Nudging Analytics

This week as we continue to re/consider how to engage students in multiple modes, I would like to share a recent 2022 article entitled, “The creation of a nudging protocol to support online student engagement in higher education” by Brown et al. The authors combined nudge theory with learning analytics to create ‘nudge analytics’ (Blumenstein et al., 2019; Brown et al., 2020; Damgaard & Nielsen, 2020), which was popularized by Thaler and Sunstein (2008). This approach is used to address engagement, although uncertainties include knowing who, how and when to nudge. Providing students with strategic, sensitive nudges that help to move them forward is almost an art form. It requires technical skills and consideration of what to say and how to say it.

The authors remind us that student engagement has long been viewed as a factor that is linked to positive outcomes, including academic achievement, learning, persistence, health and wellbeing, retention, graduation rates and motivation (Bodily et al., 2017; Flynn, 2014; Lee, 2014). Despite a growing body of research that has addressed the question of how to design courses in a manner that increases students’ engagement (Czerkawski & Lyman, 2016), the potential of digitally delivered education is often still not being realized and many online courses continue to underperform in terms of expected engagement and learning outcomes (Burton et al., 2015).

Intersecting the key ideas of ‘choice architecture’ and ‘nudges’ in the context of behavioral economics, nudge policies are aimed at ‘alter[ing] people’s behaviors in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives’ (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008).

The protocol for this study was as follows:

(1) the team identified key resources/week, deemed critical for student success;

(2) the key resources were “promoted” to all students in a relevant week (just in time approach);

(3) using course data, the researchers identified, on a weekly basis, those students who had not accessed one or more of the key resources and these students were provided a nudge (a message sent via the LMS). Students received one nudge/week related to the resources.

Through an earlier iteration, researchers determined that nudges should be succinct and reinforce engagement expectations and time requirements with respect to accessing the resource and most importantly that the educator cares and is there to support the student’s success.

Analysis of the pre-and post-nudge data showed that the nudge intervention was successful in increasing student access to the nudged resources. On average, one week after a nudge, the average percentage of a cohort who had accessed each key resource increased by 18.8% with a SD=0.14.

References

Brown, A., Lawrence, J., Basson, M., Axelsen, M., Redmond, P., Turner, J., Maloney, S. & Galligan, L. (2022). The creation of a nudging protocol to support online student engagement in higher education Active Learning in Higher Education 1–15. DOI: 10.1177/14697874211039077