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Ethics of research into learning and teaching with Web 2.0: reflections on eight case studies

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Abstract

The unique features and educational affordances of Web 2.0 technologies pose new challenges for conducting learning and teaching research in ways that adequately address ethical issues of informed consent, beneficence, respect, justice, research merit and integrity. This paper reviews these conceptual bases of human research ethics and gives examples of their consideration in the literature of research into learning and teaching with Web 2.0. The paper goes on to give an account of reflective practice by two academic developers in relation to ethical issues they encountered, considered and addressed in eight case studies, which were part of a larger multi-university Australian study into learning and teaching with Web 2.0. The paper concludes that the human research ethics approval process needs to be understood as a series of measures that are important to protect not only the students but also the teacher-researchers and their institutions when doing learning and teaching research with Web 2.0. This understanding is important for educators and as well for educational developers, educational technologists and human research ethics review committees (also known as institutional review boards).

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge advice from Dr Llew Mann and Dr Mark Schier and the Engineering and Science Education Research Group, Swinburne University; and Ms Cathy Schapper, and the journal’s reviewers. Support for the original work was provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd.

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  1. Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Rosemary L. Chang & Kathleen Gray

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  1. Rosemary L. Chang
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Correspondence to Rosemary L. Chang.

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Chang, R.L., Gray, K. Ethics of research into learning and teaching with Web 2.0: reflections on eight case studies. J Comput High Educ 25, 147–165 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-013-9071-9

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