Social Media Educational Intervention Trial for Postgraduate Psychology Students

A 2026 study by Francisco Virues-Ortega presents data from a multi-arm randomized controlled trial involving 141 postgraduate applied psychology students. It evaluates the impact of the BE-Social program, which combines study self-management, cooperative learning, and instructor feedback delivered via social media, on academic performance and engagement. The dataset, shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license, contains results from five experimental groups.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between assigned intervention group (e.g., self-management, cooperative learning) and final academic performance scores.
• Model social media engagement metrics (e.g., post frequency, interaction rates) as predictors of changes in student performance.
• Compare effect sizes on academic outcomes across the five distinct experimental conditions (control and four treatment arms).
• Investigate the combined impact of self-management training and semi-immediate instructor feedback on study habits measured within the trial.

Strengths

• Data originates from a designed multi-arm randomized controlled trial, a robust methodology for causal inference.
• Includes results from 141 participants across five clearly defined experimental groups with specified sample sizes (e.g., n=27 for control).
• Dataset is associated with a peer-reviewed study abstract detailing the intervention components and primary findings.

Limitations

• The dataset is very small at 6.3 KB, indicating limited raw data or summary statistics rather than individual participant records.
• Geographic and demographic scope is limited to students from a single postgraduate applied psychology program.
• Specific column names and the full data schema are not provided in the available metadata.

Provenance

Source

Francisco Virues-Ortega via figshare.

Collection Method

Data collected through a multi-arm randomized controlled trial evaluating the BE-Social educational program.

Time Range

Temporal coverage of the original study is not specified, but data was published in 2026.

Freshness

Last updated on the platform in April 2026.