A Randomized Experiment Testing the Efficacy of a Scheduling Nudge in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC):

AERA Open

Rachel Baker¹ 

关键词: educational policy;    experimental research;    higher education;    postsecondary education;    technology;   

DOI  :  10.1177/2332858416674007

学科分类：发展心理学和教育心理学

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

An increasing number of students are taking classes offered online through open-access platforms; however, the vast majority of students who start these classes do not finish. The incongruence of student intentions and subsequent engagement suggests that self-control is a major contributor to this stark lack of persistence. This study presents the results of a large-scale field experiment (N = 18,043) that examines the effects of a self-directed scheduling nudge designed to promote student persistence in a massive open online course. We find that random assignment to treatment had no effects on near-term engagement and weakly significant negative effects on longer-term course engagement, persistence, and performance. Interestingly, these negative effects are highly concentrated in two groups of students: those who registered close to the first day of class and those with .edu e-mail addresses. We consider several explanations for these findings and conclude that theoretically motivated interventions may interact with the diverse motivations of individual students in possibly unintended ways.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC