My name is Heather Maclean, and I am a student in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, who is currently in the process of recruiting individuals for my study entitled, “Technology in the ESL Community College Classroom.” The professor supervising my work is Dr. Paul Sparks. The study is designed to investigate what technologies community college ESL professors are using and what motivates their use of technology and technology choices, so I am inviting individuals who teach Credit ESL courses at community college and use technology regularly to participate in my study. Please understand that your participation in my study is strictly voluntary. The following is a description of what your study participation entails, the terms for participating in the study, and a discussion of your rights as a study participant. Please read this information carefully before deciding whether or not you wish to participate.
If you should decide to participate in the study, you will be asked to participate in two survey rounds. You will do this by clicking on a link. The second round will included responses from the first round for you to comment on as well as additional questions. You do not need to answer every question in the survey. It should take approximately 15-40 minutes to complete each survey round. Please complete the surveys alone in a single setting.
Although minimal, there are potential risks that you should consider before deciding to participate in this study. These risks include the time it takes to complete the survey through answering and revising questions. In the event you do experience time issues, you may contact myself to let me know, my supervisor Dr. Paul Sparks, or the IRB at Pepperdine University.
The potential benefits to you for participating in the study are your contributions and input on the use of technology in the ESL community college credit classroom. This can help inform both policy and practice at the local, regional, and state levels.
If you should decide to participate and find you are not interested in completing the survey in its entirely, you have the right to discontinue at any point without being questioned about your decision. You also do not have to answer any of the questions on the survey that you prefer not to answer--just leave such items blank.
After 2 weeks of receiving each survey round, a reminder email will be sent to you to complete the survey. Since this will go out to everyone, I apologize ahead of time for sending you these reminders if you have complied with the deadline.
If the findings of the study are presented to professional audiences or published, no information that identifies you personally will be released. The data will be kept in a secure manner for at least three years at which time the data will be destroyed.
