Barriers to Research at the Campus Level

Posted by Leigh Anne Sippel on May 4, 2009 in FIN Grant Logistics, Proposals, Revised Inquiry Plans, Using Institutional Research with No Comments

Skyline College’s process of inquiry has proven to be a wonderful collaborative effort that has great support from faculty, students, and administrators. You’d think that the campus research approval committee would be the last barrier to our success, and like us, you’d have another “think” coming. We are interested to know if any other colleges have experienced difficulty in getting their research committee to agree to the research parameters of the inquiry projects.

Skyline’s FIN group had no idea what was in store when we presented our proposal. We were given a 9-page packet of protocols and instructions from our research committee. The informed consent page template alone had 11 points to it, and there were over 40 numbered steps and clearances that we had to surmount before being approved. We dove in with aplomb, and got the proposal kicked back to us. Most of all, they were concerned that the video process would endanger student privacy and felt that students were being put at undue risk of unprotected identity (despite an informed consent clause stating that pseudonyms would be used and permission signatures would be obtained).

We were shocked to confront this, mainly because we are pretty sure that we aren’t the first research group to use video (!). After much emailing among our FIN group, we rewrote our proposal, and now, we wait to see what the committee’s response is. Meanwhile, our research hovers in the near future, waiting for the flag to drop so we can speed towards it. If anyone else has had such experiences with their research committee, we’d be interested to know how you dealt with it. FIN would do well to consider this potential snag prior to future inquiry projects so that they can provide the appropriate support to groups to help them get their research off the ground.

« previous post

CTE/CTL Literature Review

Contextualized Teaching & Learning: A Faculty Primer Spring 2009 In Associatio...

San Diego Mesa College: Studen....

San Diego Mesa students create an exciting, energetic teaser film as part of t...

Comments (0)
Trackbacks (0)
Related Tags
Related Categories

You may follow the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or a trackback.

No trackbacks yet.

No post with similar tags yet.

Posts in similar categories

The Case for Acceleration in Developmental English and Math
Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration Katie Hern and Myra Snell recently collaborated to create an article for the RP Group's statewide newsletter Perspectives. The article argues that high rates of student attrition are structurally guaranteed in long developmental sequences and presents evidence from Chabot and Los Medanos colleges that one-semester, open-access courses are a promising...
Think Aloud Videos of Art Course Students
You are welcome to view the first Think Aloud video from our East Los Angeles College FIN team. This post is a revised version of a post on May 12,2010 by Linda Whitney. First, we explain our project and the background to this video. At East Los Angeles College, our Reading Apprenticeship FIG is a...
Info about ECCTYC Conference, Oct. 22-24
As I said yesterday, the conference for the English Council of California Two-Year Colleges would be a great place to share some of the amazing work we are doing. For those of you who have never been, ECCTYC's conference is a very low-key, community building and idea-sharing affair. At the same time, all the ECCTYC...
Student Team at BCC
STUDENT TEAM DEVELOPMENT: When first encouraged by the FIN staff to work with students on this project, it seemed to be a logical, if not difficult, choice. Students who live and breathe the lessons that we teach, or attempt to teach, should be both the subjects of our research and our co-pilots. Of course, the actual...
INQUIRING MINDS: Faculty Inquiry in Basic Skills Contexts
This 15 minute film offers an introduction to the iterative steps that underlie effective Faculty Inquiry. The film lays out four steps: 1. What Do We See? 2. How Can We See It Better? 3. How Can We Share It With Others? 4. Now That We See It, What Can We Do About It? INQUIRING MINDS is designed as a...
LA Trade Tech Revised Budget
Faculty Inquiry Network Budget School Name: Los Angeles Trade Tech College Year 2009 Proposed Budget Overages Hours Hourly $ Amount Faculty Release (%FTE) 0 Faculty Stipends $5,000 30 Faculty Stipends $5,000 Student Co-Inquirers $2,000 Classified/Tech Assistance $0 Benefits $0 Supplies and Materials $0 40 Team Retreats/Conferences/Training & Year-End Gathering $1,000 Other-Refreshments/Snacks (Approx.$1,000/cohort) $3,000 Other-Incentives (Tokens, Certificates, etc.) $500 Other-Equipment & Supplies (Tripod, ...
Los Medanos Puente Math Revised Budget
...
Los Medanos College/English: Revised Inquiry Plan
A. Zoom-Lens Inquiry: Focusing on Students 1) What data will you gather and analyze on individual students? (e.g. student work, self-reflections, interviews, videotaped think-alouds or problem-solving) In the first two weeks of class, we asked the students to fill out a reading survey. Among other things, the survey asked them to identify "texts" they read outside of...
LA Trade Revised Inquiry Plan
Los Angeles Trade Technical Community College In the Utilities and Construction Project at Los Angeles Trade Technical Community College, instructors see a critical gap between students' motivation to learn and succeed (which begins high) and their ability to sustain that motivation while maintaining or increasing their performance in the learning environment. This is likely influenced by...
Santa Barbara Revised Inquiry Plan
SUMMARY Santa Barbara City College One Planet Faculty Fellows was designed by the Center for Sustainability and the Office of Campus Diversity and holds a central philosophy that integrates environmentalism, equity, and social justice "to meet the needs of our growing population, while maintaining the health of our environment and working toward social, economic, and educational equality." ...

About FIN

The Faculty Inquiry Network’s (FIN) purpose is to support professional development which includes: conducting faculty inquiry; revisiting basic skills assumptions; interpreting and integrating data; accessing student voices; developing students as co-inquirers; making visible; using technology for teaching and learning; creating and supporting new initiatives, curriculum and program development; constructing educational tools using digital media; and hosting dialogue around student and faculty learning.

FIN Commons