Working with Human Subjects

The University of Georgia has a Human Subjects Office in the Office of the Vice President for Research is responsible for overseeing compliance with regulations and guidelines defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), and implementation of principles outlined in the Belmont Report.

They review and oversee any activity that involves Human Subjects or participants. This includes: "any research activity that involves human subjects, whether such activity is undertaken on a large or small scale, whether it is preliminary or fully designed, whether it is conducted by students or faculty, whether it is externally funded or not, and whether it involves minimal risk or more than minimal risk."

Their "Guidelines for Investigators" are available at: http://www.ovpr.uga.edu/hso/guidelines.html .

Of particular interest for this class is the policy on Course-Directed Human Subjects Activity . This page contains the recommended format for the document by which you must obtain consent from participants in your evaluation.

As an element of project 2b, which involves human subjects evaluation of your User Interface project, you need to fill out an Student Application to Engage in Course-Directed Human Subjects Activity, available in doc format:

Application form

As part of this application, you need to submit copies of:

your consent letter (see the course-directed human subjects activity link above for a sample letter)
the instruction sheets you intend to use in your evaluation process (required)
any survey or questionnaire you intend to use (required)