I hope you are all having a wonderful week. Reminder that we don’t have in-person class this week. See you next week!

Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn

Ethical practice and program evaluation is the theme for week three of SOWK 460w. This week is asynchronous, so there is no in-person class. Students will complete the CITI research ethics and compliance training. I ask students to read a brief report on the American Evaluation Association’s guiding principles and to respond in the group discussion forums. The learning objectives for this week include the following:

• Demonstrate knowledge of essential human subjects’ research topics for social-behavioral-educational researchers.
• Apply the code of ethics to program evaluation
• Understand potential ethical challenges to program evaluation

Unit Assignments

Read

Read the American Evaluation Association (2018) and their Guiding Principles For Evaluators.

W-03 A-01 Asynchronous Participation

The expectation is that each of your replies will be substantive and provide meaningful perspectives, contributing to the forum’s conversation and scholarship. They can be related to the prompts or building on conversations shared by peers. There are three forums for this week, and you are expected to make at least 3 replies across any of the forums and read all of your peers’ replies. These forums include the following:

• Week 03 Content Reflection gives students a space to consider and share about the content they are engaging in this week.
• I have published a number of my research papers, and some have Examples of Informed Consent. In this forum, I provide some links to these and offer an opportunity to draw connections to the best practices for informed consent in the literature.
• I want students to engage with program evaluation to get a feel for examples of them. In the forum Published Program Evaluations, you can find and write a summary of a program evaluation to share with your peers.

A-03: CITI Research Ethics and Compliance Training

As you go through the training, please let me know if there are any updated processes for following these instructions. I did the course three years ago, but not again this year in preparation of this assignment and am unsure if anything has changed.

Meta: Points 50 pts (5% of final grade); Deadline Monday 02/09/26 at 8 AM; Completion via MyHeritage Assignments as an uploaded paper; Locations MyHeritage Assignment and Assignment Description and Rubric Handout.

Purpose: Students learn and demonstrate knowledge of essential human subjects’ research topics for social-behavioral-educational researchers.

Task: Heritage University’s Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative’s (CITI) Research Ethics and Compliance Training program introduces issues such as informed consent, human subjects’ protection, privacy, and confidentiality for students involved in research involving no more than “minimal risk.” To complete the CITI training, go to http://www.citiprogram.org/ and follow these instructions:

1. Click on “Register” in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Enter “Heritage” as your organization’s affiliation.
3. Fill out the remaining information through Step 6:
   a. Username, password, security question
   b. No CME/CEU credits
   c. Answering the professional certification study guide question and course survey is optional
   d. Institutional email, department, role in research: student researcher-undergraduate
4. When you get to Step 7 of the registration process, do the following:
   a. For Question 1 on “Human Subjects Research,” select “Social & Behavioral Educational (SBE) course: Choose the option “to satisfy CITI training requirements for Investigators and staff involved primarily in research with human subjects.”
   b. For Question 2, select “Not at this time.”
   c. Do not select anything for Question 3.
   d. For Question 4, select “No.”
   e. For Question 5, select “No.”
5. When your registration is complete, Social & Behavioral Educational (SBE) will be in the courses “ready to begin” section.
6. Click “Start Now.” Complete all 12 modules required courses to achieve certification. You do not need to complete any of the supplemental modules.
7. Find your certificate documentation completion for this course by navigating to the records section of the website. Download or take a screenshot showing that you completed the course and upload it to MyHeritage.

Students can find additional support and information on Heritage University’s Institution Review Board (https://heritage.edu/student-resources/irb-institutional-review-board/)

Success: Students will complete the CITI Social & Behavioral Educational (SBE) course. They will upload a copy of their certificate (or a screenshot showing completion/grade assigned) to MyHeritage assignments. Grades for this assignment will be completed by mid-term grades due by the faculty on Wednesday, 03/25/26 at 5:00 PM.

Unit Resources

This week, I have you read the Guiding Principles For Evaluators from the American Evaluation Association (2018). Their website has many other resources around assessment.

MyHeritage wasn’t working on Sunday night, and so some people were unable to complete the quiz. I have reopened it. As well, if you have questions about missed questions, they are revealed after the due date (e.g., now Friday at 8 AM).

Please also note that I have created handouts for all assignments in this class. The same information is included in the syllabus, but there are now assignments on the assignment page and individual handouts with rubrics for each assignment. Also, please note the two templates I have for this class. I spent time remaking these this semester, and hopefully they are helpful and provide a good description of what to do for each part. They can be found:

• Program Evaluation Work Plan Template.docx
• Executive Summary Template.docx

To-Do Lists

• Read American Evaluation Association (2018)
• Complete the CITI Research Ethics and Compliance Training
• Make three replies across any of the three forums