One of the more challenging areas of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research can be navigating the components of human subjects research protections implemented by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The authors of this article, a faculty developer and a current and former research compliance coordinator, discuss the history of IRB in relation to SoTL research and explicate some of the foundational components of IRB protocols for SoTL projects. In particular, the authors explore what constitutes “research” for SoTL projects, explain the different IRB types of review, and offer some sample SoTL projects with respect to their IRB implications.

This Taylor Institute Guide takes the researcher through the essentials of the Canadian standards for ethical practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Because of the unique challenges of SoTL, where the human participants that are the subject of the research are also typically the researcher’s students, this guide translates the comprehensive TCPS2 (2014) for the researcher conducting SoTL research.

Research with human participants is complex. Just as the TCPS2 supports researchers in managing that complexity, we hope that this guide will be helpful to SoTL researchers in their design process, so that their research projects will be sound and robust, and the resulting insights can inform and extend our understanding of the processes of learning and of supporting that learning with effective, evidence-based instruction.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of teaching and learning made public, such as through publication in an education research journal or at a conference. This page is intended for instructors who have a SoTL project in mind and are ready to get started on putting together their IRB. Because SoTL typically meets criteria for human subjects research, it—with rare exceptions—requires IRB review.

If you are simply gathering information from students for internal evaluation and personal instructional improvement, then this activity is not generalizable knowledge and does not qualify as SoTL. Personal review activities for quality improvement do not require IRB review. For example, conducting an anonymous survey at the end of a semester to gather information about your students’ perceptions of your course so that you can improve it next semester does not require IRB-SBS review. However, if you plan to present this data at a teaching conference to demonstrate the effectiveness of your teaching techniques, you will need to undergo IRB review.

All human subjects research is required to undergo IRB-SBS review. IRB review and approval of human subject research should be obtained before the project begins. It is your responsibility as a researcher to know whether you are conducting human subjects research. If you have questions about whether you are doing so, please send a summary of your project to the IRB-SBS Director: irbsbshelp@virginia.edu. The IRB will review your email and determine if your planned project is human subject research and needs IRB-SBS review.

The Institutional Review Board for the Social and Behavioral Sciences (IRB-SBS) is “responsible for reviewing all non-medical behavioral human subjects research…for compliance with federally-mandated research guidelines.” The purpose of this worksheet is to help you prepare your responses for some of the text boxes that will appear in your protocol for IRB-SBS review. (Note. Having answers to these questions will support you in any institution’s IRB process.)