Monday, March 12, 2007
CITI Program
Not to be confused with SETI program...
I found the CITI training module a bit on the dry side, but understand why it is completely essential for researchers to become familiar with the regulations for gathering human data and the historical and ethical elements contributing to their rationale. On the surface it would seem most researchers would follow these guidelines out of common sense and decency without having them codified. However, history has shown how the water where science and ethics swim is murky at best. The establishment and dissemination of these rules and their application is absolutely necessary to future research following an ethical and beneficial path.
Nonetheless, the delivery is so repetitive and monotonous it can make even the conscientious reader start to skim and skip to get to the next quiz. A better way to present this would be to have monthly seminars available through IRB's which present the information through multimedia in just a couple of hours. The important information being communicated by this program would have more impact if delivered in a more accessible way.
I found the CITI training module a bit on the dry side, but understand why it is completely essential for researchers to become familiar with the regulations for gathering human data and the historical and ethical elements contributing to their rationale. On the surface it would seem most researchers would follow these guidelines out of common sense and decency without having them codified. However, history has shown how the water where science and ethics swim is murky at best. The establishment and dissemination of these rules and their application is absolutely necessary to future research following an ethical and beneficial path.
Nonetheless, the delivery is so repetitive and monotonous it can make even the conscientious reader start to skim and skip to get to the next quiz. A better way to present this would be to have monthly seminars available through IRB's which present the information through multimedia in just a couple of hours. The important information being communicated by this program would have more impact if delivered in a more accessible way.
# posted by bgrace @ 11:57 AM 
