Henrietta O’Connor Online Interviews and Online Research Ethics

1. Henrietta O’Connor Online Interviews and Online Research Ethics

2. Structure of Presentation • Overview of module content • The Online Interview Module: Overview • Online Interviews: Locating and Contacting Respondents 4. The Online Ethics Module: Overview 5. The Online Ethics Module: Informed Consent 6. Concluding Remarks

3. 1. Overview of Module Content • Interest in online interviews and ethics also grew from Cyberparents project; • Willing interview participants, widely geographically spread, unwilling/unable to travel, already technically able; • Also involved in distance learning teaching - VLE and synchronous chat; • Set up series of online interviews using this software; • Online interviews remain an innovative and under used research method; • Mindful of ethical issues.

4. 2. Online Interviews Module: Overview • Includes material at different levels: academic, methodological, practical examples and resources; • Covers issues including: • Advantages/disadvantages, types of online interviews, sampling issues, good design principles, issues around respondent identity, rapport, FAQs, further resources, e.g. software links; • Also include range of learning activities: • when to use an online interview, online language issues, e.g. emoticons and netiquette.

5. 3. Online Interviews: locating and contacting respondents • In many ways it can be easier to identify and access groups with narrowly defined interests online: '...if the research question involves an online social phenomenon, a potential strength of the method is to be researching in the location of interest’ (Gaiser, 1997:136) • Crucial to seek access permission first from site providers, board moderators - ethical issues; • Issues arise then over best means of contact with such individuals (ethics, spamming, over-researched); • Case studies.

6. 4. Online Ethics Module: Overview • Complex ethical considerations around issues such as: informed consent, confidentiality, privacy, debriefing, netiquette; • Similarity in both online/offline ethics, many usual conventions apply: 'The new technology offers a spate of problems layered over the old’ (Smith, 1997:4); • Guidelines for online research are emerging, e.g. AoIR Ethics Working Committee guidelines on privacy, confidentiality and informed consent; • Example case studies of good practice in gaining consent included. • However, care must be taken not to inflate ethical issues in the virtual venue.

7. 5. Online Ethics Module: Informed Consent • Standard ethical principles should always apply, but can they always be transferred to a virtual setting?; • Withdrawal from the research - simple with questionnaire but what about interviews? • Deception - ‘lurking’ as data collection? Postings as a form of data? • Emerging consensus regarding ‘private’ and ‘public’; • Case studies: informed consent.

8. 6. Concluding Remarks • Novel techniques with limitations and the potential should not be exaggerated: many of the issues and problems of conventional research methods remain; • We must ensure that ‘…cheap entry costs and glowing attractiveness of Internet fieldwork do not result in shoddy `cowboy’ research.’ Dodd (1998:60) • Online research is another option in the methodological ‘toolkit’, but the use of these methods must be carefully considered.

9. www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm onlinerm@le.ac.uk