Question

#1. Impact Evaluation

   In the move to online instruction due to COVID-19, Development University was concerned that its students may not have the technology they needed at home to keep up with their classes. In order to address this issue, at the start of the term, the University offered all students coupons for a 50% price discount on a new iPad. The hope was that the iPad would allow students to participate more fully in their online classes, and therefore allow them to learn more.

    Development University heard that you have learned how to do impact evaluation in your economics classes, so asked you to evaluate how well the iPads worked for their students. In particular, they wanted to know if the iPads caused student grades to improve. In looking at the data, you notice that although all students were offered the coupon, only half of them purchased an iPad through the program. Therefore, you decide to compare the average GPAs of students who purchased an iPad to those who didn't. You find that students who purchased an iPad had an average GPA of 3.4, and students who did not purchase an iPad had an average GPA of 3.1.

1) Explain in words one sentence that clearly describes the context of this study. (The answer should clearly define the treatment and the outcome variable in this study, not just the abstract language of what y0i means in general.)

2) Please explain and describe ?[?1?|??=0] in the context of this study. (The answer should demonstrate a clear understanding of both the treatment and the outcome variable in this study.

Answer 1

Answer 1. Impact Evaluation of Covid-19 on Students

As observed from the above study it describes how badly has Covid-19 has hit the studies of the students. In the above situation the students are not at all ready to purchase an ipad even at 50% discounts being offered to them. The situation can be analysed from various view-points i.e.

• students are less interesed in studies so they are not prepared to buy a new ipad
• Students are facing financial crisis and thus unable to buy even at half price
• Students feel that classroom teaching is better than taking lessons on ipad
• students feel that it is a temporary phase so there is no need to hurry or panic

The GPA of the students who purchased ipad was 3.4 while that of ones who did'nt purchased was 3.1. There seems to be NO big gap in the level of learning / knowledge of the two categories of students. As expected by me that ipad will be of great help to students in learning and therebyimproving their GPA, the results were found surprising. The results shows that the total credit cannot be given to learning through ipads.

Thus, we need to understand the reason for negative deviation. We found that some students were not so eager towards learning as they thought classroom learning is better. While some students were really struggling for money to buy an ipad, others were found to be totally lack of interest in studies.

• Treatement : Students must be given some creative activities of their own interest and should be asked to turn up next day to showcase it.
• Resultant GPA score clearly shows the lack of interest of the students. So, the University needs to counsel the students and take steps to enhance the interest of students and make their learning a fun rather than a burdon on them.