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The IRB may approve projects that give extra credit to students who participate in a research project only when alternative means of obtaining equivalent extra credit with equivalent effort is made available to students who do not wish to volunteer as research subjects. The IRB carefully reviews the alternatives to ensure that students are not being coerced into participating.
For example, if volunteering for a survey project takes 30 minutes and the student's output is not evaluated for its quality to determine whether extra credit is given, the alternative should involve 30 minutes of effort and the output should not be evaluated (beyond assurance that a good faith effort was made).
The Informed Consent Document should make clear the consequences of withdrawing from a project prior to completion (e.g., will extra credit be given despite withdrawal?). As a general matter, the IRB favors giving credit even if the subject withdraws, unless the student withdraws immediately or there is clear evidence of bad faith on the part of the student.