ii. Faculty Use of Class Assignments as Research Data

There may be circumstances when an investigator wishes to use required class assignments (e.g., journal entries in a communications study course) in his or her research.  The course syllabus should clearly state that the assignments are required for the course, but that at the end of the semester, the instructor will ask the student to give permission to use the assignments for research purposes.  It should be clear that participation will not affect a student's grade.  The syllabus should describe the procedure to be used to ensure that the instructor does not know who has consented until after final grades have been determined (e.g., Informed Consent Document could be included with faculty/instructor evaluation forms and kept in a secretary's office until after grades have been determined).