Research Common

Research methods and design are shifting in response to COVID-19 and the related public health measures necessary to ensure the safety of the population. Below are some resources to help you design or redesign your research project during the COVID-19 outbreak:

When conducting research remotely (i.e., outside of institutional firewalls and/or physical security protections), researchers must take additional caution to protect participants' privacy, confidentiality, and data security (also ensuring to follow institutional policy). 

Become familiar with all features of selected online platforms and ensure to set up data collection in a way that mitigates any privacy, confidentiality or data security risks. 

Ensure any technological platforms being used have been recommended by Red Deer Polytech and the REB. NOTE: Microsoft Teams, Blackboard Collaborate, and WebEx have been recommended as the preferred platforms for secure remote communication. If you wish to use WebEx please send an email to the IT Service Desk.

There are a variety of tools available for creating online surveys. Red Deer Polytechnic endorses no particular online survey tool; however, it is important for you to know that if the tool is owned by an American company (e.g. Survey Monkey, Google Docs), then you need to advise your survey participants appropriately of the possible risks to confidentiality or anonymity. Online survey tools that are owned by American companies are subject to U.S. laws, in particular the U.S. Patriot Act, which allows authorities access to the records of internet service providers. 

Unless you indicate otherwise when constructing your survey, a U.S.-based company's servers will record incoming IP addresses, including those of the computers that participants use to access the survey. You are advised to set up your survey to collect anonymous responses. The procedure for this depends on the type of collector/s you use:

1. If you use a Web Link collector (or any other collector), you must configure it to not collect IP addresses.
2. If you use the Email Invitation collector, you must configure it to not save the email addresses (in the Analyze section) and not to collect IP addresses.

If you choose to use a U.S.-based survey tool, the Research Ethics Board recommends you include a statement informing your participants.

If you choose to investigate a Canadian-based survey tool, the following links may be helpful:

• Hosted in Canada Surveys
• Interceptum
• Jitsutech
• Simple Survey

Red Deer Polytechnic's Research Common does have a limited number of accounts with a Canadian-based survey tool available for student and faculty use (first priority is given to students). Please contact Hasina Juma at hasina.juma@rdpolytech.ca for more information.