3/5/2022
This semestr was the first time I had ever heard of an Institutional Review Board Proposal. While talking with my mentor, she explained to me that all studies done by faculty and students must go through the processes of deep critique by a board of reviewers at any accredited university. She suggested that I be the one to submit this paperwork, and take the role of principal investigator for our project for the experience. I admitted to her that I was nervous, as the task was daunting, but she assured me that she would be there for the whole process and the final submission would run through her first.
Creation of the Study
The first step in this process was finalizing how our study was going to be run. We solidified our variables, measures, hypothesis, predictions, and sample group, after which the other team member of this group started working on creating the online survey and letter of consent that were necessary for the IRB submission.
Working Online
Next, I started an eform that was the IRB proposal. Something I found very helpful was that my mentor sent me PDFs of approved IRB forms from her former projects. This made the entire process so much easier because it gave me a solid foundation of what this form should look like. If I needed any guidance through certain questions, I would first look to the PDFs and then pay my mentor a visit if my questions weren't answered using that.
Biggest Challenges
The most time-consuming aspects of this proposal were the length and the depth of questions asked. It makes sense though, because this process ensures that the safety and wellbeing of subjects is protected, the project is thought out and ethical before beginning, and runs the methods by multiple people to check for potential conflicts. I struggled with the more technical aspects such as justifying the receival of class credit after completion of the survey and justifying why we chose to sample college students and survey the population of students with a disability as well.
Finalization
After lots of time put into the IRB proposal, specifically drafting and editing the section on background knowledge, the proposal was finally complete. I submitted the proposal to my mentor, who reviewed it and sent me a few small changes I needed to make. I completed those, returned it to my mentor, and she sent it off to the department chair. We are currently waiting to see if our study gets approval!
Comments