Research Coordinator Blog

          How do you write up your findings after a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project? Where do you disseminate your findings? Regardless of whether you’re writing more of an opinion/demonstration/essay-style of article or a more traditional paper grounded in data, you’ll need to be sure to frame what you’re presenting within the SoTL literature- what do we know/currently think, what is the gap/what are you adding to our knowledge, and how it will help us understand or improve our teaching. In this way, writing a SoTL article is not really any different from writing about any other research. But, if you’re new to this area of research (or research in general), it’s an excellent idea to read multiple SoTL journal articles, especially those published by the journal(s) that you think you might like to publish in, to get a sense of the writing style and scope.             So, where do you fin...

  The next couple of topics will relate to publishing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) articles (though it will also apply to most other forms of research publishing). So, I thought I would give some brief info about publishing research articles in general. Here are some things to consider for disseminating research. The publishing process actually begins well before the project itself, especially if you have any co-authors (if you’re doing everything yourself and have nobody else in your research team, then you can skip this paragraph). Determining authorship order and who will contribute in which way (and how much each will contribute) to the writing is an important step. Why does the order of the authors matter? In most fields, the author in the first position is the one who made the most substantial contribution to the project (though not necessarily to the writing, but often that is also the case). Additionally, the first author won’t get truncated when being cite...

  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...

First thing’s first! Where is the form? It is available on ICE: Teams – Academic – Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Research Ethics Board (REB), then click on “Related Forms” on the left hand side (or just click here ). All of the REB forms are listed alphabetically, so scroll down to find the “Secondary Use of Data” form. Please note: the REB forms were updated a few months ago (November, 2021), so please be sure to use these new forms when submitting your application. As a reminder, this form is used when your research project involves secondary data (not primary data). That is, data which exist somewhere for some other purpose, but that you’d like to use to answer a research question (e.g., archives, Statistics Canada or other public database, a previous semester’s student performance that you realize now could answer a research question you have, or a previous research project (or projects) that you’d like to combine and/or re-analyse in a different way). Ther...

  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...

  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 ...

In December, I asked for your feedback in a quick two-question survey. Thank you for providing it. This was one of the suggested topics :) The goal of your research project is to answer one or more research questions (typically 1-2 questions, which may have related sub-questions, also termed secondary research questions). So, your question needs to be narrow enough to focus your research project. You can always explore additional questions that come up (using the same data) at a later time using the secondary use of research process with the REB. Your specific research question will depend somewhat on the type of research you are conducting (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods), but in general, you’ll want it to specify the specific issue you are investigating and ensure it is answerable. A quantitative project might have a research question that begins with How frequently…, How many…, What percentage…, To what extent…, or What are… A qualitative research question might ...