Academic chatbot outreach increased the likelihood students earned an A or B by four percentage points across two large online undergraduate courses¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr3·q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-22 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Students randomly assigned to receive chatbot messaging were four percentage points more likely to earn an A or B relative to 61% of control-group students. → Meyer 2026
Evidence¶
Meyer 2026¶
Meyer, Katharine, Lindsay C. Page, Catherine Mata, Eric N. Smith, B. Tyler Walsh, C. Lindsey Fifield, Michelle Tyson, Amy Eremionkhale, Michael Evans, Shelby Frost, and Eye Eoun Jung. (2026). Let's Chat: Leveraging Chatbot Outreach for Improved Course Performance (NBER Working Paper No. 35397). National Bureau of Economic Research. doi:10.3386/w35397. Also released as EdWorkingPaper 22-564, Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://edworkingpapers.com/ai22-564
q3 · i? · causal · r3
Intent-to-treat estimates from randomized controlled trials pooling Government and Microeconomics samples (1,568 and 915 randomized students). Treatment increased A-or-B earning "relative to 61% of control-group students (about a 7% increase)"; Westfall-Young adjusted p-values show significant increase in earning a B or higher but not an A.
"Treatment students are four percentage points more likely to earn an A relative to 36% of control-group students (about an 11% increase) and arere four percentage points more likely to earn an A or B relative to 61% of control-group students (about a 7% increase)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Chatbot outreach showed suggestive effects on assignment completion in Microeconomics but no effects on assignments in Government — related
- Course completion effects differed by subject: reduced DFW in Government and reduced dropping in Microeconomics — related
- Chatbot outreach increased supplemental instruction tutoring attendance by about two percentage points, mediating a small share of the grade effect — related
- Women assigned to the chatbot in Microeconomics earned final grades seven points higher than control women, with no treatment effects for men — related
- End-of-course survey respondents strongly recommended the chatbot, but attitudinal outcomes showed no consistent treatment effects and survey participation was differentially selective — related
- A targeted chatbot registration reminder increased timely course enrollment, with treated students 34 percentage points more likely to enroll by August 16th than controls — related
- Chatbot outreach produced no spillover effects on other-course performance or medium-term effects on subsequent enrollment — related
- Chatbot treatment effects on final grades were statistically significant between the 35th and 75th quantiles of the course grade distribution and at the 95th — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
chatbot-outreach-increases-ab-grades |
title |
Academic chatbot outreach increased the likelihood students earned an A or B by four percentage points across two large online undergraduate courses |
description |
Academic chatbot outreach increased the likelihood students earned an A or B by four percentage points across two large online undergraduate courses |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2026 |
source_checked |
2026-10-22 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — meyer-2026 |
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