TEACH ME: Technology-Enhanced Academic Communication to Help in Math and English

Overview

TEACH ME is a multi-site research project examining whether integrating personalized, course-specific chatbot communication into gateway postsecondary math and English courses can improve student academic performance, sense of belonging, retention, and completion at scale.

The Challenge

Gateway math and English courses are critical to college persistence, yet large shares of students earn Ds or Fs or withdraw from these courses. This slows academic progress and reinforces barriers to success. Institutions need scalable, cost-effective ways to better support students in these high-impact courses.

What We Do

• Implement course-specific chatbots in gateway math and English courses
• Conduct cluster randomized controlled trials across multiple academic terms
• Deliver timely, personalized messaging to students
• Measure impacts on academic performance, retention, completion, and belonging
• Analyze differential effects across courses and student populations
• Partner with institutions to evaluate impact at scale

How This Work Is Different

TEACH ME rigorously tests chatbot-based academic communication in foundational math and English courses across diverse institutional contexts. Its multi-site randomized design enables both causal impact estimation and insight into implementation, scalability, and measurable effects on student success.

Impact

• Provides causal evidence on the effectiveness of course-specific chatbot communication
• Evaluates the impact of personalized, timely messaging on student outcomes
• Advances national understanding of scalable, technology-enabled student support

Partners

US Dept. of Education

National Institute for Student Success (NISS)

Mainstay

Georgia State University

Morgan State University

Brown, Harvard, Stanford, & The Brookings Institution

UCF Dept. of Mathematics

UCF Dept. of Writing & Rhetoric