Instructional technology
Teaching Teachers to Use Computer Assisted Learning Effectively: Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence
Topics: Student LearningMastery learning – the process by which students must demonstrate proficiency with a single topic before moving on – is well recognized as one of the best ways to learn, yet many teachers struggle or remain unsure about how to implement it into a classroom setting. This study leverages two field… more →
Funding the Digital Divide? How School District Financing for Educational Technology Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic
School finance inequities are a key driver of disparities in educational outcomes. Higher per-pupil funding levels allow schools to provide more qualified educators, smaller class sizes, and high-quality physical resources such as modern instructional technology. We study how Washington state… more →
The Promises and Pitfalls of Using Language Models to Measure Instruction Quality in Education
Topics: MethodsAssessing instruction quality is a fundamental component of any improvement efforts in the education system. However, traditional manual assessments are expensive, subjective, and heavily dependent on observers’ expertise and idiosyncratic factors, preventing teachers from getting timely and… more →
Can Computer-Assisted Instruction Help Schools to Close the Achievement Gap: Evaluation of a District-Wide Reading Intervention
Topics: Student LearningA concerning number of middle and high school students lack fundamental reading skills in the United States. One common way schools address this issue is by supporting those students with computer-assisted instruction. This study evaluates the causal effect of one such computer-assisted… more →
Computer Science for All? The Impact of High School Computer Science Courses on College Majors and Earnings
This study provides the first causal analysis of the impact of expanding Computer Science (CS) education in U.S. K-12 schools on students’ choice of college major and early career outcomes. Utilizing rich longitudinal data from Maryland, we exploit variation from the staggered rollout of CS… more →
Automated Feedback Improves Teachers’ Questioning Quality in Brick-and-Mortar Classrooms: Opportunities for Further Enhancement
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentAI-powered professional learning tools that provide teachers with individualized feedback on their instruction have proven effective at improving instruction and student engagement in virtual learning contexts. Despite the need for consistent, personalized professional learning in K-12 settings… more →
Can brick phones bridge the digital learning divide? Evidence from SMS-based math practice
Topics: Student LearningHardware requirements are a barrier to widespread adoption of digital learning software among low-income populations. We investigate the demand among smallholder-farming households for a simple, adaptive math learning tool that can be accessed by widely available ``brick'' phones, and its effect… more →
Understanding Heterogeneous Patterns of Family Engagement with Educational Technology to Inform School-Family Communication in Linguistically Diverse Communities
Topics: Families and CommunitiesWe leverage log data from an educational app and two-way text message records from over 3,500 students during the summers of 2019 and 2020, along with in-depth interviews in Spanish and English, to identify patterns of family engagement with educational technology. Based on the type and timing… more →
M-Powering Teachers: Natural Language Processing Powered Feedback Improves 1:1 Instruction and Student Outcomes
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentAlthough learners are being connected 1:1 with instructors at an increasing scale, most of these instructors do not receive effective, consistent feedback to help them improved. We deployed M-Powering Teachers, an automated tool based on natural language processing to give instructors feedback… more →
The Cobb Teaching & Learning System: An Initiative that Advances Educator Collaboration, Transformative Technology, and Real-Time Data Utilization
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThe Cobb Teaching & Learning System (CTLS) is a digital learning initiative developed for and by the Cobb County School District (CCSD) in Georgia. CTLS became a crucial initiative used by the district to maintain student academic progress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adopting a mixed-… more →
“I Don’t Think the System Will Ever Be the Same”: Distance Education Leaders’ Predictions and Recommendations for the Use of Online Learning in Community Colleges Post-COVID
While the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the short-term use of online courses, colleges’ experiences with COVID-era online course delivery may also affect the way that they offer and approach online courses going forward. We draw on interviews with 35 distance education leaders from the… more →
Is Big Data Better? LMS Data and Predictive Analytic Performance in Postsecondary Education
Tags: Instructional technologyColleges have increasingly turned to data science applications to improve student outcomes. One prominent application is to predict students’ risk of failing a course. In this paper, we investigate whether incorporating data from learning management systems (LMS)--which captures detailed… more →
Online Tutoring by College Volunteers: Experimental Evidence from a Pilot Program
Topics: Student LearningTags: Tutoring, Instructional technologyA substantial body of experimental evidence demonstrates that in-person tutoring programs can have large impacts on K-12 student achievement. However, such programs typically are costly and constrained by a limited local supply of tutors. In partnership with CovEducation (CovEd), we conduct a… more →
Let’s Chat: Leveraging Chatbot Outreach for Improved Course Performance
Katharine Meyer, Lindsay C. Page, Catherine Mata, Eric N. Smith, B. Tyler Walsh, C. Lindsey Fifield, Michelle Tyson, Amy Eremionkhale, Michael Evans, Shelby Frost, Eye Eoun Jung.Tags: Instructional technologyThis study reports on the causal effects of using a non-generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to provide course-specific, proactive outreach and support to students in large-enrollment undergraduate courses. Across both an American Government and Microeconomics course, students… more →
Navigating Remote Delivery of Assessments for Head Start Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Leiah Groom-Thomas, Monica G. Lee, Cate Smith Todd, Kathleen Lynch, Susanna Loeb, Scott McConnell, Lydia Carlis.Many preschool agencies nationwide continue to experience closures and/or conversions to virtual or hybrid instruction due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of understanding young children’s learning and development during the COVID emergency, limited knowledge exists on… more →
Learning-Mode Choice, Student Engagement, and Achievement Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Student LearningThe COVID-19 pandemic initially resulted in an unanticipated and near-universal shift from in-person to virtual instruction in spring 2020. During the 2020-21 school year, schools began to re-open and families were faced with decisions regarding the instructional mode for their children. We… more →
Bridging human and machine scoring in experimental assessments of writing: tools, tips, and lessons learned from a field trial in education
Topics: MethodsIn a randomized trial that collects text as an outcome, traditional approaches for assessing treatment impact require that each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by human raters. An impact analysis can then be conducted to compare treatment and control groups, using the… more →
The Uncertain Role of Educational Software in Remediating Student Learning: Regression discontinuity evidence from three local education agencies
Topics: Student LearningEducators must balance the needs of students who start the school year behind grade level with their obligation to teach grade-appropriate content to all students. Educational software could help educators strike this balance by targeting content to students’ differing levels of mastery. Using a… more →
Can Automated Feedback Improve Teachers’ Uptake of Student Ideas? Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial In a Large-Scale Online Course
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentProviding consistent, individualized feedback to teachers is essential for improving instruction but can be prohibitively resource-intensive in most educational contexts. We develop M-Powering Teachers, an automated tool based on natural language processing to give teachers feedback on their… more →
Bringing Transparency to Predictive Analytics: A Systematic Comparison of Predictive Modeling Methods in Higher Education
Topics: MethodsColleges have increasingly turned to predictive analytics to target at-risk students for additional support. Most of the predictive analytic applications in higher education are proprietary, with private companies offering little transparency about their underlying models.