Boosting Engagement with Educational Software Using Near Wins

Boosting engagement with educational software has been promoted as a means of improving student performance. We examine two promising and relatively understudied manipulations from the realm of gambling: the near-win effect and anticipation. The near-win effect occurs when an individual comes close to achieving a goal, while anticipation refers to the build-up of suspense as an outcome is revealed (e.g., losing early vs. late). Gambling psychologists have long studied how near-wins affect engagement in pure-chance games but it is difficult to do the same in an educational context where outcomes are based on skill. We manipulate the display of outcomes such that artificial near-wins are introduced largely independent of a student’s performance. In a study involving thousands of students using an online math tutor, we examine how this manipulation affects a behavioral measure of engagement. We find a near-win effect on engagement when the ‘win’ indicates to the student that they may continue to the next lesson. Nonetheless, when we experimentally induce near wins in a randomized controlled trial, we do not obtain a reliable effect of the near win. We conclude by describing manipulations that might increase the effect of near wins on engagement.

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