Choose the kind of study by what changes for learners.
| What changes for learners | Choose | The study is |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing: you follow how a class uses a course, or how visitors use a chat page | Follow how it is used | Observational, with no conditions |
| The same learners have the AI in some units and not others, or one agent and then another | Compare units, with the same learners | Comparative, comparing units: one plan, or two orders drawn at random |
| Learners or whole classes get different versions | Compare groups of learners | Comparative, comparing groups: each learner or section gets one condition |
Two orders keep a unit's content or time of year from deciding the result. Observational or comparative is fixed when you create the study. What a comparative study compares can change on Design until it opens.
Common designs
- RCT: comparing groups, With AI and Without AI, each person at random.
- Cluster randomized: comparing groups, each section at random, with consent about the use of data.
- Existing classes, not randomized: comparing groups, each section given its condition by you.
- Two AIs: comparing groups, one condition using another agent, such as one with VETTING.
- Units with and without AI: comparing units, one plan.
- Crossover (AB/BA): comparing units, two orders, the second the reverse of the first.
- Waitlist: comparing groups, the later group without AI until a given unit.
Where it runs
Where it runs holds the study's courses and chat pages, up to 40.
- Courses have known learners, each with its own link, class list and sections: one per school, class or online sample.
- A chat page can host an observational study. Each device is an anonymous visitor, shown by visitor code (
V-…). - To know who learners are, or to compare, use a course. A comparative study runs on courses only.
A course or chat page is in one study at a time, until that study closes. You can remove one only while nobody has taken part through it.
How learners sign in sets one way for every course while the study is open: Each course's own way, Personal codes on cards, They type their name or an ID, or Their ID comes in the link. A comparative study needs sign-in that follows each learner, not the device. Sign-in is fixed once the study opens.
Who changes activities
- Observational: the activities stay the course's. Teachers keep changing them, and every record carries its activity version.
- Comparative: the first course you add with activities gives the study its design. Its activities move into the study and are changed on Design, for every course at once. Other courses must have no activities of their own.
A teacher studying their own course changes its activities in the study too. Teachers still set opening times and extra time. Teachers who run a course join the project as editors.
- Your first study: start from your situation.
- Conditions and assignment: set what differs and who gets which.