Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions of higher education had to close their campuses and shift to online education. Here, we investigate how stay-at-home orders impacted students. We investigated results obtained by 15,125 bachelor students at a large Dutch research university during a semester in which the campus was closed and all education had shifted online. Moreover, we surveyed 166 students of the bachelor of psychology program of the same university. Results showed that students rated online education as less satisfactory than campus-based education, and rated their own motivation as having gone down. This was reflected in a lower time investment: lectures and small-group meetings were attended less frequently, and student estimates of hours studied went down. Lower motivation predicted this drop in effort. Moreover, a drop in motivation was related to fewer credits being obtained during stay-at-home orders. However, on average students reported obtaining slightly more credits than before, which was indeed found in an analysis of administered credits. In a qualitative analysis of student comments, it was found that students missed social interactions, but reported being much more efficient during online education. It is concluded that whereas student satisfaction and motivation dropped during the shift to online education, increased efficiency meant results were not lower than they would normally have been.

Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at-risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student-specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS-assisted counselling on first-year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at-risk students. Yet, EWSassisted counselling did not reduce dropout, nor improved academic performance. Solving the underlying problem of poor academic performance might require additional actionable feedback and recommended counselling practices. SamenvattingEarly Warning Systems (EWS) ondersteunen studieadviseurs in het hoger onderwijs door studenten in nood te signaleren en zo vroegtijdige interventies mogelijk te maken om studentuitval te voorkomen. Deze studie evalueert de implementatie van een EWS die student-specifieke risico-informatie deelde met studieadviseurs op een grote Nederlandse universiteit. Om het effect van EWS-ondersteund advies op

Participation in educational activities is an important prerequisite for academic success, yet often proves to be particularly challenging in digital settings. Therefore, this study set out to increase participation in an online proctored formative statistics exam by digital nudging. We exploited targeted nudges based on the Fogg Behaviour Model, highlighting the relevance of acknowledging differences in motivation and ability in allocating nudges to elicit target behaviour. First, we assessed whether pre-existing levels of motivation and perceived ability to participate are effective in identifying different propensities of responsiveness to plain untailored nudges. Next, we evaluated whether tailoring nudges to students' motivation and perceived ability levels increases target behaviour by means of a randomized field experiment in which 579 first-year university students received 6 consecutive emails over the course of three weeks to nudge behaviour regarding successful participation in the online exam. First, the results point out that motivation explains differences in engagement as indicated by student responsiveness and participation, whereas the perceived ability to participate does not. Second, the results from the randomized field experiment indicate that tailored nudging did not improve observed engagement. Implications for the potential of providing motivational information to improve participation in online educational activities are discussed, as