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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

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REB Training and Development Educational Products

CAREB-ACCER

Ontario Tech University has a number of training and development educational offerings from the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB-ACCER) to support your professional development and training. 

These educational products are only accessible to individuals with an ontariotechu.ca or ontariotechu.net account. Please see instructions on how to access and download the education products. 

Webinars

  • Webinar Title: How to Review a Protocol in the Social Sciences and Humanities – Overview

    Webinar Objective: Describe the five overarching responsibilities of a REB when conducting an ethical review.

    By the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

    1. Adopt a participant-based perspective.
    2. Ensure favorable risk benefit ratio.
    3. Conduct proportionate review with appropriate expertise.
    4. Assess ethical appropriateness i.e., not provide institutional approval for research to proceed
    5. View TCPS 2 as a minimum

    Apply the three key factors which are relevant to determining whether an application requires review by the institutional REB

    1. Does it fall under the institutional auspices?
    2. Is it research?
    3. Does it involve human participants or their data or biological material?
  • Webinar Title:  How to Review a Protocol in the Social Sciences and Humanities – Conducting a Risk/Benefit Analysis

    Webinar Objective:  Assess the risks and benefits associated with a SSH protocol to ensure a favourable balance exists

    By the end of this webinar participants should be able to:

    • Differentiate between the concepts of minimal risk and above minimal risk and what that means in terms of review (i.e. delegated vs full board)
    • Differentiate between the concepts of probability of harm and magnitude of harm
    • Apply participant perspective to assess risks
    • Differentiate between the types of risks commonly found in biomedical/clinical protocols and those typically found in SSH protocols.
  • Webinar Title:  How to Review a Protocol in the Social Sciences and Humanities – Concern for Participant Welfare, Justice and Autonomy

    Webinar objective: 

    By the end of this webinar participants should be able to:

    • Assess the application for ethical issues associated with the principle of “Concern for welfare”
    • Differentiate between the concepts of confidentiality, privacy and security
    • Describe the researcher’s duty to maintain confidentiality and the limits to this assurance which may arise
    • Describe the main types of data which may be obtained and why anonymous data is the default for a REB
    • Consider specific privacy obligations which REBs should consider
    • Describe the range of methods which are available to safeguard data
    • Describe the challenges to security and confidentiality, privacy which may arise due to data linkage
    • Identify the types of practical mitigation mechanisms which REBs might suggest that researchers employ to overcome these typical issues associated with maintaining privacy, confidentiality and data security
    • Identify resources which REBs can use to identify “best practices”
    • Assess the application for ethical issues associated with the principle of
    • “Justice”
    • Ensure no participant group is unfairly burdened/exposed to risks or denied benefits
    • Assess how treating people fairly does not mean treating them in the same way
    • Describe how the concepts of vulnerability and vulnerable populations can be interpreted differently
  • Webinar title:  Ethical Issues Related to Research involving individuals engaged in defined Criminal Activities

    Summary:  To assess the ethical implications of research involving participants who are engaged in ‘illegal’/criminal activities including identified terrorist organizations, and to address the application of appropriate ethical principles for the review, approval and conduct of the research – including the protections required for the research participants who are defined as ‘vulnerable.

    Researchers/Research Teams and Learners should be able to:

    1. Identify and explore appropriate alternative models of consent for research conducted within this context, including ensuring the voluntary and truly informed consent of participants.
    2. Identify, explore, minimize and mitigate potential risks to participants
    3. Determine, evaluate and describe appropriate protections that should be incorporated into their data management practices, including the collection, use , disclosure, retention and destruction of collected data for research conducted within this context to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of participant data and associated personal data
    4. Recognize the potential legal implications that may arise in research conducted within this context
    5. Appreciate and adequately plan to address issues relevant to the return of results and the publication of research data where risk of disclosure may engender complications for the organization, the researcher and/or participants.
    6. Appreciate and describe the application of the required resources (e.g. policies and procedures, staff), within institutions and external to institutions that may assist in dealing with legal obligations to disclose vs ethical requirements to support researchers and protect their interests
  • Webinar Title:  Assessing and addressing the ethical implications of the use of, and access to, new emerging internet-based study tools and interventions throughout and following study conduct 

    Summary:  To analyze and understand, complex ethical issues related to the use and access to newly emerging internet- based study tools and interventions throughout a study’s life-cycle and apply ethical principles in the review and consideration of their use in research.

  • E-Module Title:  Vulnerable Circumstances
    Summary:  While the concept of vulnerability is an important underpinning of Canadian and international policies related to the protection of human research participants. The idea of vulnerability however, is an abstract concept and the application of it in real-life research contexts isn’t always clear to researchers and even to REBs.
  • E-Module Title: Research Ethics 101
    Summary: This course is designed for the onboarding of New Research Ethics Board (REB) members. The goal is for a beginner REB member to learn the basics of what it means to be on an REB, the roles of an REB and the importance of REB roles.
  • E-Module Title: Community-Based Participatory Research
    Summary: This emodule explains the purpose, importance and benefits of CBPR in Canada. The module includes an outline of the implications CBPR may have for both research ethics boards and researchers and discusses alternative perspectives to ethical dilemmas in research. The module analyzes the application of CBPR in a real-life context via a case study and interoperates the links between CBPR and research ethics.
  • E-Module Title: Research Data Management
    Summary: This module will help REBs better understand the need for good research data management (RDM), current Canadian policy, considerations for good RDM stewardship and the role of RDM in research and research ethics.

     

    Outcomes

    1. Develop a basic understanding of Research Data Management (RDM)
    2. Gain a broad understanding of Canadian policy and its impact on the research process
    3. Acquire a basic understanding of the role of research ethics boards and RDM
    4. Consider Indigenous RDM issues
    5. Understand where to find links to facilitate deeper understanding
  • E-Module Title: Research with Indigenous Communities

    Summary:

    Key Learning Objectives

    1. Identify how researchers may gain awareness of community and regional customs and practices.
    2. Explore the significance of community engagement when researching and working with Indigenous communities.
    3. Understand community engagement for Indigenous research in The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2).
    4. Explore how research contributes to capacity building in Indigenous communities.
    5. Discuss how research can be mutually beneficial for the researcher and community.

     


These educational products are only accessible to individuals with an ontariotechu.ca or ontariotechu.net account. For our community members, please be sure to use your email address that is registered with IRIS.