Using Social Norms to Promote Actions Beyond the Course

Educators and researchers in online education have grappled with not only how to increase course completion but also how to make a broader impact that goes beyond online courses, such as course participants' real-world applications of the learned knowledge and skills. Research in social psychology and behavioral science suggests that social norms interventions, which convey norms shared in the community that people belong in to promote desirable behaviors, can offer a low-cost and scalable approach to encourage actions beyond the courses (ABCs). We tested three social norm interventions that presented a weekly normative message (descriptive, dynamic, or injunctive norm) with aggregate information about course participants' ABCs in the prior week. Randomized experiments in three online courses found effects on ABCs to be weak and moderated by norm message type and the complexity of the target behavior. Although the interventions did not improve course completion, the dynamic norm message was more effective at promoting ABCs for complex behaviors, such as developing environmental education activities.