3-C Institute for Social Development for Children 7-11 years old

As part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the 3-C Institute for Social Development (3-C ISD) developed a computer-based social skills program called Zoo U for children 7 to 11 years old.

Zoo U is an intelligent social tutoring system (ISTS) developed to help children enhance their social skills.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this program, we are looking for approximately 100 children who will be in the 7- to 11-year-old age range during the entire 2013-2014 academic year to interact with and review Zoo U ISTS.

If your child is eligible and you and your child are chosen to participate in the study, you and your child will be asked to:

·         Complete online questionnaires about your child’s social skills.

·         View a 30-minute orientation video during which you and your child will be trained in the use of an online system to access and evaluate the program.

·         Invite your child’s teacher to complete a social skills questionnaire about your child (teachers will have a separate consent process)

·         Interact with and review the computer program over the course of ten weeks. We expect each unit (5 in total) to take approximately 2 hours to play and review. You will receive one unit (6 scenes) every two weeks via e-mail and your child will be given two weeks to complete the assigned unit from the comfort of your own home.

·         Once Zoo U has been completed, you and your child will complete the social skills questionnaires, and then complete them again about a month after that.

·         Finally, approximately two months later, you and your child will complete the social skills questionnaires once more. 

All parts of the project will be completed online; therefore, access to a computer with internet access is required for participation in this study.

Each child and parent who participates will be compensated with Amazon gift codes for their time spent interacting with the program and completing online questionnaires. Total possible compensation once all parts of the project are completed is $120 for the child and $75 for the parent.

If you would like to participate you can complete the online eligibility survey here: Zoo U Eligibility Survey

If you have any questions about the research study, please contact Emily Brown at 919-677-0102 ext.596 or ZooUISTS@3cisd.com


Emily Brown
Research Assistant
3-C Institute for Social Development
1901 North Harrison Ave, Suite 200
Cary, NC 27513
(919) 677-0102 ex. 596
brown@3cisd.com
www.3cisd.com