About the survey
The first stage of this PhD aims to systematically map what topics and skills are being taught in conservation modules/units. This includes mapping the content of modules taught in conservation degrees and stand-alone conservation modules/units outside of conservation degrees.
To map the topics and skills being taught in conservation-related modules, we have created an online survey. The survey asks questions about:
- The topics covered in the module/unit
- Skills developed in the module/unit
- Teaching methods used in the module/unit
- Perceptions of interdisciplinarity (this final section relates a later stage of the PhD which will explore the role of interdisciplinarity in conservation higher education)
The data collected in this content survey will form covariates for analysis in the next stage of the research. The next stage of the research will use a before-after survey process to explore students’ conservation views in relation to their conservation education. We will be inviting conservation module/unit and degree coordinators to participate in this before-after process.
Ethics and Data Management
This research has been approved by the Edinburgh School of Geosciences Ethics committee and the contact details of the committee are provided on the first page of the survey.
The survey has been created using the Qualtrics platform and will use an anonymise response setting to ensure no IP-addresses are collected in the survey responses.
While data is being collected, the survey responses will be stored on the Qualtrics platform and will then be downloaded onto the researchers’ individual University of Edinburgh datastore. The datasets will be protected and will only be shared with the primary supervisors.
Once the data has been collected, any unique identifiers (higher education institution names, degree titles and module/unit titles) in the survey responses will be replaced with anonymous unique identifiers. Most of the questions in the survey are multiple choice questions but all free text responses will be screened to ensure that they do not contain any information that could be used to identify individuals or institutions participating in the survey.
The written outputs from this survey will only provide aggregate summaries and will not include any individual institution names, degree titles or module/unit titles. An anonymised version of the dataset will be shared with the funding body and may be uploaded as supporting material for any related peer-review publications. The datasets shared will not include any institution names, degree titles or module titles.
Questions or comments?
If you have any questions about this survey or the wider research project, please contact Helena Slater on helena.slater@ed.ac.uk or the supervisory team:
Aidan Keane (University of Edinburgh)
Janet Fisher (University of Edinburgh)
George Holmes (University of Leeds)
Chris Sandbrook (University of Cambridge)
CONSERVATION SCIENCE 