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TOP: Tutoring Online Project in Italy

Last registered on March 31, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
TOP: Tutoring Online Project During the Coronavirus Emergency in Italy
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005607
Initial registration date
March 27, 2020

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
March 31, 2020, 3:17 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Harvard Kennedy School

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-04-05
End date
2020-06-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
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 3 hours of online tutoring per week. We will evaluate the impact of the intervention in the short-term and long-term educational outcomes of students.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Carlana, Michela and Eliana La Ferrara. 2020. "TOP: Tutoring Online Project During the Coronavirus Emergency in Italy." AEA RCT Registry. March 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5607-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-04-05
Intervention End Date
2020-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
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.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Due to the limited availability of tutors, students will be randomly assigned to online tutors.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomisation is the individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
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.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to have 1,000 students.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
There will be 500 students per treatment arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard
IRB Approval Date
2020-03-27
IRB Approval Number
IRB20-0486