Research Coordinator Blog

Before I describe the use of each REB form, it’s important to explain where to find them. Each form (and template) that I will refer to is available on ICE: Teams – Academic – Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Research Ethics Board, then click on “Related Forms” on the left hand side (or just click here ). The forms are listed alphabetically, which isn’t always intuitive. For the “standard” REB process, the form is titled “Research Involving Humans Application” and that’s the one you will most likely be using for your research project, whether you expect to be undergoing a delegated review or a full board review. The other forms that I will describe below are used for unique situations and are designed to save you time by either shortening the form or requiring you to fill out fewer forms (keep reading for details). As part of your “normal” REB application, there is also the “Internal Researcher Institutional Permission” form which Stephanie (and sometimes also Ela...

  As a reminder, the college’s current Academic Plan (available here ), includes 4 goals, the fourth of which is to “intensify and strengthen the college’s applied research agenda” and includes four objectives (4.1-4.4) 1)…implement strategies to further develop and strengthen faculty members’ research capabilities. 2)…increase research training opportunities for students to engage in applied research projects both within and outside curricula. 3)…establish research collaborations with relevant external stakeholders. 4)…increase the profile and awareness of applied research activities across the breadth of our research areas both within and outside of the college. The Strategic Research Plan (SRP, which is available here ) elaborates on these directives and how applied research will be strengthened and supported at the college. For example, it recognizes that community and student engagement are important and that research and teaching are complimentary. It specifies that r...

  Last time, I described in detail what is course-based research. In this post, I will outline the REB process and provide some example of projects. As a reminder course-based research is a focus of Goal 4 of the Academic Plan (Objective 4.2) and refers to research endeavours that are undertaken by students within a particular course. It must be no greater than minimal risk and the course must include at least one CLO related to research and research ethics. All course-based research must be approved by the college’s Research Ethics Board (REB) prior to commencing, but the form is different and the process deviates from the standard REB application process. The faculty teaching the course and assigning course-based research will fill out the course-based research form ( Course-Based Research- Form A ) well before the semester begins. Typically, this occurs in April or May for the following year. Once the course-based research activity is approved by the REB, each student in t...

  Providing students with opportunities for research inside and outside of their program of study builds important skills which is one of the reasons why course-based research has been highlighted in Goal 4 of the Academic Plan (Objective 4.2). Course-based research involves embedding research in curriculum (within a specific course). What requirements must be met for an activity to be considered course-based research? First, it must be minimal risk research (i.e., no greater risk than students encounter in their everyday lives). The course must also have least one CLO which references research and research ethics and the course must assign and evaluate one or more research activities as part of the course. The final criteria is that the research activities are conducted for the purpose of research (adding new knowledge). These might include conducting interviews (for the purpose of research), distributing questionnaires to develop interview or questionnaire design skills, or con...

  Why are colleges interested in research? Isn’t that a university thing? I received a couple of questions about this last year and I think it’s worth addressing. Colleges are obviously different from universities in important ways, otherwise we wouldn’t have both. Colleges offer different programs and different approaches to teaching. Additionally, our students are different from university students as is our faculty expertise. These differences mean that our students and classrooms aren’t typically represented in traditional university research (and more specifically in SoTL). For example, how do students learn best? Well, that likely depends on the characteristics of the student and the content being taught. Although there is some overlap between colleges and universities in terms of courses and student characteristics, each is unique and this uniqueness needs to be represented in knowledge. Research creates new knowledge, but that knowledge is only accurate if it is based on a ...

  Research generally refers to a systematic inquiry on a given topic, with an aim to expand our knowledge on that topic. The outcome can describe a phenomena or state of affairs, or try to either predict or change behaviours/outcomes, among other things. Typically, a researcher has a research question to guide their inquiry (e.g., “How are students studying for my test?” or “Do my students’ grades improve when I spend some time in class reviewing for the test?”). They then collect data to try to answer their research question(s). Sometimes, the researchers have a hypothesis they are examining, which they form based on previously published inquiry (e.g., “I think my students are using mostly surface-level study behaviours and not engaging deeply with the material.”) In research, data can be collected in a number of ways including surveys and interviews, archival data, and following experimental manipulations. A great way to begin thinking about research is to complete the TCPS2 cor...

  Last time, I continued walking you through some of the sections of the REB application and giving you tips for completing them. This week, I will go through the remaining sections in the application and give you some general tips and reminders about the REB process. Full disclosure: I am a member of the REB (2012-present). These are my personal opinions and following my advice does not guarantee any particular outcome during the review process.          When completing the sections on consent and withdrawal (Section 6) there are a few important things to consider. Remember that consent is informed and ongoing, which means you need to give participants all the information they need to make an informed decision and that they can change their decision at any point in the research process without any negative repercussions. You’ll want to make sure that it’s clear to participants that there are no consequences to them withdrawing from the ...