Children using tablets in a futuristic classroom, symbolizing digital education.

Unlock Learning Potential: How Digital Habits Can Transform Education

Kai Mendoza in Mind & Education June 2025 • 4 min read.

"Discover how strategic digital interventions and habit formation are revolutionizing educational technology for better student outcomes."

In recent years, educational technology (EdTech) has exploded, offering students unprecedented access to learning tools. These digital applications and services boast numerous advantages, including adaptability, cost-efficiency, and ease of access. However, a significant challenge remains: keeping students engaged and ensuring they develop consistent usage habits.

Unlike the addictive designs of digital entertainment and social media, EdTech platforms often struggle to maintain student interest, leading to high dropout rates. Factors such as dwindling motivation, time management issues, and a lack of real-time feedback contribute to this problem. But what if we could adapt the engagement strategies used in entertainment to create positive learning habits?

This article explores how digital interventions, like gamified reading contests, can instill lasting reading habits in students. We'll delve into a study involving thousands of children in India, examining the impact of a contest-based intervention on their reading engagement and long-term app usage. Discover how low-cost strategies can make a significant difference in the digital education landscape.

The Power of Incentives: Can Contests Cultivate Consistent Reading Habits?

Children using tablets in a futuristic classroom, symbolizing digital education.

One promising approach to boosting student engagement is incentivizing app use, which can help instill learning habits from the start. However, there's a potential pitfall: the "crowding-out" effect. This phenomenon suggests that external rewards can overshadow or even suppress intrinsic learning motivation. Therefore, any incentive-based intervention must be carefully designed.

A successful intervention needs to be effective during the treatment period. In other words, students must engage with the product when incentivized. However, achieving this can be tricky. Research has shown that financial incentives in education can sometimes be ineffective, and the evidence for behavioral nudges is mixed. But there's also evidence that gamification can enhance short-term engagement and performance.

Here's a closer look at the two critical components of a successful incentive-based intervention:

Effective Engagement: During the incentive period, students must actively engage with the learning tool.
Sustained Motivation: After the incentive is removed, students need to maintain a higher level of engagement, indicating that intrinsic motivation has taken root.

To test this, researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial involving approximately 10,000 children in India. Half of these children were randomly selected to participate in a reading contest within an educational app designed to help them learn English. The contest featured a digital leaderboard, and top performers were awarded a set of books.

Turning Digital Engagement into Lasting Learning Habits

This study offers encouraging evidence that low-cost digital interventions can foster lasting reading habits. By strategically incorporating elements like contests and leaderboards, EdTech platforms can tap into students' intrinsic motivation and create a positive learning cycle. While further research is needed to explore the impact on actual learning outcomes, these findings pave the way for innovative strategies to enhance student engagement and promote consistent usage in digital education.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.1085,

Title: Digital Interventions And Habit Formation In Educational Technology

Subject: econ.gn q-fin.ec

Authors: Keshav Agrawal, Susan Athey, Ayush Kanodia, Emil Palikot

Published: 16-10-2023

Everything You Need To Know

What are the key advantages EdTech offers to students?

EdTech provides several advantages, including adaptability to different learning styles, cost-efficiency compared to traditional methods, and ease of access, allowing students to learn from anywhere with an internet connection. However, EdTech platforms face challenges related to student engagement and developing consistent usage habits which often entertainment platforms don't experience.

What is the 'crowding-out' effect, and why is it important when designing incentive-based EdTech interventions?

The 'crowding-out' effect is when external rewards, like incentives in EdTech, diminish or suppress a student's intrinsic motivation to learn. It's crucial in incentive design because if not managed well, the rewards overshadow the actual learning, leading to decreased engagement once the incentives are removed. A successful intervention needs to balance external incentives and cultivate intrinsic motivation.

What are the two critical components of a successful incentive-based EdTech intervention aimed at creating lasting learning habits?

The two critical components are 'Effective Engagement' during the incentive period, meaning students actively use the learning tool while incentivized and 'Sustained Motivation' after the incentives are removed, indicating that the student's intrinsic motivation has grown. Without both, the intervention may only provide short-term results and not lasting habits.

How can EdTech platforms use contests and leaderboards to improve student engagement and promote consistent usage?

By integrating elements like contests with digital leaderboards, EdTech platforms can tap into students' competitive spirit and desire for recognition, which increases engagement. When designed correctly, these interventions can create a positive learning cycle by fostering intrinsic motivation, encouraging consistent usage, and leading to improved learning outcomes. This method can create lasting reading habits by turning digital engagement into lasting habits.

What evidence suggests that low-cost digital interventions can be effective in fostering lasting learning habits, and what are the implications for digital education?

A study involving a reading contest within an educational app among children in India demonstrated that low-cost digital interventions could foster lasting reading habits. This implies that EdTech platforms can strategically implement interventions like contests and leaderboards to tap into students' intrinsic motivation and create a positive learning cycle, potentially enhancing engagement and promoting consistent usage in digital education. Further research is needed to explore the impact on actual learning outcomes.