Informed Consent Statement: Centre for Student Success Database (REB #4556)

Assessing the impact and effectiveness of the programs and services offered by the Centre for Student Success

Primary researcher: Michael Lisetto-Smith (MA), manager, Study Skills and Supplemental Instruction.

Information

You are invited to participate in a database being established by the Centre for Student Success that will be used to assess its programming. This database will record your attendance and purpose at various programs and services offered by the Centre for Student Success; including, but not limited to, consultations, workshops, study sessions, and review sessions. In some cases, you may receive a follow-up survey based on your attendance to seek additional information from you. This data will be used to determine the impact and effectiveness of the programs and services offered by the Centre of Student Success. All students participating in Centre for Student Success programs and services are asked for their consent to participate in this database. You will be invited to provide consent for future projects as they receive REB approval.

Procedures

If you agree to participate in this database, this is what will happen:

1. You agree to permit project-specific access to additional personal data already held by the university (i.e., demographic and academic information). You will have the opportunity to provide your consent for future projects as they receive REB approvals.

2. You will be asked to provide your student ID number when either registering for or participating in a program or service offered by the Centre for Student Success. Your student ID number will be converted to a unique ID number to keep you anonymous. You will only be asked for consent once per year.

3. You may be asked to complete online surveys based on your interaction with the Centre for Student Success to provide additional information about your thoughts and experiences.

4. Your participation in programs and services offered by the Centre for Student Success will be connected to an individual profile which in return will be associated with your socio-economic and academic data already stored within Wilfrid Laurier University’s student information database. This data will be used for future longitudinal studies.

5. You may be contacted by future Centre for Student Success researchers for additional information for future studies.

6. If you are participating within a program or service that offers incentives by a professor (i.e. bonus grades for workshop participation) then you are authorizing the Centre for Student Success to release your aggregate attendance data for the course providing the incentive to the course’s professor.

All data collected from you will either be anonymized or encrypted. Data is confidential and will be used by only authorized Centre for Student Success researchers for the intended purpose. You may refuse to answer any questions and revoke your consent at any time. If you refuse to answer a question or provide consent you will not be punished in any way.

Risks and Discomforts

There are no major risks with being in this database. You may feel anxiety or stress by having your information recorded in this database. If these feelings manifest, we encourage you to either contact Michael Lisetto-Smith or make an appointment with the Laurier Wellness Centre to discuss these feelings.

• Brantford: 519-756-8228, x803

• Waterloo: 519-884-0710, x3146

Benefits

By participating in this database we hope that you will benefit by learning new knowledge, skills, and strategies designed to assist you with your progression throughout university and into your future careers. This database will also benefit Wilfrid Laurier University and future students as we learn more about the impact and effectiveness of programs and services offered by the Centre for Student Success.

Confidentiality

Because the Centre for Student Success employs e-based data collection techniques the confidentiality and privacy of data cannot be guaranteed during collection and during web based transmission. Every effort will be made to ensure the proper encryption of transmitted data. Once your data are received your responses will be kept confidential by associating the data to an anonymous unique ID number, and storing them on a secure, password-protected server.

Centre for Student Success researchers can see data stored in the database. Centre for Student Success employees may be granted access to some of the data (e.g. workshop attendance, individual consultations) you provide in order to better serve you.

During reporting, your unique ID number will be removed from all final data-sets. Only grouped data will be reported. Quotations may be used in final publications. In these situations quotations will be kept anonymous unless specific permission has been sought from the participant. Results will be published in administrative reports, journal articles, and presentations. Some reports will be available on the Centre for Student Success web site.

Compensation

There is no direct compensation for participating within programs and services offered by the Centre for Student Success. Some professors may provide incentive grades for participating within our programs and services. These incentives are determined and administered by individual professors.

Authorization to Use and Disclose Student Information

By signing this Consent you agree to the collection and maintenance of personal data by the Centre for Student Success for purposes of research and administration, you are allowing the researchers to use your student identification number to match your demographic and academic data to the collected data. Demographic data includes your gender, age, ethnicity, student athlete status, and citizenship. Academic data includes your overall grade point average, year level, program of study, academic probation status, and full time status. Once your demographic and academic data is connected to your attendance data your student identification number will be replaced by an anonymous unique ID number. Although we do not collect your name, certain information may identify you to certain people. Only authorized personnel within the Centre for Student Success will have access to the information stored in the database.

Wilfrid Laurier University is required by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to protect your personal information. By agreeing with this document and taking part in this database, you are allowing Wilfrid Laurier University to use and/or release your personal information for this database.

You may change your mind and take back this authorization at any time to make your personal data and information unavailable to research projects approved by the REB to access this database. We can not remove your information from any REB approved research that has already been completed, published, or presented. Your anonymized information will remain in the database for internal administrative research not governed by the REB and required by the institution or government ministries or agencies. To take back this authorization, you can either log into the Centre for Student Success student portal or write to Michael Lisetto-Smith, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3C5 or by email message to mlisettosmith@wlu.ca. If you take back this research authorization, this decision will neither influence the programs nor services you have access to through the Centre for Student Success.

Contact Persons

If you have questions at any time about the database or the procedures you may contact the researcher, Michael Lisetto-Smith, manager, Study Skills and Supplemental Instruction, Centre for Student Success, Wilfrid Laurier University, at 519-884-0710 x3640 or at mlisettosmith@wlu.ca. This database has been reviewed and approved by the University Research Ethics Board. If you feel you have not been treated according to the descriptions in this letter, or your rights as a participant in the database have been violated, you may contact Robert Basso, chair, University Research Ethics Board, Wilfrid Laurier University, at 519-884-1970 x5225 or at rbasso@wlu.ca.

Voluntary Participation and Withdrawal from the Database

Your choice to be in this database is up to you. You have the right to not to participate in this database. You also have the right to refuse the collection of data at any time. Your decision to be in or leave the database will neither affect the programs nor services offered to you by the Centre for Student Success.

Consent

Participating in this database is entirely your choice. You have the right to refuse to participate or to stop taking each survey at any time. Please print a copy of this form for your records.