Delivering remote learning using a low-tech solution: Evidence from an RCT during school closures

In this educational intervention, we use audio lessons that are developed using the Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) methodology and are delivered via basic feature phones. We have established two Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based toll-free numbers to deliver these interactive lessons to primary graders in the South-West region of Bangladesh. This intervention contains three modules divided into 75 lessons, each lesson with a duration of 16 to 18 minutes. These modules focus on numeracy, literacy, and a set of noncognitive skills.

2021-06-25

2021-10-14

1. Children’s cognitive ability
2. Children’s noncognitive skills
3. Leadership and planning skills
4. Behavioral strengths and difficulties of the children

1. Children’s cognitive ability: Children's cognitive ability will be measured using a standard assessment test based on the national curriculum of Bangladesh. The test totals 100 points which are divided into literacy, numeracy, and general knowledge. The answers are in binary form.
2. Children’s noncognitive skills: We will measure self-control of the children by using the Impulsivity Scale for Children (ISC), an 8-item survey that gives domain-specific students’ impulsivity, defined as the “inability to regulate behavior, attention, and emotions in the service of valued goals” (Tsukayama et al., 2013). We will also measure grit of the participants using an 8-item grit scale (Duckworth and Quinn, 2009). This scale measures perseverance – grit – as an individual difference score. Furthermore, we will measure the extent to which participating children view intelligence as a fixed behavioral trait rather than a feature that can be improved with effort using 3-item growth mindset scale (Dweck et al., 1995, Dweck, 2013). Finally, we will measure impact of the intervention on prosocial attitude of the children. We expect that beneficiaries of a philanthropic program will show more prosociality compared to the children from control group. We will use the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA) that is an 18-item self-report questionnaire to examine the level of empathy in three domains: affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and prosocial Motivation (Overgaauw et al., 2017).
3. Leadership and planning skill: We will use Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students by Renzulli et al. (2002). This scale has 14 subscales. We will use leadership, communication, and planning subscales as our modules focus on these dimensions
4. Behavioral strengths and difficulties of the children: We will use the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) by Goodman (1997). This scale has 25 items divided into 5 subscales such as emotional symptoms, conduct problem, hyperactivity, peer problem, and prosocial scale. These questions will be answered by mothers.

1. Student time spent on homework or homeschooling
2. Mother’s Time Investment in Children’s Education
3. Parenting Style and Dimension

We implement this intervention using a multi-arm RCT design. We are interested in evaluating the effect of the intervention on the cognitive as well as the noncognitive domain of participants separately. In the T1: Standard group, we offer a literacy and numeracy module, in the T2: Extended group, we include ‘noncognitive skill’ module with literacy and numeracy and T3: pure control group.

Randomization is done on an office computer using Stata’s random number generator.

Village-level randomization. From each village, randomly selected households are participating in this intervention.

Yes

90

1741

30 villages in each treatment 1, treatment 2 and control.

We assume three alternative effect size of 0.20SD, 0.25SD and 0.30SD, 80 percent power, and a type-1 error rate of 5 percent.