Approved by: Academic Affairs
History:
Related Policies:
Related Forms, Procedures and References:
For Questions Contact: Chair of IRB Committee | 414.382.6363 | paul.smith@alverno.edu
Alverno College takes pride in improving its educational practice through ongoing research into student learning. As a community of educators and learners, we are also committed to sharing more broadly what we are learning from our research into teaching, curriculum, and assessment in relation to the experience and performance of our diverse students. And so, Alverno educators routinely collect data on student characteristics and learning not only to assist teaching and student learning in a particular class, but also to more broadly investigate the effectiveness of educational strategies used at Alverno.
In doing so, Alverno educators (Alverno faculty, instructors, administrators, academic staff, educational researchers, and student affairs staff) remain committed to handling all private information confidentially, just as they would for any academic or co-curricular information (see Student Records and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). During the completion of an educational research project, Alverno educators may confidentially review student educational records. All proposals for educational research at Alverno are reviewed according to a process developed by the Alverno College Institutional Review Board (IRB) that protects against inappropriate disclosure of information.
When sharing educational research with colleagues at other institutions, it is sometimes useful for an Alverno educational researcher to use potentially identifiable individual data to illustrate research findings. In these instances, Alverno IRB policy requires that information about a student be disguised or “de-identified” before it is shared unless the student has first given explicit permission for this use. A student has the right to withdraw permission to use data for such an educational research purpose at any time.
Questions about privacy or other issues associated with educational research conducted at Alverno may be directed to the Chair of the Alverno College Institutional Review Board, Paul Smith.