Participant Consent Form - modified.pdf - Jerry Acharibasam

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Participant Consent Form You are invited to participate in the research study entitled: Using the Curriculum Densitometer to measure the impact of curricular workload on Students' mental health: A pilot study. Student Researcher(s): Procedures: If you want to partake in this project, you will first need Jeremiah Wezenamo Acharibasam, Graduate student, to sign off this consent form to allow you to participate. Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, [email protected] • You will be part of a sample of 100 participants Supervisor(s): in your class who will be required to complete a Dr. Kalyani Premkumar (PI), Department of Community pre-test survey. In the pre-test, all participants Health and Epidemiology, 306-966-1409, will be required to complete the Kessler's [email protected] Psychological Distress Scale (K10), The Perceived Stress Scale (PSI), and a demographic survey. Co-Investigator(s) • After completing the pre-test surveys, you will Dr. Ralph Deters, Department of Computer Science, be given a link to access the app on your mobile 306-966-2072 phone to use it in tracking your time spent Dr. Julita Vassileva, Department of Computer Science, completing your assigned in-class course task. 306-966-2073 The piloting of the CD app ends with the completion of your course task in class. Purpose(s) and Objective(s) of the Research: • Once piloting is over, you will subsequently be The purpose of the proposed study is to pilot a new required to complete a post-test survey in class. mobile-based innovative tool (called Curricular You will be responding to the same Densitometer- CD), which will measure academic course questionnaire (the K10). load distribution in terms of the time students spend on course activity and the stress involved in completing The entire project will take place within the University of these activities. Ultimately, this tool will produce a Saskatchewan, and the time commitment required of visualization of the stress associated with course participants will be the entire duration of your course in workload experienced by students in various academic the spring 2020 semester. On average, completing the courses. consent form and the two questionnaires will take you The objectives of the project: about 5 minutes. You will also be expected to use the CD app for the duration of your course task. • To test the feasibility, functionality, and user experience of the CD tool • Please feel free to ask any questions regarding • Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the the procedures and goals of the study or your app based on user feedback role. • To provide data to instructors and curriculum Funded by: developers for curricular planning and implementation This project is funded by the DH Discretionary Fund • To assess connections between academic from the Department of Community Health and workload, emotional labour, stress and Epidemiology. psychological distress among health sciences students Page 1 of 3 Potential Risks: • Before transferring your data from your mobile There are no known or anticipated risks to you by phone to the application's database on the primary participating in this research. However, as the project server, your personal information will be removed, will examine your emotional health, you may feel a and your data anonymized. minimal discomfort recollecting potentially negative • All members of the research team, including Dr. feelings attached to events that may have occurred in Kalyani Premkumar, Dr. Ralph Deters, Dr. Julita the past few weeks leading up to the day of your Vassileva, and Jeremiah W. Acharibasam, will have participation in the current project. access to your stored data throughout the entire research. Risk(s) will be addressed by: • To mitigate the above minimal risk, the researchers Storage of Data: have provided you with contact information of • All data gathered in this project will be securely available mental health resources on the University stored on two password-protected USB drives (one of Saskatchewan's main campus (i.e. the Student containing the original data and a second as the Wellness Center), which you may seek mental backup drive). These USB drives will be maintained health help. To contact the Student Wellness under lock and key in Dr. Premkumar Kalyani's Center, use the following information: Phone: 1- office at the Department of Community Health and 306-966-5768, Email: [email protected], Epidemiology. The data will be stored for a physical: Third floor (Rm. 310) and fourth floor, minimum of 5 years post-publication per the Place Riel Student Centre. University of Saskatchewan guidelines. • Also, although it is preferred that responses be • A master list containing the random pseudonyms given to all items on the questionnaires, you are assigned to participants will be used to link your encouraged only to answer those questions that pre-test data to your post-test data for data you are comfortable with. analysis. This master list will be stored in a separate secure location, away from the survey data, in Dr. Kalyani Premkumar's office for a minimum of 5 Potential Benefits: years post-publication per the University of • You may not directly benefit from this project Saskatchewan guidelines. personally. However, as the project will examine • When the 5-year data storage duration is over, to stress, emotional, and psychological distress linked securely and irreversibly destroy the data, the two with curriculum workload, the results may lead to USB drives on which the electronic data is stored modifications in the subsequent curriculum that will be safely and permanently reformatted. The may benefit succeeding student cohorts as a whole. paper master list will also be shredded and cross shredded to prevent any possibility for the Compensation: reconstruction of the information. • Not available. Right to Withdraw: Confidentiality: • Your participation is voluntary, and you can answer • Although the data from this research project will be only those questions that you are comfortable with. published and presented at conferences, the data You may withdraw from the research project for will be reported in aggregate form so that it will not any reason, at any time without explanation or be possible to identify your individual identity. penalty of any sort. Moreover, the Consent Forms will be stored • Also, the teachers will not know who participated in separately from the survey questionnaires used so the research. that it will not be possible to associate a name with • Whether you decide to participate or not will not any given set of responses. Please do not put your affect your position [e.g. employment, class name or other identifying information on the standing, access to services], or how you will be questionnaires. treated. • Your username in the CD tool will also be replaced • Should you wish to withdraw, your data (including with a random pseudonym in the aggregated data completed questionnaires and account and data to de-identify you from your CD account. Page 2 of 3 recorded in the CD app) will all be deleted from the Follow up: research project and destroyed, if you desire. • To obtain results from the study, please contact • Your right to withdraw data from both the CD app the principal researcher or the supervisors via and survey(s) will apply until one month after the the given contacts on page 1. data collection phase ends when the data has been de-identified and aggregated, and results have been Questions or Concerns: disseminated. After this, some form of research • Contact the researcher(s) using the information dissemination may have already occurred, and it at the top of page 1; may not be possible to withdraw your data. This research project has been approved on ethical • All members of the research team, including Dr. grounds by the University of Saskatchewan Kalyani Premkumar, Dr. Ralph Deters, Dr. Julita Behavioural Research Ethics Board. Any questions Vassileva, and Jeremiah W. Acharibasam will have regarding your rights as a participant may be access to any data you may contribute to this addressed to that committee through the Research project. Ethics Office [email protected] (306) 966-2975. • To protect your anonymity and confidentiality on Out of town, participants may call toll free (888) the surveys, your responses will be de-identified by 966-2975. representing your data with random pseudonyms in the aggregated data so that your answers will not Consent: be associated with your identity in any manner. • As the research is a semester-long project, the IMPLIED CONSENT FOR SURVEYS researchers will advise you of any new information By completing and submitting the questionnaire, YOUR that could have a bearing on your decision to FREE AND INFORMED CONSENT IS IMPLIED and participate. Should the new information have a indicates that you understand the above conditions of bearing on your participation, your participation will participation in this study. be immediately paused, and you will be provided with an updated consent form to study and agree to before you may continue to participate in the study. Page 3 of 3