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Annie Storkey

Research sample

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Edited by Annie Storkey, Friday, 29 Oct 2021, 16:29

Last week I got authorisation for my research sample and it was surprisingly straightforward, if somewhat nerve-racking.

To do research with OU students you need permission from the Student Research Project Panel (SRPP) and they will authorise a sample of participants. In many cases they will produce the original sample for the researcher but some researchers will request to draw their own sample, which needs approving. The latter is my situation as I want to research my own students so last Thursday I submitted a prospective sample for approval.

This process is necessary as some students may have opted out of contact about research and others would have already been involved in recent projects or even multiple studies. But it is anxiety inducing for the researcher when your initial sample is already very limited in scope. As it was, the process reduced my sample by a third. But I am glad to say that my response was positive and practical; the process is necessary and ethically right, and this is my sample and I am going to work with it. It is so nice to finally be contacting potential participants and to have the opportunity for 2 years of work to finally bear fruit.

Annie


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