As different media platforms potentially differ on dimensions which can moderate impact in learning, it is possible that the impact of educational television could be greater when children consume the same content on multiple platforms. For example, children could co-view with their parents during a public television broadcast to benefit from actively engaging with the content, and then increase their dosage by viewing the same content individually on smartphone. At present there is insufficient evidence to know whether this is the case.
There is also a lack of evidence concerning how the impact of educational television evolves over time. Most studies which are designed to estimate the causal impact of educational television only measure outcomes once and typically do so after a short period of time. It is thus unclear whether effects strengthen or decay over time. There are reasons to support either occurring.
We try to address each evidence gap by exploring the following research questions in the proposed study.