Universities are pursuing learning analytics practices to improve returns from their investments, develop behavioral and academic interventions to improve student success, and address political and financial pressures. Academic libraries are additionally undertaking learning analytics to demonstrate value to stakeholders, assess learning gains…

Clinical trials must address a number of laws, regulations, and other sources of requirements when communicating privacy and confidentiality protections to potential participants. This article outlines relevant requirements from Common Rule regulations, Food and Drug Administration regulations, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act…

Schools generate and maintain numerous student records, including grades, standardized test scores, disciplinary accounts, contact information, mental health records, and more. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which applies to educational agencies and institutions that receive certain types of financial assistance from the…

This article introduces an accessible approach to implementing unmoderated remote research in developmental science -- research in which children and families participate in studies remotely and independently, without directly interacting with researchers. Unmoderated remote research has the potential to strengthen developmental science by: (1)…

Our current federal postsecondary data system is incomplete and fails to provide today's students with the accurate, timely information that they need to inform their college choices and promote their success. As policymakers consider proposals to improve this federal data system, it is critical that they work in tandem to protect students'…

When the coronavirus pandemic was declared a public health crisis in March 2020, school psychologists were forced into situations where face-to-face interaction with their students was discouraged and in some cases, prohibited. Consequently, the traditional practice of school psychology abruptly ended. Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and…

The foundational federal law on student privacy, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), establishes student privacy rights by restricting with whom and under what circumstances schools may share students' personally identifiable information. This tool summarizes some of the main provisions of FERPA, and identifies when students'…

The inclusion of remote digital practices (e-mail, texting, blogging, social media) to deliver social work services raises unique ethical and legal challenges for client and practitioner. Competent care necessitates providing clients with information that would materially affect clients' decisions whether to assume the risks, benefits, and…

With its wealth of readily and often publicly available information about Web users' lives, the Web has created new opportunities for conducting online research. Although digital data are easily accessible, ethical guidelines are inconsistent about how researchers should use them. Some academics claim that traditional ethical principles are…

When the novel coronavirus forced school buildings to close, causing a massive disruption in the delivery of these services, it exposed the extent to which schools function as an essential component of a comprehensive health system, particularly for children in low-income communities. In response to the closures, state and federal decision-makers…

A growing number of education and social science researchers design and conduct online research. In this review, the Internet Research Ethics (IRE) policy gap in Canada is identified along with the range of stakeholders and groups that either have a role or have attempted to play a role in forming better ethics policy. Ethical issues that current…

This paper considers some of the ethical issues surrounding the study of malicious activity in social networks, specifically using a technique known as "social honeypots" combined with the use of deception. This is a potentially touchy area of study that is common to social and behavioral research that is well understood to fall within…

On the day that Henrietta Lacks died, researcher Dr. George Gey excitedly appeared on national television. He held a vial of her cells in his hand for the entire world to see and stated, "It is possible that, from a fundamental study such as this, we will be able to learn a way by which cancer can be completely wiped out." Once separated…

To find a balance between learning analytics research and individual privacy, learning analytics initiatives need to appropriately address ethical, privacy, and data protection issues. A range of general guidelines, model codes, and principles for handling ethical issues and for appropriate data and privacy protection are available, which may…

Schools use data for different purposes, which have different degrees of impact on a student's educational experience: administrative, instructional, assessment and measurement, and optional/noneducational. To the extent feasible, parental choice policies should be structured according to the use of the data in question. Parents should have more…