Plain English Summary
A plain English summary can be accessed on the Education Endowment Foundation website:
http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects/team-alphie/
Trial website
http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects/team-alphie/
Contact information
Type
Public
Primary contact
Dr Andy Biggart
ORCID ID
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1643-3690
Contact details
School of Education
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast
BT7 1HL
United Kingdom
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
N/A
Study information
Scientific title
Effect of a computerised literacy programme for children with literacy problems (Team Alphie): a randomised controlled trial
Acronym
Study hypothesis
What is the impact of the programme, at post-test, on reading outcomes for participating students?
Ethics approval
School of Education Research Ethics Committee, Queens University Belfast and the Ethics Committee of the Department of Education, University of York (UK), 10/05/2013
Study design
Randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Schools
Trial type
Other
Patient information sheet
Condition
Literacy problems
Intervention
Pupils taking part in the study will be randomly allocated to receive the:
1. Team Alphie programme (intervention): this is a 6-week, computer literacy-tutoring programme, which pupils use in pairs, monitored by a tutor; it combines cooperative learning, computer-assisted instruction, embedded multimedia and tutoring
2. English curriculum using standard practice (control)
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
Literacy will be measured at the end of the 6 week programme with the New Group Reading Test; key stage 2 reading result will form the baseline literacy measure.
Secondary outcome measures
None
Overall trial start date
01/01/2013
Overall trial end date
30/07/2014
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
1. In year 6 (age 10–11 years old) of a participating primary school in England
2. Struggling with reading
Participant type
Other
Age group
Child
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
240 pupils in 20 schools (approximately 12 pupils per school)
Participant exclusion criteria
1. Not in year 6 pupil at a participating school
2. Not struggling with reading
Recruitment start date
01/01/2013
Recruitment end date
30/05/2013
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Queen's University Belfast
School of Education
Belfast
BT7 1HL
United Kingdom
Funders
Funder type
University/education
Funder name
Education Endowment Foundation
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
1. Study results will be published in a report to the funder, the Education Endowment Foundation (expected date of publication is May 2015).
2. The report will be open-access at http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/publications/
Intention to publish date
31/05/2015
Participant level data
Stored in repository
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list