Research and General Education

On Tuesday, the committee members on the Institutional Review Board (aka: IRB) gave a presentation on the IRB process at Ashford. In the presentation (The IRB application process at Ashford: The Why, how and when), they discussed the reasons behind a university process for protecting human participants when it comes to research endeavors. There were several questions from participants concerning differences between the IRB process for Ashford doctoral students (former Rockies students) conducting research and full time Ashford faculty who are conducting research. Currently, there are two IRB panels at Ashford, one that deals with the former situation and another that deals with the latter. It was explained that the IRB group is there to protect those who participate in research from unethical methods, and also to provide protection for the researcher against lawsuits or problems that could arise from conducting research.

I had an enjoyable time listening to Alaina Pascarella’s presentation entitled General Education: It’s On All of Us. She discussed how students show competency at Ashford in the area of general education and how general education extends to program courses. As a member of Ashford’s Division of General Education (DOGE), it was interesting for me to listen to someone outside of Doge describe the mission and vision of Doge at Ashford. Alaina stressed the need for all classes at Ashford to reinforce and extend critical general education content such as oral communication and information literacy. Being exposed to these topics in beginning classes is not enough to foster true mastery.

Lane Andrew, Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Division of General Education

Ashford University