ERIC Number: ED676485
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Adapting for Scale: Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India. Working Paper 34205
Karthik Muralidharan; Abhijeet Singh
National Bureau of Economic Research
Many interventions that "work" in small-scale trials often fail at scale, highlighting the centrality of effective scaling for realizing the promise of evidence-based policy. We study the scaling of a personalized adaptive learning (PAL) software that was highly effective in a small-scale trial. We adapt the PAL implementation for scalability by integrating it into public school schedules, and experimentally evaluate this adaptation in a more representative sample over 20 times larger than the original study. After 18 months, treated students scored 0.22[sigma] higher in Mathematics and 0.20[sigma] higher in Hindi, a 50-66% productivity increase over the control group. Learning gains were proportional to student time on the platform, providing a simple, low-cost metric for monitoring implementation quality in future scale-ups. The adaptation was cost effective, and its key design features make it widely scalable across diverse settings. [This project was executed in partnership with the Government of Rajasthan and Educational Initiatives. Additional funding provided by the Global Innovation Fund.]
Descriptors: Technology Uses in Education, Educational Technology, Computer Software, Program Effectiveness, Academic Achievement, Foreign Countries, Scaling
National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)(United Kingdom); Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Authoring Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Identifiers - Location: India
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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