The Impact of Online Computer Assisted Learning at Home for Disadvantaged Children in Taiwan: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Bin Tang, Te-Tien Ting, Chyi-In Wu, Yue Ma, Di Mo, Wei-Ting Hung and Scott Rozelle
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Te-Tien Ting: School of Big Data Management, Soochow University, Taipei 111002, Taiwan
Chyi-In Wu: Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
Yue Ma: Rural Education Action Program, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA
Di Mo: LinkedIn Corporation, 222 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
Wei-Ting Hung: Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: In Taiwan, thousands of students from Yuanzhumin (aboriginal) families lag far behind their Han counterparts in academic achievement. When they fall behind, they often have no way to catch up. There is increased interest among both educators and policymakers in helping underperforming students catch up using computer-assisted learning (CAL). The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of an intervention aimed at raising the academic performance of students using an in-home CAL program. According to intention-to-treat estimates, in-home CAL improved the overall math scores of students in the treatment group relative to the control group by 0.08 to 0.20 standard deviations (depending on whether the treatment was for one or two semesters). Furthermore, Average Treatment Effect on the Treated analysis was used for solving the compliance problem in our experiment, showing that in-home CAL raised academic performance by 0.36 standard deviations among compliers. This study thus presents preliminary evidence that an in-home CAL program has the potential to boost the learning outcomes of disadvantaged students.

Keywords: online computer assisted learning; randomized experiment; Yuanzhumin; in-home interventions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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