The Impact of Online Computer Assisted Learning at Home for Disadvantaged Children in Taiwan: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Apart from a few minor passages, this paper reads well and is structured appropriately. The importance and viability of "in-home" CAL as an appropriate intervention for bridging academic achievement will be of interest to readers, particularly due to the transition to online triggered by Covid-19.
Some CAL references early in the paper, while relevant, appear to be dated. Providing some additional more recent references would be useful. Also, CAL itself is a little dated these days & is often associated with earlier eras involving computer-based tutoring systems (CAI & CBT, for example)
I also wondered about the variant "OCAL". It is not an acronym in wider usage. While it seems logical to use it you could consider varying this terminology to adopt more common terms such as ICT, which is inclusive of online & offline. Having said that, it is not a criticism of the paper. However, given the socioeconomic status associated with the participant cohort, i wondered how widespread access to internet connectivity is for this group. Perhaps it is not an issue as it was not discussed,
In a way, OCAL seemed to be a distraction from the main distinction: "in-school" vs "in-home" CAL. This is also borne out by the results
p.3li.131 typo: "we needed to calculated the power" -->
"we needed to calculate the power"
Further reflection: while not essential, I wondered whether the literature on home-schooling might have been useful to refer to.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
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The conducted research brings an interesting insight into the problematics of the importance of ICT in education. The research proved that academic performance of students had increased. I appreciate the effort of authors to work with risk groups of students in education. The only thing which I would recommend is to shift the part starting with the line no. 99 of the Introduction part below 2. Materials and Methods chapter. |
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Revisions to the original manuscript have improved the article; however, I note that a previously suggested amendment is not yet fixed:
p.3li.131 typo: "we needed to calculated the power" -->
"we needed to calculate the power"
Also, as per previous feedback
In a way, OCAL seemed to be a distraction from the main distinction: "in-school" vs "in-home" CAL. This is also borne out by the results. Perhaps some additional elaboration might be useful
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
