Research ethics in open and distance education: Context, principles and issues

Abstract

Since the early 1980s there has been increasing debate about research ethics and a gradual increase in the institutionalisation of ethics approval and monitoring. Initially this occurred in areas of biomedical research, but more recently all areas of research which involve human beings as sources of data have been included. Australia, along with other nations, has been intimately involved in these developments and now has a firmly established structure of Institutional Ethics Committees (IECS) topped by the Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC) for the approval and monitoring of human research ethics. Although there are guidelines and codes of practice, many issues remain still to be resolved as the panoply of research methods and practices is extended and encountered. Australian research in open and distance education is being caught in the embrace of IECs and their guidelines, and the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia is preparing its own code of research ethics. This article outlines the context and discusses the major ethical issues and implications for research in open and distance education. It considers issues of both principle and practice, and points to some of the special circumstances which researchers in open and distance education face.