Wikipedia participants made a great encyclopedia by creating and improving each other's articles. Can we do the same for teaching materials? The purpose of this study is to evaluate factors in the design of a community tool for collaborative development and open use of educational materials.
In a previous study on authoring, participants created hundreds of worked example problems that provide instruction and practice in understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem. Each worked example consists of:
What you'll be doing in this next study is take those worked example problems people like you have already contributed and try to make them better. For each worked example presented to you, you will rate it for quality and edit it to make it better. With participants so far this has taken 4-10 minutes each. It is up to you how much time to spend on each one, but keep in mind that higher quality contributions increase your chances at winning a gift certificate.
You will also have the opportunity to rate additional worked examples without improving them. This takes on average under 1 minute each. Higher accuracy ratings increase your chances at winning a gift certificate.
There will be no cost or risk to you from participating in this Study.
Your participation is voluntary. Refusal to participate or withdrawal of your consent or discontinued participation in the study will not result in any penalty or loss of benefits or rights to which you might otherwise be entitled. The Principal Investigator may at his/her discretion remove you from the study for any of a number of reasons. In such an event, you will not suffer any penalty or loss of benefits or rights which you might otherwise be entitled.
Gift certificates to Amazon are provided as appreciation. You may win up to two out of eight $50 gift certificates to Amazon.com (totalling $400). There are two lotteries, one for the pool of worked example problems and one for the pool of ratings. For each improved worked example you contribute, you will receive one ticket in the worked example lottery. For contributions of sufficient quality, you will receive three tickets instead of just one. Similarly, for each contribution you rate you will receive one ticket in the ratings lottery. If your ratings are sufficiently accurate, you will receive three tickets instead of one. Basically, all efforts earn tickets in the lottery and higher quality work increases your odds. There are four $50 certificates in each lottery and it is possible to win in both to get $100.
Your anonymity will be maintained during data analysis and publication/presentation of results by any or all of the following means: (1) You will be assigned a number as names will not be recorded. (2) The researchers will save the data file and/or any video or audio recordings by your number, not by name. (3) Only members of the research group will view collected data in detail. (4) Any recordings or files will be stored in a secured location accessed only by authorized researchers.
At the conclusion of the experiment, you will be given the opportunity to release your contributions onto the web. If you choose to, you can do so anonymously or with attribution.
If you have any questions about this Study, you should feel free to ask them now or anytime throughout the Study by contacting:
Turadg Aleahmad Human Computer Interaction Institute 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (412) 223-6662 education.hciresearch@gmail.com
If you have questions pertaining to your rights as a research participant; or to report objections to this Study, you should contact:
IRB Chair c/o Regulatory Compliance Administration Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Warner Hall, 4th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Email: irb-review@andrew.cmu.edu (412) 268-1901 or (412) 268 4727
The Carnegie Mellon University Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved the use of human participants for this Study.
This Study is funded by the Institute for Educational Science, which is supporting the costs of this research. Neither Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), nor Turadg Aleahmad will receive any financial benefit based on the results of the Study.
I understand the nature of this Study and agree to participate. I know that I can print or save this form for my records. I give the Principal Investigator, and his/her associates, permission to present this work in written and/or oral form for teaching or presentations to advance the knowledge of science and/or academia, without further permission from me provided that my image or identity is not disclosed. I am 18 years or older and qualified to consent to participating.