Question

3. A group of incoming freshmen were randomly assigned a mentor for their first year. The mentors were either faculty members or senior students. At the end of the first year, class attendance and grades were compared for students under each type of mentor. Better attendance and grades were were recorded for students with student mentors. (a) Was this an experimental or observational study? Explain. (b) Can we conclude that student mentors were more effective in inspiring higher grades and better class attendance than faculty mentors? Why or why not?

Answer 1

a)

This is an observational study because in the we are just observing the behaviour of students based on the mentors.

We aren't doing any experiment that is we don't have a control and experimental group in this case.

b)

Yes, it can be said that student mentors were  more effective in inspiring higher grades and better class attendance than faculty mentors because at the end of the study better attendance was recorded for students having student mentors, which implies that student mentors helped students to increase their attendance.

Thank you !!