Increasing participation in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)

Last registered on December 10, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Increasing participation in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008681
Initial registration date
December 08, 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
December 10, 2021, 3:04 PM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-12-20
End date
2022-12-23
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) is a government-funded program for all permanent visa holders and some temporary visa holders who have less than a vocational level of English. Not all people who are eligible for the AMEP participate in it. The Department of Home Affairs commissioned BETA to evaluate the effectiveness of communication in participants’ home languages on increasing participation in the AMEP. We will conduct two simultaneous trials to test communications with students who have disengaged from the AMEP and those who have yet to enrol.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Team Registration, BETA. 2021. "Increasing participation in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)." AEA RCT Registry. December 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8681-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Trial 1: We will send text messages to speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arabic who have previously enrolled in the AMEP and have disengaged. Text messages will be in either participants’ home languages or English and come from their service provider or the department.
Trial 2: We will send letters and emails to speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arabic who are eligible for the AMEP and have never enrolled. The letter and emails will be in either participants’ home languages or English.
Intervention Start Date
2021-12-27
Intervention End Date
2022-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Trial 1: The primary outcome measure is re-engagement in the AMEP, indicated by a scheduled activity date (when the participant contacts the service provider to schedule returning to class).
Trial 2: The primary outcome measure is enrolments in the AMEP, as measured by registration date.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The primary outcome will be a binary variable constructed from administrative data. Participants will be given 0 if they did not enrol in the target term, and 1 if they did enrol in the target term.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Trial 1: The secondary outcome will be the proportion of participants who click on the link embedded in the text message.
Trial 2: The secondary outcome will be the proportion of participants who visit the link embedded in the email and letter.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
The secondary outcome will be recorded in aggregate only. The randomised groups will be visible using 'campaign tags' for URLs supplied to participants. We will compare the total proportion of website visits in each group.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Trial 1: A 2x2 factorial design, students will be randomised at the address level so people at the same addresses are in the same treatment group (clustered). We will stratify by service provider region to ensure balance in treatment group assignment across the four regions.
Trial 2: Potential students will be randomised at the address level so people at the same addresses are in the same treatment group (clustered). We will stratify by service provider and language region to ensure balance in treatment group assignment across the four regions.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomisation will be conducted using R.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomisation will be the address. Clusters were created using 'fuzzy' matching of addresses so some clusters may include people from close residences as well as those in the same residence.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Trial 1: 17,000
Trial 2: 11,300
Sample size: planned number of observations
Trial 1: 26,000 Trial 2: 17,000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Trial 1: 4,250 clusters per cell/ approx 8,500 cluster per main effect
Trial 2: 5,650 clusters per arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Trial 1: With an available sample size of approximately 26,000 participants, a mean of 1.5 people per cluster, the trial will have 17,054 clusters with an estimated ICC of 0.5. This will give us 80% power to detect a standardised effect size of h = 0.036 with α = 0.05 using a single-sided test. As an example, this is the equivalent of a difference of around 0.4 of a percentage point off a base of one per cent. Trial 2: With an available sample size of approximately 17,000 participants, and an estimate of 1.5 people per cluster, the trial will have around 11,300 clusters with an estimated ICC of 0.4. This will give us 90% power to detect a standardised effect size of d = 0.04 with α = 0.05 using a one-sided test. This is equivalent to approximately 1.5 percentage points difference between groups with the assumption that one per cent of control participants will enrol.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee Humanities and Social Sciences (HREC HASS)
IRB Approval Date
2021-11-05
IRB Approval Number
Trial 1 reference: 52021937734106
IRB Name
Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee Humanities and Social Sciences (HREC HASS)
IRB Approval Date
2021-11-11
IRB Approval Number
Trial 2 reference: 520211043034213
Analysis Plan

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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