Personalized Education at Scale: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in India

38 Pages Posted: 30 Mar 2016 Last revised: 14 Oct 2022

See all articles by Anuj Kumar

Anuj Kumar

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business

Amit Mehra

University of Texas at Dallas

Date Written: August 10, 2018

Abstract

Personalized learning using computers requires students to access digital devices such as laptops or tablets to play videos and execute software applications. Typically, students in developing countries do not have access to such devices. Therefore, implementing personalized education at scale is a challenge. We establish that the personalization of homework questions can improve learning in this context. Students can be served personalized questions based on their performance in previous questions on mobile phones widely available in developing countries, thus enabling homework personalization at scale. We randomly assigned personalized homework to half the students and traditional homework to the rest in two schools in India. We found that in standardized exams: (1) Students in the treatment group obtained 0.16σ higher scores; (2) higher personalization led to higher scores in exams; and (3) students with medium abilities gained the most. We contribute to the literature on the value of Computer-Assisted Learning in improving education delivery under scarce resources.

Keywords: Economics of Education, Education Production Function, Personalized Learning, Adaptive Learning, ICT and Education

Suggested Citation

Kumar, Anuj and Mehra, Amit, Personalized Education at Scale: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in India (August 10, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2756059 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2756059

Anuj Kumar (Contact Author)

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business ( email )

337 STZ WARRINGTON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
GAINESVILLE, FL 32611-0001
United States
3522730587 (Phone)

Amit Mehra

University of Texas at Dallas ( email )

P.O. Box 830688
Richardson, TX 75083-0688
United States
9728835083 (Phone)

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