Collaborative Research: ER2: Developing Educational Resources for the Ethical Use of Pervasive Data

Researchers working in computer, information, and data science regularly extract huge amounts of data from online platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit to study people and their activities. We call this pervasive data—rich information generated about people through their digital interactions with social and mobile media, wearables, and more. Pervasive data spans multiple domains of people’s lives and is often gathered through digital interactions hidden from end users’ full awareness. Notably, the collection and use of pervasive data often does not fall into the category of “human subjects research,” meaning it is often not overseen by university ethics review boards. This leaves researchers on their own to make decisions about appropriate data collection, storage, sharing, and analysis practices. At the same time, many researchers have not received much—if any—training on how to address ethical questions related to these practices. The collaborative project “Developing Educational Resources for the Ethical Use of Pervasive Data” addresses these issues in two phases. In Phase 1, the research team will survey and interview current computing students and junior researchers at US universities, and complete a systematic evaluation of existing computing and Responsible Conduct of Research (RECR) programs. Goals of Phase 1 are to identify current practices, challenges, and opportunities for developing ethics training that address the unique issues with using pervasive data. Phase 2 builds on these findings. The research team will develop and evaluate various curricular materials, tools, and resources to support research ethics training, including (1) adapting a previously developed ethical decision-making tool, (2) creating training materials for students and junior researchers, and (3) developing "train the trainer" modules to help more-experienced researchers confidently mentor others in pervasive data ethics. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its potential to enhance research ethics education by creating innovative teaching materials based on case studies and interactive modules. It aims to integrate content on ethics and responsible computing into broader coursework and contribute to the field of data and research ethics by addressing knowledge gaps among computing students. The broader impact of the project includes promoting ethical awareness and responsible research practices among students and researchers. The project will disseminate its resources widely to computing educators, students, university programs, and other stakeholders through various channels, including a project website, social media, and webinars. This project is funded through the ER2 program by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.