What is Secondary Use Research? (Part 2 of 2)

Research projects that would fall under secondary use are those which utilize previously-collected data to answer a new research question. Before the research can begin, the Research Ethics Board (REB) will need to review your proposed research.

Using old data to answer new questions has a number of advantages, such as not wasting resources (e.g., time) re-collecting information. Additionally, for some new researchers, this approach can seem less daunting than undertaking a standard research project involving collecting new data. What types of research questions lend themselves to this type of data? Here are some examples:

Many scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) questions can be answered using secondary data (i.e., using student performance data form the previous semesters you have taught). For example, you may be wondering if your students prefer your class taught hybrid, face-to-face or online. If you have taught the same course in all three delivery modes, you may be able to answer that question (though you’d have to consider a selection bias where different types of students may prefer and/or register for different delivery modes, but I’m just trying to provide a simple example to illustrate SoTL using secondary data). Another SoTL question you might have about your own courses is whether your students learned more when you taught your course a certain way (e.g., flipped classroom, project-based learning, etc).

Another example might be using data you previously collected for a different purpose, such as quality assurance. This could be in your own classroom (e.g., a start-stop-continue or data from the SFQs) or a survey distributed to students after a program orientation. These data were collected for other purposes originally, but might be able to help you to answer a research question now, as secondary data.

Administrative data are another example, such as retention data, student GPA, etc. Although you may not have access to these, it is possible to gain access with the right permissions and a valuable research question.

I hope these examples have given you some ideas of how you might harness previous data to answer some research question(s). To summarize, any previously-collected data that is being re-purposed for research (or for a new research question) would be considered a secondary use project. SoTL, quality assurance, and administrative research questions lend themselves particularly well to this approach.

If there is anything I can do to support your research or if you have suggestions for me in my role as Research Coordinator, please reach out via email or pop in to my “office hours” on Fridays from 12:30-1:30pm on Whereby.

Comments

What is Secondary Use Research? (Part 1 of 2)

In previous issues, I have addressed the forms required for secondary use of data as well as how, in some cases, participants’ consent may not be required for secondary use projects. This week, I will define what a secondary use research project really is (to be continued in the next issue). In future articles, I will detail how to complete the secondary use REB form, section by section. So, what differentiates a secondary use research project from a traditional research project? The short answer is: when the data were collected. If you are proposing to collect data from participants during your study, then you’re not engaged in a research project that would fall under secondary use. If the data have already been collected, and you simply plan to use those previously-collected data in order to answer your research question, then you’d fall in the secondary use category. Essentially, a project that falls under secondary use involves harnessing past data for new research. Where do ...

Tips for Completing the REB Form for Secondary Use (Part 2 of 2)

Last time, I began to go through the Secondary Use of Data Research Ethics Board form (which is on ICE: Teams – Academic – Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Research Ethics Board, then click on “Related Forms” on the left hand side; or click here ). Remember that the secondary use of data form is only to be used when the data are already available either publicly (Statistics Canada) or privately (your previous semester students’ performance). This week, I’ll be reviewing the rest of the sections of the form, beginning with Section 4.0. In the first sub-section (4.1), you’ll explain your research question, why it’s important and what you think the outcome will be (if you have a hypothesis). Then, you’ll explain where the data came from (who the participants were) and the purpose for the original (primary) data collection. For example, if you’d like to examine a previous semester’s student outcomes, the data were originally collected to provide feedback/grades to...

Developing a Research Question - Part 1: Generate Your Own Research Question from Scratch

Today, I’d like to provide some guidance about research questions. This will be a two-part feature. Part 1 will include a description of research questions and guidance to help you develop your own. For Pat 2 (in 2 weeks), I will focus on how to use other sources as inspirations for your research questions. A research question is used to clarify the scope of your research project. It is a narrower version of the topic that you’re interested in studying. A good research question should be specific, include the variables you are interested in studying, and be testable in a finite amount of time. Your variables should also be operationally defined. It’s not enough to say “children” for example; you should specify “5-8-year-olds”. Similarly “do better” is not a good way to operationalize student success because it’s not easy to measure; instead, phrase it as “earn higher scores on Test 3” because that is how you will measure whether they have done better. Although specific, “When w...

Research Coordinator Blog

Search This Blog