Pierre Boulos PhD CAREB 2015 Pre-Conference Workshop 1 Conducting research using our own children, ahem, I mean our own students, as participants

Acknowledgement Dr. Suzanne McMurphy, Vice-Chair, UWindsor REB

Why engage in research ethics? 3

Definitions Ethics –Codes or principles of conduct –Principles upon which actions or decisions are based, value system Human Participant/Subject –Living individual about whom an investigator (professional or student) conducting research obtains: Data through intervention or interaction with the individual Private information

What are the benefits ? Better research - planned and designed Clarify thinking early Peer review and feedback of methods Protected vulnerable populations Able to disseminate data publicly Overall improved quality through the questions of the Ethics Board 5

What are ethical concerns in SoTL? Dual role: teacher/researcher Coercion Vulnerable population Stigma: Masking non-participation Withholding an intervention reasonably believed to be helpful Data collection already started before research idea 6

A Quick word about Core Principles Core principles adapted from Belmont 1.Respect for Persons –Informed consent, Voluntariness, Avoid coercion 2.Beneficence/Welfare –Risk/Benefits 3.Justice –Recruitment –burden and benefits of research shared equally 4 th Suggested: 4.Respect for Community 7

CASE EXAMPLE

Case study example Courses across a variety of departments designed to develop skills in clinical assessment using an experiential learning model, e.g. social work, nursing, psychology, kinesiology, etc. Controversy in disciplines whether ‘real-time’ interaction and live actors improves students’ assessment skills and scores on licensure tests— or reduces their attention to detail Purpose of study—explore the difference in assessment skills between students who practiced with live actors versus those using models.

Research Questions How does the use of different models (live actors, peers, simulated models) influence student learning experiences? What influence on student assessment skills will each of the different types of models have? What influence will the different types of learning have on retention and subsequent clinical examinations?

Hypotheses Students who practice with live models will have: –Improved clinical assessment skills –Increased retention of course content –More positive experience of the course –Higher scores on practice professional assessment tests When compared to students who practice with simulated models

Research design Due to the controversy on positive outcomes using live models versus simulations—experimental design— randomized control trial (RCT) most appropriate RCT within a specific class most advantageous from research design perspective to reduce bias

Research Design: Implementation RCT requires: –Baseline skills assessments (T1) –Random assignment into intervention (live actors) and control (simulated models—TAU) –final assessment (T2) How to avoid ‘contamination’ of treatment group within a classroom setting?

Curriculum/Course Design Issue How to randomly assign students into the two different learning techniques—live actors versus simulated models? What happens if we find out that the live actors model is substantially better?

STOP, Stay Calm, Think Think of one ethical issue that may arise out of the research design Share it with a neighbour 15

Ethics Issues: Recruitment RCT design introduces potential social justice ethics issue—disadvantaging one group over another (risk/benefit) Need to differentiate between course content and evaluation of the course content-voluntariness and withdrawal

Ethics Issue: Social justice If we hypothesize that the tx will be better than the control, how will we compensate the control group within one semester?

Research Design: Case-crossover study Modify the design into a case cross-over study Baseline—random assignment—cross over Mid-term Baseline Tx1TX1OutcomeTX2

Curriculum issues How to fit the research into the existing curriculum—will the research ‘take over’ the course content? How to gather information on student experience from those that are not participating in the evaluation?

Constructive Alignment 20

Research Issues: Data Gathering Baseline skills assessment Mid-term feedback Final outcome assessment Introduce a qualitative methodology— interviews with students at mid-term and final assessment

Ethics Issues: Confidentiality and Consent How to use student feedback data designed for curriculum use, not research use

Research Design Final analysis with baseline and final course grade and assessment combined with qualitative feedback

Ethics Issues: Confidentiality and Feedback to participants When? How?

Additional Research design and ethics issues Using student feedback and evaluation information as research data post-hoc Building consent into course syllabi Testing different curriculum content and learning techniques without RCT designs

Ethical Concerns in SoTL What are some of the ethical concerns that might occur in your SoTL projects? –Think individually –Share ideas in pairs (~5 min) 26

Resources Burman, M.E., & Kleinsasser, A.M. (2004). Ethical guidelines for use of student work: Moving from teaching’s invisibility to inquiry’s visibility in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The Journal of General Education, 53(1), Hutchings, P. (2003). Competing goods: Ethical issues in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Change (Sept./Oct.), MacLean, M., & Poole, G. (2010). An introduction to the ethical consideration for novices to research in teaching and learning in Canada. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1 (2) article 7. Retrieved from McKinney, K., & Cross, K.P. (2007).Enhancing Learning Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: The Challenges and Joys of Juggling. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. (particularly Chapter 5) 27

Resources National Council on Ethics in Human Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and humanities Research Council of Canada, Government of Canada, Panel on Research Ethics, Local School Boards/Hospitals Panel on Research Ethics ( ) EthicsWeb.ca ( ResearchEthics.ca ( The Research Ethics Blog ( US Office of Human Subjects Protection (OHRP) Citizens for Responsible Care and Research

Resources US Office of Human Subjects Protection (OHRP) Canada National Council on Ethics in Human Research Panel on Research Ethics Citizens for Responsible Care and Research