Improving Non-Academic Student Outcomes Using Online and Text-Message Coaching

We design and experimentally evaluate two low-cost, scalable interventions – an online preparatory module and a text-message coaching program – in a sample of over 3,000 undergraduate students at a large Canadian university. Supplementing administrative data on academic outcomes with a unique follow-up survey on student well-being and study habits, we estimate positive program effects on students’ non-academic outcomes, despite estimating null effects on course grades and credit accumulation. Given the low costs associated with administering these programs, our results suggest that the positive impacts on student experiences may warrant program expansion even in the absence of impacts on academic outcomes.