Ethical considerations in researching online learning and teaching

#unisa12

Palitha EdirisinghaUniversity of Leicester

Palitha Edirisingha, 12 June 2012, Unisa, South Africa

Session objectives

• To be familiar with the ethical principles involved in social research

• To consider possible links between research methods / methodological approaches and specific ethical issues

• To raise awareness of the risks to participants, researchers, institutions, profession (research field) by not taking ethical codes seriously

• To consider how ethical issues relating to Internet research might differ from research in traditional settings.

To help you ‘leave the field [in such as way] that future researchers

are not disadvantaged’(Eynon et al, 2008: 31).

Before we begin…

• Debates on ethical issues – on going!• Internet for social researchers –

opportunities!• Link between ethical issues and research

methods and tools (e.g., social and participatory media)

• Consequences of ignoring ethical codes!

Ethics?

“You owe a duty to yourself as a researcher, as well as to other researchers and to the subjects of and audiences for your research, to exercise responsibility in the processes of data collection, analysis and dissemination” (Blaxter et al, 1996: 146).

(Punch, 2008: 56-57)

Ethical frameworks

Deontological ConsequentialistDoing good without qualification

Doing good with qualification

Not dependent on consequences

Dependent on consequences

Inner sense of duty based on principles

Duty done in terms of consequences

Categorical (imperatives judgments

Conditional or hypothetical judgments

Fig. 9.1 Deontological and consequentialist approaches to ethics (Hart, 2005: p. 280)

Ethical frameworks

Participant as a research subject

Medical sciencesSocial sciences

Protection of the subject (anonymity, confidentiality, informed consent

Participant/poster as an author

Humanities

Copyrights, fair use

(Ess, 2007: pp. 490-91)

Ethics – Stake-holders

• Your institution• Professional associations• Research participants and the wider

population• Profession• The researcher

Ethics – professional associations

The association URL

Economic and Social Research Council, ‘Framework for research ethics

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/research-ethics.aspx

British Sociological Association, Statement of Ethical Practice

http://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/27107/StatementofEthicalPractice.pdf

Social Research Association (SRA), Ethical Guidelines

http://www.the-sra.org.uk/documents/pdfs/ethics03.pdf

British Psychological Society (BPS), Ethics and Standards

http://www.bps.org.uk/what-we-do/ethics-standards/ethics-standards

British Educational Research Association, Ethics and Educational Research

http://www.bera.ac.uk/category/keywords/ethics

American Sociological Association, Code of Ethics

http://www.asanet.org/about/ethics.cfm

South African?

Activity 1

A review of main data collection methods, distinguishing features, and their ethical

implications

[5 mins]

ResearchingMethods (offline and online)

Questn’res Interviews Observations Documents Other?

learning and teaching (f2f,

correspondence)

Printed F2F in physical settings

Paper ?

Online Q Skype Int. ? ? ?

online learning and

teaching

Printed F2F -- Paper ?

Online Q Skype Int. Virtual ethnography

Web content analysis

Learning Analytics

Internet in the context of online research[2 mins]

In social science research Examples from educational research?

A major data resource

A lens through which to observe the subjects of research (and how they construct their identities and communities online)

A tool for gathering and analysing social science data on a large scale MOOCs

A laboratory for the social sciences [a bit like astronomers using an observatory to study the sky]

i-Spot, Galaxy Zoo

Mechanism for communicating and collaborating with a distributed community of peer researchers (e.g., Facebook Twitter [TB’s session]

(Eynon et al., 2008)

Three main approaches to gathering internet-based data

Approach Data collection methods used Examples

1. Online methods to gather data directly from individuals

surveys, interviews, focus groups, documents (artefacts)

Pelicans, MOOSE

2. Analysing online interaction within virtual environments

Participant observation, logging and visualising interactions among participants.

Media and Comm dissertation project

3. Large-scale analysis of online domains

Emerging! Capture and analysis of digital traces that people leave online (patterns of their search behaviour, text analysis of emails, and hyperlinks)

Learning Analytics MOOCs

(Eynon et al., 2008)

Ethical issues associated with three approaches

(Eynon et al., 2008)

(1). Using online methods to gather data directly from individuals

• Online versions of traditional methods. What are they?

• Different ethical challenges to f2f context(Mann, 2003)

• Ethical challenges?– Difficult to assess the risk to participants, reactions to questions– Confidentiality and anonymity– Informed consent– Words much stronger when written down, permanent records, [stuff

on episodic interviews [reference]

(2). Analysing online interactions on the Web

• Examples? discussion boards / forums, chat rooms, 3D multi user virtual environments (eg. Second Life), online gaming environments.

• Is online environment public, private or even a ‘third place’ (Oldenburg, 1989)

• How might we treat the interactions occur in a VLE?

• [disclosing identity as a researcher]

(3). Large-scale analysis of the online medium

– Possibilities for gathering ‘powerful data … from the surveillance of online populations’ (Eynon et al, 2008: 31).

– ‘Recording, reproducing, and analyzing interactions, especially covertly, are more powerful’ than it is the case with off line world (ibid, p. 31).

– Learning Analytics, Google Analytics.– Ethical issues:

• Methodological (e.g., discourse analysis)

Here is a question!

• You are the tutor / teacher / lecturer, and you are researching your students’ learning. Should you disclose your identity as a researcher?

And another one!

• If you are a blogger or tweeter, and you observe some interesting stuff that fits into your on-going research (and maybe your book). And you might write about that observation later on. Should you have disclosed your identity as a ‘researcher’?

An activity (in pairs, 3s or groups) based on four ethical principles [20 minutes]

Activity 2

Four main areas of ethical principles

(Diener and Crandall, 1978, in Bryman, 2008, p. 118)

The Activity (in pairs, 3s or small groups)

[20 minutes]

What might be the source of ethical concern?

the research question

the sample

the choice of methods (e.g., rationale for the choice of methods not clear, appropriateness of the method, how it is going to be implemented)

Other

1. Harm to participantsPotential problems Examples and implications

Physical harm

Harm to participants development

Loss of self-esteem

Stress

(Diener and Crandall (1978: 19)

2. Informed consentPotential problems Examples and implications

Making sure participants have opportunity clarify their questions

Digital signatures?

Getting informed consent from participants from an online community (e.g., a MOOC)

3. Invasion of privacyPotential problems Examples and implications

Search and download history

Potential access to information that can be harmful for peers

……

?

4. DeceptionExamples of harm to participants

Could this be the case

Revealing your identity as a researcher

The duration of participation (realistic!)

…

….

….

?

The worksheet to be distributed among the participants

Next three slides

• Two brief descriptions of the research projects to be reviewed by participants– Project 1: Dissertation research and supervision

with technology [DiReSTe]– Research Project 2: DUCKLING project

Project 1: Dissertation research and supervision with technology [DiReSTe]

Project 1: Dissertation research and supervision with technology [DiReSTe]

Research Project 2: DUCKLING project

Responses from the participants

A checklist of information to be included in an informed consent form

• Outline of the purpose of the project• Notification to the participants that:

– Participation is voluntary– Participants free to refuse to answer any of the questions (if interviews) – They could withdraw from the study at any time– They could withdraw their data within [specify the time] of the interview /

participation– interview would be recorded– nobody but the researcher and the supervisors would listen to the interview– small sections might be heard by a few others– transcribed but all identifying information would be removed– parts of the interview might be used in the research publication(s)– sign the form to confirm their consent(Bryman, 2008: 123-24)

Concluding remarks

• Planning the research so that you can ‘leave the field [in such as way] that future researchers are not disadvantaged’ (Eynon et al, 2008: 31)

• Other take-home messages from the session…

ReferencesEss, C. (2007) Internet Research Ethics. In Joinson, A. N. et al. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Eynon, R., Fry, J., & Schroeder, R. (2008) The Ethics of Internet Research. In Fielding, N. G., Lee, R. M. & Blank, G. (eds) (2008) The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage.  

Fielding, N. G., Lee, R.M. & Blank, G. (eds) (2008) The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage.  Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods. 3rd Edn. Oxford: OUP. Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. & Tight, M. (1996) How to research. Buckingham: Open University Press.  Punch, K, F. (2008) Developing effective research proposals. 2nd Edn. London: Sage.  Mann, C. (2003) Generating data online: ethical concerns and challenges for the C21 researcher. In Thorseth, M. (ed) Applied Ethics in Internet Research, pp.31-49. Trondheim: NTNU Publications Series No. 1.  Oldenburg, R. (1989) The Great Old Place, New York: Marlowe and Co.  Diener, E. & Crandall, R. (1978) Ethics in Social and Behavioural Research, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  Lee, R.M., Fielding, N. & Blank, G. (2008) The Internet as a Research Medium: An Editorial Introduction to The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. In N. Fielding, R. M. Lee. & G. Blank (eds) (2008). The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods, pp. 3-20. London: Sage.