Thursday, 23 May 2019

ethics - Can we use students' class homework solution for research purpose?


A colleague of mine would like to compare 25+ different Java implementations of the same homework. Is it OK (ethically/legally in the US) to share my students' class homework solutions with him for his research purposes?



Answer



You need to run this by your Institutional Review Board (IRB), as you would any time you use data from human subjects for research.


From what you describe, it has a good chance of qualifying for an IRB exemption under one of these categories (if identifying information is removed before giving the data to the researcher):




  • It is using existing data

  • the data comes from normal educational practices


but even then, the IRB needs to be the one to make that determination.


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