3.10- 4.00 Online ethics and conclusions -Clare and Tris

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Structure

1. Online research ethics: some thoughts

2. Group activity- Ethical Scenarios

3. Discussion

4. Further resources

5. Conclusions, the future

1. Online research ethics

• There is currently a big push to embed research ethics more formally in the culture of the social sciences.– Economic and Social Research Council (2005).

Research Ethics Framework.

– University of Leicester (2006). Research Ethics Concerning Human Subjects.

• Yet there is far less of a consensus about online research ethics.

• This asks the question “is there anything special about the online environment that requires new set of ethical guidelines?”

Ethical decision making and Internet research

• Ess, C. and AoIR Ethics Working Committee (2002) Ethical decision-making and internet research: recommendations form the AoIR ethics working committee.http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf.

• This stresses “Ethical pluralism” and argues that “there is more than one ethical decision-making framework used to analyze and resolve those [internet research]conflicts.”

• It is also worth noting that the online world of “email, chatrooms, webpages, various forms of “instant messaging, MUDs and MOOs, USENET newsgroups, described in this report in 2002 is now radically transformed.

Where does it fit in?

One of the problems of mapping existing research ethics onto the online world is the difficulty of deciding how to categorise the spaces that you are observing/interacting with.

Broadcast

Public Private

Published Informal

Writing Speech

Personal

Anonymous Identified

Ethical Challenges

“The great variety of human inter/actions observable online and the clear need to study these inter/actions in interdisciplinary ways …This interdisciplinary approach to research leads, however, to a central ethical difficulty: the primary assumptions and guiding metaphors and analogies - and thus the resulting ethical codes - can vary sharply from discipline to discipline, especially as we shift from the social sciences.

Ess, C. and AoIR Ethics Working Committee (2002)

Informed consent

• How will you gain informed consent?• How can the participant withdrawal from the

research? Is it easier or harder to withdraw compared to face-to-face research?

• Is deception a defensible research strategy? Can 'lurking' as socialisation into the online culture of a group be an important prerequisite for research?

Confidentiality

• How can confidentiality be assured and how might this vary with the nature of the research venue? (e.g. Chat rooms compared to weblogs, webpages, emails to large listservs).

• How might subject anonymity be achieved in practice?

• How can you improve data security? Can you promise that your electronic information will not be accessed and used by others?

Privacy

• Can you agree whether the data you collect will be public or private?

• How might participant expectations of privacy vary with specific research method used?

• How useful are legal definitions of privacy and requirements for data projection?

• How do we respond to highly subjective readings of the culture or expectations of online communities?

International inequalities• Are there ethical implications in researching

places we’ve never been and people we’ve never met?

• How does the digital divide limit who can we 'speak' to?

• Can you assume people can speak freely on the internet? Censorship issues?

• What languages are we going to use? How might this limit who can we speak to?

• What online inequalities might be significant?

2. Ethical Scenarios

• 8 groups of 3 or 4 people• Have a look at the ethics form submitted by this

project.• What ethical issues does it raise?• What ethical issues does it raise that are particular to

the online environment?

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Further reading

• Ethics section on the site (http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/ORM/ethics/ethcontents.htm)– References

– Further resources

– Case studies

4. Further resources

a. The site

http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm/index.htm

Tour of the site: Key sections Site link

ModulesModule index

Site rationale

‘Because online research practice is

still

in its infancy, th

e critical re

searcher will

be confronted by quandarie

s at a

lmost

every point in th

e research process.

’

Mann and Stewart (2000: 8

)

In Exploring Online Methods we recognise this methodological and ethical complexity.

The user can explore these in the way that best suits them.

•Case studies•Learning activities •Resources•References and links•A print version

Examples: Case StudiesModule index

Tim Vorley (University of Leicester), A Critical Geography of UK Biotechnology

•Featured in a number of sections.

•The case study displayed is a Q+A about the technical aspects of the questionaire.

Neil Coulson and Rebecca Knibb (University of Derby). How an Online Support Network Affects the Experience of Living with a Food Allergy.

•This case study used to discuss recruitment for online questionnaires through soliciting visitors to web sites.

Penny Cholmondeley (University of Alberta). Evaluating the 'WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology)' Resource Network.

• This case study used to discuss good practice in gaining consent.

Reference tool

• While you are using the site you can collect references.

• Click on the reference you want to bring up the full reference and add it to your reference list

• Choose Open my reference list to see the references you have collected.

• Save or print the list before you finish using the site.

Site link

Summary of the siteYou can find• Information• Tips/hints• Technical advice• Methodological

discussion• Theoretical discussion• Case studies• Learning activities

For

Research design

Solving practical problems

Self-directed learning

Teaching

self-directed study

b. Tri-orm online advanced module

Cardiff workshops

Leicester workshops

Manchesterworkshops

Accredited online coursefor advanced

users

Exploring online methods site

enhance

ment

s

enhance

ment

s

enhancements

Feeding in other enhancements

build network

How the online course will work

Onlinelearning materials

Enrol on

courseResearcher in need

of online skills

Online discussio

n

Produce pilot

research project

Informed by the pedagogic framework outlined in E-tivities and E-moderating (Salmon, 2000; 2002).

Expert feedback and support

Build networ

ks

5. General dissuasion

• Any questions?• How can we improve the training?• Evaluation • Online futures• Thank-you

Some concluding comments about the future of ORM

• Public and private communication seem to be becoming more blurred, posing ethical, practical and methodological questions

• Students and spammers are overusing online research because it is easy to do. Responsible use is essential i.e. don’t ask people to provide information that is available elsewhere

• The technical difficulties still provide a barrier to undertaking online research e.g. we don’t have MSN or Second Life at Leicester

• Text based interactions still predominate with corresponding strengths and weaknesses

• We talk about online research more than we do it. There is still a need to build up a critical mass of practice

The future

• How will a truly multi-media web change the way we undertake research?

• What possibilities are offered by Web 2.0 technologies?

• As IT becomes more embedded in people’s every day life will it be possible to differentiate between online and onsite methodologies?

• In short: How can we define a methodology and ethical approach against a rapidly changing technological background?