Virtual Engagement During COVID-19

Introduction:

In June 2020, Dr. Mary Ott, MD, MA, FAAP, discussed "Ethics of Virtual Engagement During COVID-19." These virtual methods can be qualitative and/or quantitative, and may include surveys, social network analyses, online clinical trials, social media research, cyber-ethnography, focus groups, interviews, and more. Virtual research, however, also brings its own challenges. First, the problem of recruitment comes into play (e.g. identifying who is actually doing the research), as well as problems of hardware and software connectivity. These considerations can affect the scientific rigor of the research, which is especially important during an epidemic. Dr. Ott explores these barriers and potential solutions.

References:

Download the transcript for this TREATs talk here.
Battles, H.T. (2010). Exploring Ethical and Methodological Issues in Internet-Based Research with Adolescents. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 9(1), 27-39.
Orton-Johnson, K. (2010). Ethics of Online Research; Evaluating the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics Categorisation of Risk. Sociological Research Online, 15(4) 13
Roberts, L. (2015). Ethical Issues in Conducting Qualitative Research in Online Communities. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(3), 314-325.

Virtual Engagement During COVID-19