Improving student performance through loss aversion.

Smith, Ben; Shrader, Rebekah; White, Dustin R.; Wooten, Jadrian; Dogbey, John; Nath, Steve; O’Hara, Michael; Xu, Nan; Rosenman, Robert

doi:10.1037/stl0000149

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…Another study (McEvoy, 2016) incorporated a similar experimental design and showed that students in the loss treatment earned statistically higher grades than those in the gain treatment. Smith et al (2019) obtained similar results and pointed out that both genders benefit from the model with the loss of points while male students have more benefits. In their work, Gillanders et al (2020) aimed to find a solution for students' engagement and academic integrity using the loss aversion principle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Using loss aversion and framing to nudge students' classroom performance

Bećirović

Suhonjić

Stanić

2022

Management (Split, Online)

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Behavioral economics suggests that people do not always decide rationally but are even predictably irrational. This gives rise to the concept of nudge, which creates an architecture of choices that encourages people to behave as they wish. Loss aversion is one of the best-known phenomena in behavioral economics and a central notion of the prospect theory. The main idea behind this phenomenon is that losses hurt more than gains feel good. The framing effect is a bias where people choose some options differently, depending on whether they are presented as a gain or a loss. In this quasi-experimental study, the authors examine the role of loss aversion and framing effects on students' engagement and academic success. This study aims to test the hypothesis that students will have a stronger reaction to the reduction of awarded points, as opposed to an increase of awarded points, as they progress through the course. This will motivate them to work harder and achieve better academic success. The results show significant differences between the two groups in favor of the group being graded using the point reduction grading scheme. This suggests that the power of loss aversion can be exploited to increase students' engagement and academic success. The existence of framing effect in this case has been demonstrated, which shows it might be possible to use the choice architecture to improve the student results.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Using loss aversion and framing to nudge students' classroom performance

Bećirović

Suhonjić

Stanić

2022

Management (Split, Online)

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“…Commitment nudges have instructed students to set goals early in the semester, in order to improve student planning [17,19]. Framing nudges have manipulated grading presentation for exams to increase student motivation to avoid maluses [20,21]. Overall, while nudges have been successful in many domains outside of education [22], educational nudges have met with mixed results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The quizzical failure of a nudge on academic integrity education: a randomized controlled trial

Allard,

Armond,

Goddiksen

et al. 2023

Res Integr Peer Rev

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Background Studies on academic integrity reveal high rates of plagiarism and cheating among students. We have developed an online teaching tool, Integrity Games (https://integgame.eu/), that uses serious games to teach academic integrity. In this paper, we test the impact of a soft intervention – a short quiz – that was added to the Integrity Games website to increase users’ interest in learning about integrity. Based on general principles of behavioral science, our quiz highlighted the intricacy of integrity issues, generated social comparisons, and produced personalized advice. We expected that these interventions would create a need for knowledge and encourage participants to spend more time on the website. Methods In a randomized controlled trial involving N = 405 students from Switzerland and France, half of the users had to take a short quiz before playing the serious games, while the other half could directly play the games. We measured how much time they spent playing the games, and, in a post-experimental survey, we measured their desire to learn about integrity issues and their understanding of integrity issues. Results Contrary to our expectations, the quiz had a negative impact on time spent playing the serious games. Moreover, the quiz did not increase participants' desire to learn about integrity issues or their overall understanding of the topic. Conclusions Our quiz did not have any measurable impact on curiosity or understanding of integrity issues, and may have had a negative impact on time spent on the Integrity games website. Our results highlight the difficulty of implementing behavioral insights in a real-world setting. Trial registration The study was preregistered at https://osf.io/73xty.

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Fairness of Academic Performance Prediction for the Distribution of Support Measures for Students: Differences in Perceived Fairness of Distributive Justice Norms

Lünich,

Keller,

Marcinkowski

2023

Tech Know Learn

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Artificial intelligence in higher education is becoming more prevalent as it promises improvements and acceleration of administrative processes concerning student support, aiming for increasing student success and graduation rates. For instance, Academic Performance Prediction (APP) provides individual feedback and serves as the foundation for distributing student support measures. However, the use of APP with all its challenges (e.g., inherent biases) significantly impacts the future prospects of young adults. Therefore, it is important to weigh the opportunities and risks of such systems carefully and involve affected students in the development phase. This study addresses students’ fairness perceptions of the distribution of support measures based on an APP system. First, we examine how students evaluate three different distributive justice norms, namely, equality, equity, and need. Second, we investigate whether fairness perceptions differ between APP based on human or algorithmic decision-making, and third, we address whether evaluations differ between students studying science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or social sciences, humanities, and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE), respectively. To this end, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with a 2 $$\times$$ × 3 factorial design among n = 1378 German students, in which we utilized the distinct distribution norms and decision-making agents as design factors. Our findings suggest that students prefer an equality-based distribution of support measures, and this preference is not influenced by whether APP is based on human or algorithmic decision-making. Moreover, the field of study does not influence the fairness perception, except that students of STEM subjects evaluate a distribution based on the need norm as more fair than students of SHAPE subjects. Based on these findings, higher education institutions should prioritize student-centric decisions when considering APP, weigh the actual need against potential risks, and establish continuous feedback through ongoing consultation with all stakeholders.

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Improving student performance through loss aversion.

Cited by 7 publications

References 21 publications

Using loss aversion and framing to nudge students' classroom performance

Using loss aversion and framing to nudge students' classroom performance

The quizzical failure of a nudge on academic integrity education: a randomized controlled trial

Fairness of Academic Performance Prediction for the Distribution of Support Measures for Students: Differences in Perceived Fairness of Distributive Justice Norms

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