[TOS] Questionnaire after an open source course

[Mel Chua]

> And who you're gathering this data for, and why. Is this to give
> feedback to the instructors to improve the course for next round? To
> show the students what they have (collectively) learned? To tell the
> open source projects involved what happened from your side? In the hopes
> of getting departmental resources/approval for continuing experiments of
> this sort?

Also -- Ivaylo, I don't know what the legal situation is in France, but 
here in the US we have some pretty strict rules about both privacy and 
research ethics which need to be taken into account before doing a study 
of this sort. For example:

* If we plan on publishing the results at some point, we need to get IRB 
(Institutional Review Board) approval of the methods we're going to use 
to gather it (which includes them signing off on the instrument we're 
using -- in this case, your survey.)

* We need to make sure we don't reveal student identities without their 
permission (to oversimplify, one example is that a student's name should 
never appear with their response in a public space -- unless they have 
signed off on it being ok.)

* If students are being researched by their instructor, there's usually 
some extra checking that needs to be done to make sure that the students 
don't feel pressured/coerced by the power differential (and you may want 
to check if their answers are influenced by the fact that they'll be 
read by someone who's giving them a grade -- this is why course 
evaluations here are done by a third party, not by the professor).

* And other things that people here with more research experience may be 
able to fill in if it's needed -- I'd check the IRB procedures for your 
particular institution (how do the social science researchers at your 
school do their work? they're good folks to ask.)

Please don't freak out about this stuff! It's not meant to scare you and 
prevent you from doing things, but rather to add a different sort of 
perspective and awareness to the discussion. Also, I've heard the EU has 
even more stringent privacy laws than the US and am curious whether 
French researchers have to deal with the same things American ones do. :)

Please keep doing things! We learn fastest sometimes by stumbling along 
and making mistakes in public, but it does take a lot of courage -- 
which you have shown by asking your questions here, and which I applaud!

--Mel