170 - Randomized Control Trial of Nudging Effects in Human Anatomy and Physiology Lectures

Poster Board Number: 170
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Co-authors:

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Abstract Body : Introduction & Objective

Light touch interventions like nudges can impact student performance by providing information to students on their current performance, what effort would be required to improve performance, and specifically how students should apply that effort. Students that receive nudges might alter their studying behavior and improve scores on assessments. This study used an RCT of a large lecture human A&P course to determine whether nudges such as emails increase student grades and time reading the text.



Materials and Methods

Students received nudges after each of the three regular exams as well as a nudge one week before the midterm drop deadline. The email sent was personalized based on the students’ performance on the exams. The effects of the nudges were determined by comparing grades and resource use throughout the semester of students in the control group to the treatment group. Regression was used to account for demographic differences of students.



Results

The treatment group (N=27) performed 2.4 percentage points higher on the first exam. That difference in exam performance almost doubled to 4.2 percentage points after the first nudge and then again to 9.8 percentage points after the third nudge as measured by performance on the final exam. The treatment groups did not have a significant increase in time spent reading the textbook compared to the control group.



Conclusion

The grade of students that received the nudges were significantly higher. The difference was only significant for the final course score even though the magnitude of difference was similar for each observation. This suggests that culmination nudges did not create a larger effect, but that that the variation in student grades narrowed. It is common for grades to narrow around grade scale cutoff points as the semester progresses and that narrowing of variation could have caused the effect that was seen here.

Students that received a nudge did better initially, but then maintained that edge throughout the semester regardless of variation in exam. This suggests that the information given in the nudges was reinforced throughout the semester by subsequent nudges. This supports the conceptual framework that students are able to use the information in preparing for the course. This consistent difference in performance could also suggest that nudges have a maximum benefit and that additional nudges will not provide additive benefit.



Significance/Implication

The nudges were intended to give more personal information about how the student was performing and how to use their effort to improve outcomes. While there was little improvement in overall scores, the low cost of implementing nudges can still provide an appropriate impact.