The joys of grad school

Last semester in my qualitative research course, we learned a lot about ethical issues in research and ultimately, the development of the IRB (institutional research board) at every university. The literature from cases before the IRB existed was fascinating, as research studies would impose harm on participants or deceive them, causing insane effects or distress. Nowadays, any graduate student conducting research with human subjects must be IRB-certified.

Yesterday evening, I took my IRB certification online modules and found it quite amusing. Similar to an online class, you read various material and answer multiple-choice questions afterward. My roommate Shaina made fun of how much fun I had mocking the questions, but I wanted to show my friends what type and level of informing upfront goes into graduate research projects.

Check out two of the questions that particularly made me laugh:

Now you know that whenever a graduate student sends you a survey link or requests an in-depth interview or focus group for graduate-level research, they have gone through four hours of extensive training, plus a few questions to make sure they know common sense :).