Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/202806 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12460
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
behavioural economics of education
nudge
college student achievement
coaching
mindset
RCT
JEL: 
I2
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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