Does offering structured after-class virtual study groups improve students’ outcomes?

Last registered on June 04, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Does offering structured after-class virtual study groups improve students’ outcomes?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007406
Initial registration date
June 04, 2021

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 04, 2021, 2:09 PM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of California Irvine

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-03-29
End date
2021-08-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This project intends to improve student's learning experiences and increase student success in online settings at the University of California-Irvine (UCI). The project has two main objectives: (i) to examine the impacts of collaborative learning strategies (structured and organized after-class virtual study groups) on students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes; (ii) to identify promising after-class study group facilitation strategies. To achieve this objective, I will carry out one randomized control trial. The intervention consists of assigning undergraduates to small virtual study groups to encourage them to have more after-class synchronous academic interaction activities and social connections.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Zhou, Xuehan. 2021. "Does offering structured after-class virtual study groups improve students’ outcomes?." AEA RCT Registry. June 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7406-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Setting: This study will be conducted in a 10-week undergraduate online Biology course in the School of Biology in UCI (BIO 99) in spring 2021. This is an asynchronous online course with synchronous discussion sections. Students will watch lecture videos and complete assignments on their own schedule but meet for discussion sections via synchronous zoom meetings (the discussion sections will be mandatory). Students will self-select into one of the six discussion sections when they enroll in the course. The purpose of the discussion sections is to review the previous week’s materials and have some breakout room activities. A total of 835 students will enroll in this course with 60-75 students in each discussion section.

Randomization and Group Assignment: All the students enrolled in BIO 99 will be invited to participate in the intervention. After the volunteer recruitment, within each discussion section, the volunteers will then be randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. Within each discussion section, all the treatment students will be assigned into small discussion groups (4-6 students), and all the control and non-participants will be randomly assigned into small discussion groups (4-6 students). The detailed group assignment is attached in the supplemental document - group assignment.

Intervention Design: In the treatment condition, students will be offered a big learning community on Discord (i.e., all the treatment students will be in the learning community). In the first two weeks of the intervention, the treatment students will be offered an after-class small study group with a group chat on Discord (4-6 students in the group chat). The after-class small study group for the treatment students will be the same as their small discussion group in the discussion section (4-6 students). The researcher will send out an email and group messages each week to encourage and facilitate small group activities. From the third week, the treatment students will further be offered opportunities to interact with the students outside their small study groups in two ways: (1) meeting with other peers using the live zoom meeting link set by the researcher; (2) scheduling a session to talk about a specific topic with the peers who have the same interests in this class. In each week of the quarter, the researcher will send out emails and group messages to facilitate and encourage small group activities. In the emails or messages, the researcher will also provide small group interaction tips with the students. In the control condition, the students will be offered a large learning community on the discord app (i.e., all the control students will be in the learning community). However, we will not mention the after-class small study group to the control students or help them to form it. Please see the detailed comparison between treatment and control in the supplemental material - Treatment & Control Comparison.

Data Collection: We will send out surveys in week 6 and week 9 to understand students' small group learning experiences. All the students will be provided with 1 point extra credit as incentives for completing each survey. In the final week of the quarter (week 11). we will send out the social-emotional survey to collect students' social-emotional outcomes. At the end of the quarter, we will also collect students' academic outcomes, including students' final total score, quiz test scores, homework assignment scores, discussion participation scores, and pre-lecture quiz scores. Please see the detailed week 6 & 9 surveys in the supplemental material - week 6/9 Survey.
Intervention Start Date
2021-03-29
Intervention End Date
2021-06-11

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our key outcomes include academic and social-emotional outcomes. For academic outcomes, we will collect students' academic outcomes, including students' final total score, quiz test scores, homework assignment scores, discussion participation scores, and pre-lecture quiz scores. For social-emotional outcomes, we will send out the social-emotional survey to collect students' study interests in this class, course engagement performance, and sense of classroom community.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Randomization and Group Assignment: Within each discussion section, the volunteers will be randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. Within each discussion section, all the treatment students will be assigned into small discussion groups (4-6 students), and all the control and non-participants will be randomly assigned into small discussion groups (4-6 students).

In the treatment condition, students will be offered a big learning community on Discord (i.e., all the treatment students will be in the learning community). In the first two weeks of the intervention, the treatment students will be offered an after-class small study group with a group chat on Discord (4-6 students in the group chat). The after-class small study group for the treatment students will be the same as their small discussion group in the discussion section (4-6 students). The researcher will send out an email and group messages each week to encourage and facilitate small group activities. From the third week, the treatment students will further be offered opportunities to interact with the students outside their small study groups in two ways: (1) meeting with other peers using the live zoom meeting link set by the researcher; (2) scheduling a session to talk about a specific topic with the peers who have the same interests in this class. In each week of the quarter, the researcher will send out emails and group messages to facilitate and encourage small group activities. In the emails or messages, the researcher will also provide small group interaction tips with the students.

In the control condition, the students will be offered a large learning community on the discord app (i.e., all the control students will be in the learning community). However, we will not mention the after-class small study group to the control students or help them to form it.

Please see the detailed comparison between treatment and control in the supplemental material - Treatment & Control Comparison.

We will send out surveys in week 6, week 9, and week 11 to collect students' information on group study activities.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization and Group Assignment: Within each discussion section, the volunteers will be randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. Within each discussion section, all the treatment students will be assigned into small discussion groups (4-6 students), and all the control and non-participants will be randomly assigned into small discussion groups (4-6 students).

In the treatment condition, students will be offered a big learning community on Discord (i.e., all the treatment students will be in the learning community). In the first two weeks of the intervention, the treatment students will be offered an after-class small study group with a group chat on Discord (4-6 students in the group chat). The after-class small study group for the treatment students will be the same as their small discussion group in the discussion section (4-6 students). The researcher will send out an email and group messages each week to encourage and facilitate small group activities. From the third week, the treatment students will further be offered opportunities to interact with the students outside their small study groups in two ways: (1) meeting with other peers using the live zoom meeting link set by the researcher; (2) scheduling a session to talk about a specific topic with the peers who have the same interests in this class. In each week of the quarter, the researcher will send out emails and group messages to facilitate and encourage small group activities. In the emails or messages, the researcher will also provide small group interaction tips with the students.

In the control condition, the students will be offered a large learning community on the discord app (i.e., all the control students will be in the learning community). However, we will not mention the after-class small study group to the control students or help them to form it.

Please see the detailed comparison between treatment and control in the supplemental material - Treatment & Control Comparison.
Randomization Method
Randomization was done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Within each discussion section, each individual will be randomly assigned into treatment and control groups.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
216 undergraduates
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
109 students in treatment and 107 students in control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UCI Office of Research
IRB Approval Date
2021-03-28
IRB Approval Number
N/A

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials