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Fun in the Sun Summer Reading Program

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Abstract This study examined the participation of 36 second and third grade students from six Title I schools in a summer school reading incentive program. Students attended the summer program who had not meet the reading requirements for their grade levels by the end of the previous school year. As…

Abstract This study examined the participation of 36 second and third grade students from six Title I schools in a summer school reading incentive program. Students attended the summer program who had not meet the reading requirements for their grade levels by the end of the previous school year. As part of the summer reading program students accessed free books on a variety of topics and earned incentives for bringing the books back and completing reading logs. This summer reading program was four sessions, thirty minutes, once a week during the one-month long summer program. Results indicate students' opinions about reading improved over the duration of the program. Likewise, the average number of books students read per week and the average number of minutes students spent reading per day increased from pre to post intervention. Limitations and implications are reported. Key words: summer reading, reading program, incentives, reducing reading gaps
ContributorsMineweaser, Lindsey Michelle (Author) / Oakes, Wendy (Thesis director) / Harris, Pamela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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Leveraging Low-Cost Incentives to Encourage Student Performance in Online Courses

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Students in an online course can face diminished incentives to exert effort and focus without the structure of instructor-paced material. To introduce new motivation to spend more time with course material, this paper examines the use of A/B split test content experiments. One group of students is exposed to a…

Students in an online course can face diminished incentives to exert effort and focus without the structure of instructor-paced material. To introduce new motivation to spend more time with course material, this paper examines the use of A/B split test content experiments. One group of students is exposed to a set of hidden hyperlinks ("Easter Eggs") within the course and earns trivially small amounts of course credit for finding them. While controlling for demographics and initial effort, finding each additional Easter Egg is associated with a 0.8 percentage point increase in final grade. This effect is even stronger for low performers: for those below the median grade before the first Easter Egg, each find increases final grade by 1.3 points. The treatment advantages low-performing students more than their high-achieving counterparts, thus helping to reduce the education gap at extremely low cost to course developers.
ContributorsWinseck, Kevin Lee (Author) / Hobijn, Bart (Thesis director) / Veramendi, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05