Working Paper: NBER ID: w26059
Authors: Philip Oreopoulos; Uros Petronijevic
Abstract: We present results from a five-year effort to design promising online and text-message interventions to improve college achievement through several distinct channels. From a sample of nearly 25,000 students across three different campuses, we find some improvement from coaching-based interventions on mental health and study time, but none of the interventions we evaluate significantly influences academic outcomes (even for those students more at risk of dropping out). We interpret the results with our survey data and a model of student effort. Students study about five to eight hours fewer each week than they plan to, though our interventions do not alter this tendency. The coaching interventions make some students realize that more effort is needed to attain good grades but, rather than working harder, they settle by adjusting grade expectations downwards. Our study time impacts are not large enough for translating into significant academic benefits. More comprehensive but expensive programs appear more promising for helping college students outside the classroom.
Keywords: college achievement; nudging; student behavior; academic outcomes; interventions
JEL Codes: I21; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Coaching-based interventions (C92) | Improvements in mental health (I19) |
| Coaching-based interventions (C92) | Increase in study time (C41) |
| Increase in study time (C41) | Changes in academic outcomes (I21) |
| Perceived need for effort (D91) | Actual study behavior (C92) |
| Perceived need for effort (D91) | Expectations regarding grades (I24) |