methodology

there are 18 modules on this darn IRB online training thing... 17 quizzes... I'm done with 5... some are much longer than others. next one: research with prisoners. great!

Here are the titles of the modules, in case someone's interested:

Introduction (no quiz)
History and Ethical Principles
Defining Research with Human Subjects
The Regulations and The Social and Behavioral Sciences
Assessing Risk in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Informed Consent
Privacy and Confidentiality
Research with Prisoners
Research with Children
Research in Public Private and Secondary Schools
International Research
Internet Research
HIPAA and Human Subjects Research
Workers as Research Subjects-A Vulnerable Population
Conflicts of Interest in Research Involving Human Subjects
PURDUE UNIVERSITY INSTITUTIONAL PAGE
Human Subjects Research at the VA
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questionnaires: can be translated for people who have low proficiency in english + easier analysis of large amounts of data and big numbers of people. i want this study to be easily replicable. have many subjects in order to make it more generalizable (representativeness). hard to handle several specific variables (such as first language of students) and to compare them one with the others if not enough participants. allows for more specific and explicit questions and focused answers.

interviews: difficult for esl students with low proficiency in english but possible with teachers and administrtors. interviews with a smaller number of students would allow for better triangulation but the problem of language remains. more difficult to handle large groups and to compare them. more difficult to code. time consuming. problem of location. attrition and self-selection are also problematic, especially in studies that deal with questions of attitudes.

the study is not about performance, not about an observable phenomenon, not descriptive, not experimental.