Claims

In a four-wave MOOC intervention study, statistically significant first-wave findings failed to replicate in subsequent preregistered waves

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · theoretical r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · 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? In a large-scale online learning experiment, significant effects found after revising exclusion criteria post hoc did not replicate when the study was re-run in a new wave under a new preregistration. → Preregistration and Registered Reports 2021 q3 i? A first-wave finding that the value relevance affirmation benefited racial minorities in the United States (N=96,548) was never confirmed in three subsequent waves (N of 102,969, 41,933, and 27,719). → Preregistration and Registered Reports 2021 (2)

Evidence

Preregistration and Registered Reports 2021

Preregistration and Registered Reports. (2021). https://osf.io/ya594

q3 · i? · theoretical · r3

Case study of a large randomized experiment in over 250 MOOCs from Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. After post hoc exclusion-criteria changes produced significant results, the team wrote a new preregistration and re-ran the study; the new wave "led to null results".

"Once again, our new predictions led to null results. The significant effects that we found with our modified exclusion criteria did not replicate in the new wave of the study."

Preregistration and Registered Reports 2021 (2)

Preregistration and Registered Reports. (2021). https://osf.io/ya594

q3 · i? · theoretical · r3

Within the same four-wave experiment, an exploratory subgroup finding in wave one (N=96,548) could not be predicted or replicated in waves of N=102,969, 41,933, and 27,719. The article reports this as an illustration of the garden of forked paths.

"In the first wave (N=96,548), for example, we found evidence that our value relevance affirmation benefited racial minorities in the United States, but we never confirmed this finding in the subsequent three waves (with N of 102,969, 41,933, and 27,719 respectively"

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id mooc-intervention-first-wave-findings-failed-to-replicate
title In a four-wave MOOC intervention study, statistically significant first-wave findings failed to replicate in subsequent preregistered waves
description In a four-wave MOOC intervention study, statistically significant first-wave findings failed to replicate in subsequent preregistered waves
status review
evidence_strength moderate
newest_evidence 2021
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-22
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 2 — preregistration-and-registered-reports-2021, preregistration-and-registered-reports-2021-2

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