Ethical Approach to Gathering Survey Data Online

Using the Internet to conduct online surveys is not a new form of data collection. A large proportion of marketing analysis or customer surveys are now done online (Burns & Bush, 2006). However the uptake in tertiary education and research has proven to be slower. This could be attributed to the fact that high-visibility institutions such as universities are subject to stringent codes of ethics (Kizza, 2003). This article discusses techniques university researchers may use when implementing an online survey, premised on McNiff, Lomax, and Whitehead’s (2003) action research checklist of ethical considerations. These techniques abide by both the institution’s code of ethics and national standards to ensure the participants’ privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity. In addition, the benefits of conducting online research are discussed, particularly when the cohort under consideration is moving into majority status within society such as the Generation Y of this study. Generation Y participants under consideration in this chapter are university students studying Games and Development at Deakin University, Australia. The games students are prodigious consumers of online entertainment, information, and specifically from the researchers’ previous experience, learning material online. These defining characteristics of Generation Y were harnessed and used to very good effect in the development of the research tool (an online survey) used in this article. The research process for obtaining ethical approval to conduct surveys and collect and evaluate data for this particular participant cohort thus must incorporate contemporary methods of ethically obtaining data. Ethically, the issues with collecting data in traditional methodological modes such as privacy, confidentiality, anonymity, and coercion remain similar, however in this study there is the additional complexity of conducting a survey online. The ethical guidelines of this study are premised on those published by the Australian Government (1999) and are the current guidelines used by Deakin University. This article explores the issues related to obtaining ethical clearance for conducting an online survey with Generation Y participants.