“(A)ttempts to recruit students must be sensitive to the balance between extolling the potential virtues of a project and the coercion in authority-based appeals.” (Maclean & Poole, 2010, p.5).

---

 

Student participants make up a vulnerable population because of their relationship between professor and/or institution. Since students are considered to have ‘vulnerable’ status, they may be at risk of feeling coerced to participate in SoTL research. For example, they may believe that participation could directly or indirectly affect their success in a class. Maclean and Poole (2010) call this risk “social penalty” (p.5). Another example would be a student stigmatized by their professor or peers for not participating in a study.

 

For this reason, it must be clear to student participants that they have the right to give or refuse to give consent and to withdraw from a study at any time. Participants must be 18 years of age or older and be considered mentally fit to give consent. Participants must be adequately informed of the purpose of the research, potential risks, and benefits from their participation.

 

Informed consent can be obtained in a number of ways and will usually be determined by your project’s design.

 

Examples of informed consent include:

 

• A written statement with a signature from students

• An oral statement read aloud with an oral agreement

 

The University’s guided template for informed consent that you can customize for your proposed research project is available on the CFREB website here.

 

Obtaining informed consent reduces the risk of mental/social harm by ensuring that participants fully understand what they are signing up for.

Next

---