The course completion requires:
- active engagement with the course material
- attendance at face-to-face teaching
- completing compulsory assessment tasks detailed above.
The course evaluation is based on adequately achieving learning outcomes as evidenced in the assessment tasks.
Assessment 1 - Ethical issues and challenges in my own research
Write a description of ethical issues that have emerged or may emerge in your own research, and reflect on their implications for your research.
For example, you may reflect on how the ethical issues could influence the research plan or the way the research is carried out. Whom does the ethical issues concern? In what stages of your research do you need to address these ethical issues? How do you plan/ how have you solved the ethical issues? Could there be alternative ways to handle the ethical issues?
The length of the paper is approx. 1-2 pages, depending on the group. This assessment can be submitted in English or Finnish.
Assessment 2 - Peer Review
You will receive a description of ethical challenges by two of your fellow students. The Moodle system will treat you anonymously – you will not be told whose work you are reading and you as the commentator will also remain anonymous. If you are happy to share who you are, you are welcome to include your name in your submissions.
You are asked to comment and reflect on the following aspects: have ethical challenges been recognised well considering the research context? Can you think of additional research ethical issues that have not been recognised in this submission? Would you find ways to improve it? Or challenges that have not yet been recognised? Include any examples you are aware of how other people have approach similar challenges in the past (maybe your own research experience).
The purpose of commenting and reflecting is to support each other to create ethically strong research. Consider carefully what you write and think of yourself as the constructive you yourself would like to have.
The Peer Review should be approximately 1 page. This assessment can be submitted in English or Finnish.
Assessment 3 - Discussion board group activity on ethical issues
This is a compulsory group activity for the course. You will be allocated into groups of 4–6 students. The discussions boards are held in English.
Each member of the group will post a challenge (by starting a new discussion) related to potential (or experienced) risk of misconduct (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or misappropriation). Explain the potential with enough details that people not working in your field can understand the risk. You are also expected to propose a way of either reducing the risk or dealing with the outcome of misconduct.
After posting your challenge, you are expected to respond to at least two challenges posted by your group members. The response should be a thoughtful insight into the challenge and provide suggestions on how to best manage the risk of misconduct.
Assessment 4 - Reflection and solutions to ethical issues
For this assignment you are asked to submit an essay on ethical challenges in your research and reasoned solutions to them (group 1 with 2 ECTS credits: 3–4 pages, group 2 with 1 ECTS credit: 2 pages). You are expected to:
- make use of the assignment you submitted for assessment 1 and the peer reviews you received. Please indicate how your thinking has changed during the course and what impact (if any) the peer reviews had on your perception of the challenges and/or solutions to them
- show evidence that you can broadly recognise ethical challenges around your research work
- show evidence that you are aware of key ethical principles in research and are able to apply them to your own research work
- show evidence that you are aware of the key responsibilities for researchers as
identified in Finnish Guidelines on Responsible Conduct of Research in your research work.
This assessment can be submitted in English or Finnish.
Assessment 5
Quizzes associated with each topic are compulsory. You can attempt each quiz 3 times. If the quiz requires a password, it is ‘ethics’. You are expected to study the material before attempting the quiz.
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