Dropping out of university is associated with a heightened risk of unemployment or long-term welfare dependence. BETA designed a new behaviourally-informed app called ‘Grok’. Grok aimed to improve university completion rates by growing student resilience through reminding students to connect with social groups and delivering practical wellbeing and study tips. We evaluated the impact of Grok on academic performance, completion, wellbeing and belonging. Despite high rates of downloads and largely positive feedback, overall app usage was low. We found no significant difference between those who had access to Grok and those who did not. Mobile apps are highly accessible but maintaining user engagement is a challenge
ADDITIONAL TRIAL INFORMATION
Intervention start and end date: Monday, 24 February 2020
Ethics approval: University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee – approval 22 November, 2019
Experimental design including randomisation:
The intervention will be evaluated through a clustered, multisite two-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) in two public universities. Participants will be allocated as they register with a 50% chance of allocation to treatment.
Intervention(s):
The treatment group will receive access to an app called Grok, which involves students maintaining a zen garden that is a visual representation of their social connections, both within and beyond university. The app is designed to shift student’s mindset over the course of around 16 weeks to develop better means for coping, reacting to academic stressors.
Students must complete different social, wellbeing as well as academic exercises each week in order to maintain different elements of the garden. Each element of this garden is directly linked to an outcome designed to minimise negative attributions about one’s performance at university.
Control condition:
The control group will receive information about the key student support services available to students at their respective universities.
Outcome(s):
The primary outcome measure for academic performance is the average subject marks received for units studied in semester 1, 2020. Subject marks are expressed as a score out of 100.
The primary outcome measure for completion of tertiary studies is the completion rate of study units that students are enrolled in beyond the census date in the 2020 autumn semester (31 March for WSU, 20 March for UON).
For both primary outcomes, the unit of analysis will be study units, clustered at the student level.
Expected sample size: 6,000 students
Other: AEA registration: AEARCTR-0005500
