8.15 Collaboration: Virtual ethics committee
| Contributor | Moira Maguire |
| Title | The virtual Research Ethics Committee |
| Aim | To explore research ethics in practical contexts. To encourage learners to interact meaningfully online. |
| Learning Outcomes | To apply ethical principles to decision making in research. To explore ways to design ethical research. |
| Timing | This is a substantial activity that contributes significant to a module learning outcome. Ten days will be given to complete the preparation and discussion. |
| Activity Description | The students are required to work together to apply ethical principles to review a short ethics ‘application.’ Students can only access the applications once the preparatory work is complete to encourage deeper, prepared responses. The students will be divided in to groups of 6 of less to form several virtual Ethics Committees. Each committee will work together on a separate forum and then post their decision and feedback to the main board. This activity will contribute significantly to the delivery of the Research Ethics component of a Research Methods module on a Blended programme. The students will already have met face-to-face. I have used the Gernsbacher (n.d.) principles to guide the design of this activity: Divide and Conquer; Direct Traffic, Assign Actions and Avoid Parachuting. Following Lieberman (2019), I have given a longer time window to encourage quality and depth of response. |
| Tools | The Discussion Forum on Moodle. To facilitate engagement, earners will be divided into groups of no more than 6 and separate fora set up for each group. Short scenarios (in both written (< 500 words) and short video form) that outline proposed research studies. |
| Resources | Short screencast (10 mins) that highlights the key ethical principles and how they can be practically applied. A review template including DkIT Ethics Principles and Ethics Checklist.Guide to netiquette, Online Chapter on Research Ethics for Undergraduates https://eprints.dkit.ie/328/List Agreed guide to netiquette(agreed earlier in the course) |
| Instructions | You have been allocated to group (you will have had an email letting you know which group you have been allocated to). You and the rest of the group are all members of a Virtual Ethics Committee. To prepare for your role you should view the short screencast. This considers how we use the ethical principles to guide decisions in research. You should also read the chapter ‘Doing the right thing: A guide to Ethics for Undergraduate Researchers’. Once you have completed the preparatory work, you should be able to open the ‘Ethics Applications’. Please not, this folder will only become available once you have completed the preparatory tasks. These applications describe proposed research studies that are being submitted to this committee for ethical approval. Your task is to consider one these proposals in the light of the ethical principles you have learned about and