Abstract
This article shows the effect of providing feedback to university students at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid on their percentile in the distribution of grades in different tests carried out throughout the second semester of the 2022 academic year. To conduct the study, carried out a randomized experiment among students, with the aim of determining whether greater transparency in the results throughout the semester increased performance at the end of the course. It is intended to demonstrate that informing students about their relative position during the semester based on the percentile they obtain with respect to the class can achieve added motivation to improve final grades. The random experiment has been carried out once the students have returned to normality in the classrooms after the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The pandemic caused a lack of motivation to attend classrooms due to telecare and remote work. To carry out the randomized experiment, the class was divided into two groups. A treatment group, randomly chosen from the total number of students, who were notified of the percentile with respect to the class throughout the semester and a control group to analyze the effects with respect to the treatment group. The sample taken in this random experiment was very small because this experiment is intended to be carried out over several semesters, so as an essay, this article will be a first approximation of the results that are expected to be obtained in the next courses.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anh, T., & Zeckhauser, R. (2012). Rank as an inherent incentive: Evidence from a field experiment. Journal of Public Economics, 96, 645–650.
Azmat, G., & Iriberri, N. (2010). The Importance of relative performance feedback information: Evidence from a natural experiment using high school students. Journal of Public Economics, 94(7–8), 435–452.
Azmat, G., & Iriberri, N. (2016). The provision of relative performance feedback: An analysis of performance and satisfaction. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 25(1), 77–110.
Bandiera, O., Larcinese V., & Rasul, I. (2015), Blissful ignorance? A natural experiment on the effect of feedback on students’ performance. Labour Economics, 34, 13–25.
Barankay, I. (2012). Rank incentives: Evidence from a randomized work place experiment. The Wharton School, Mimeo.
Blader, S., Madras C., & Prat, A. (2015). The contingent effect of management practices. Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 15–48.
Brotons, P., Virumbrales, M., Elorduy, M., Mezquita, M., & Balaguer, A. (2020). ¿Aprender Medicina a distancia?: Percepción de estudiantes confinados por la pandemia COVID-19. Revista Médica De Chile, 148(10), 1461–1466.
Cabrales, A., Azmat, G., Bagues, M., & Iriberri, N. (2019). What you don’t know... Can’t hurt you? A natural eld experiment on relative performance feedback in higher education. Management Science, 65(8), 3449–3947.
Charness, G., Masclet, D., & Villeval, M. (2013). The dark side of competition for status. Management Science, 60(1), 38–55.
Eriksson, T., Poulsen, A., & Villeval, M. (2009). Feedback and incentives: Experimental evidence. Labour Economics, 16, 679–688.
Ertac, S. (2005). Optimal information revelation in the presence of social comparisons: Theory and experiments. Mimeo.
Galindo, N., & Vela, J. (2020). Motivación academica en tiempos de COVID-19 de estudiantes vinculados a universidades de Villavicencio: a partir de la teoría de Deci y Ryan. Universidad de Santo Tomas.
Gill, D., Kissova, Z., Lee, J., & Prowse, V. (2016). First-place loving and last-place loathing: How rank in the distribution of performance affects effort provision. Mimeo.
Hannan, R., Ranjani, K., & Andrew, H. (2008). The effects of disseminating relative performance feedback in tournament versus individual performance compensation plans. Accounting Review, 83(4), 893–913.
Khunen, C., & Tymula, A. (2012). Feedback, self-esteem, and performance in organizations. Management Science, 58(1), 94–113.
Macías, C., & Santero, R. (2022). El sistema educativo en el ámbito rural español. Un análisis comparativo con la educación en la ciudad en España. Revista Universitaria Europea, 37, 215–248.
Moore, D. A., & Cain, D. M. (2007). Overcon_dence and underconfidence: When and why people underestimate (and overestimate) the competition. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103, 197–213.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Domínguez, C.M. (2023). Random Experiment on Relative Performance Feedback in Higher Education at URJC. In: Sainz, J., Sanz, I. (eds) Addressing Inequities in Modern Educational Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45802-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45802-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-45801-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-45802-6
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)