student. We find the largest impacts come from intervening at the system level. A cheap, online learning management system for centralized monitoring increased participation by 0.21 SD and subject knowledge by 0.13 SD relative to decentralized management. Centralized management is particularly effective for underperforming schools. Teacher-level nudges in the form of benchmarking emails, encouragement messages, and administrative reminders did not improve student participation. There was no significant impact of encouragement messages to students, or in having them plan and team-up with peers. Small financial incentives in the form of lottery prizes for finishing lessons did increase study time, but was less cost-effective, and had no significant impact on knowledge. The results show the difficulty in incentivizing online learning at scale, and a key role for central monitoring.
Paper Citation Igor Asanov, Anastasiya-Mariya Asanov, Thomas Astebro, Guido Buenstorf, Bruno Crepon, Francisco Pablo Flores T, David McKenzie, Mona Mensmann and Mathis Schulte (2023) "System-, teacher-, and student-level interventions for improving participation in online learning at scale in high schools", PNAS 120(3): e2216686120, July 17
Paper URL https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216686120
Back to top