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Field
Trial Title
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Before
TOP: Tutoring Online Project During the Coronavirus Emergency in Italy
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After
TOP: Tutoring Online Project in Italy
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Field
Abstract
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Before
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Italy’s government ordered the closure of all schools and universities in the country. Educators were forced to rapidly adapt to online/ distance learning methods. At home, students from underprivileged backgrounds are less likely to have proper learning support. This inequality might increase existing learning gaps by socioeconomic characteristics. The intent of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention that provides individual online tutoring to students whose background does not allow them to properly follow learning activities during the school closure. Specifically, the intervention will randomly assign middle school students to a tutor -a volunteer college student- who will provide online tutoring every week. We will evaluate the impact of the intervention in the short-term and long-term educational outcomes of students.
We run a pilot study in the Spring 2020 and we will do a scale-up during the academic year 2020-21.
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After
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Italy’s government ordered the closure of all schools and universities in the country. Educators were forced to rapidly adapt to online/ distance learning methods. At home, students from underprivileged backgrounds are less likely to have proper learning support. This inequality might increase existing learning gaps by socioeconomic characteristics. The intent of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention that provides individual online tutoring to students whose background does not allow them to properly follow learning activities during the school closure and in periods with in-person instruction. Specifically, the intervention randomly assign middle school students to a tutor -a volunteer college student- who provides online tutoring every week. We will evaluate the impact of the intervention in the short-term and long-term educational outcomes of students. In addition, we analyze impacts on socio-emotional skills, aspirations, and psychological well-being.
We run a pilot study in Spring 2020 and plan to scale up our efforts during the following academic years.
Additionally, in the 2022-2023 academic year, we will randomly assign 50% of tutors to receive additional materials aimed at encouraging students to interpret potential negative feedback from teachers and peers in a constructive manner. The goal of this intervention is to help remedial children develop a positive self-representation, increase effort in school, and enhance motivation.
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Trial End Date
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Before
June 30, 2021
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After
June 30, 2024
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Last Published
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Before
November 25, 2020 03:09 AM
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After
April 03, 2023 11:47 AM
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Intervention End Date
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Before
June 30, 2021
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After
June 30, 2024
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
The outcomes will include: (1) data collected from a questionnaire to students, including test score in math and reading, motivation and soft-skills (2) administrative outcomes on students' performance, grades, absences, track choice (3) data collected from a questionnaire to parents on soft skills of children (4) data collected from a questionnaire to teachers on homework and personality traits.
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After
The outcomes will include: (1) data collected from a questionnaire to students, including test score in math and reading, motivation, aspiration, self-efficacy, goals, soft-skills, mental health, and relationship with peers, teachers, parents (2) administrative outcomes on students' performance, grades, absences, track choice (3) data collected from a questionnaire to parents on soft skills of children (4) data collected from a questionnaire to teachers on homework and personality traits.
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Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Due to the limited availability of tutors, students will be randomly assigned to online tutors.
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After
In each wave, we expect a limited availability of tutors, due to that constrain students are randomly assigned to online tutors. Beginning in the 2022-2023 academic year, we will randomly select half of the recruited tutors to provide them with additional instructions on how to help students to create a positive self-representation to enhance effort in school and increase motivation.
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Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
We expect to have around 1,000 students and to randomly assign them to treatment and control condition. The final number will be updated after the recruitment of tutors and students will be completed and before the assignment to treatment and control condition.
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After
We expect to have around 1,000 students and to randomly assign them to treatment and control condition.
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Planned Number of Observations
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Before
We plan to have 1,000 students.
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After
We plan to have 1,000 students in each round.
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
There will be 500 students per treatment arm.
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After
There will be 500 students per treatment arm in each round.
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Additional Keyword(s)
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Before
tutoring online, disadvantaged children
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After
tutoring online, disadvantaged children, performance, aspirations, socioemotional skills, well-being, memory encoding
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Field
Keyword(s)
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Before
Education
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After
Education
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Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
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After
self-perception of students’ performance, parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of students’ performance; vividness, emotions, and influence of positive and negative emotions of students.
In the academic year 2022-23, we will have measures of vividness, emotions, and influence of positive and negative emotions for tutors; life and academic satisfaction of tutors; tutors’ wellbeing; tutors’ relationship with peers, professors, parents.
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Pi as first author
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Before
No
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After
Yes
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Building on Existing Work
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Before
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After
No
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