Research Project Title: Assessing Collaboration and Creativity in Hybrid Co-Design Workshops with Novel Social Norms

Ethics Application Number: 30002326

Document Version: 1.1, Mar 17, 2024

Principal Investigator: Benett Axtell, SIAT, Simon Fraser University, benett_axtell@sfu.ca

Collaborators: Carman Neustaedter, Amna Liaqat

This consent form is part of the process of informed consent. You will be offered a copy to keep. It should give you the basic idea of what the research is about and what your participation will involve. If you would like more detail about something mentioned here, or information not included here, you should feel free to ask the investigator(s). Please take the time to read this carefully and to understand the information.

Purpose: The goal of our research is to understand how co-designers connect and interact during hybrid workshops and access the effectiveness of novel digital social norms. We are using an established questionnaire to gather opinions on experiences of collaboration and creativity during these and previous co-design workshops We aim to use this knowledge to create better hybrid experiences for co-designers and for a broad variety of hybrid social settings.

Participant Recruitment and Selection: To be recruited for this study, you must be a participant in at least one of our Digital Metaphor Hybrid Co-Design Workshops. You should also have prior experience in co-design workshops or equivalent.

Study Method: You will have the opportunity to complete the same questionnaire multiple times: First about one week before your first workshop and then after each workshop that you attend. The survey will be hosted online using SurveyMonkey. The first time you take the survey you will be taken to a different website, hosted by a secure SFU server, and asked to provide your name. This will create a unique identifier that will be linked with your survey responses. Each time you take the questionnaire you will first provide your name and then be redirected to the survey site, which will automatically use that unique identifier. Your survey responses will never be associated with your name and researchers will not have access to the link between your name and unique identifier, except in the case of technical issue or if you withdraw from the study. On completion of the final survey, all links between names and unique identifiers will be deleted. The survey will take between 15-45 minutes to complete.

Benefits and Risks: The risks of the study are expected to be none or minimal. By agreeing to participate in this research, you are not giving up or waiving any legal right in the unlikely case you feel you have been harmed by participating. You will receive no compensation for your participation in this research.
You should not feel pressured to participate because of an existing relationship with the research team. If you agree to participate, you will be free to exit the survey without completing it or withdraw from the study at any time for any reason. If you withdraw before the completion of the last workshop, we will delete all your data collected to that point. However, if you withdraw after the last workshop, your responses will be kept and used by the researchers as we not be able to identify your responses specifically after we anonymize all the data.
The survey is hosted on the trusted survey website SurveyMonkey. Survey responses will be stored on the SFU OneDrive.
Results from the study will be communicated via a blog post on the project website (https://digitaljaneaustenproject.tumblr.com) and all workshop participants will be notified when that post is available. Other research results, such as published papers, can be obtained by contacting the principal investigator: Benett Axtell (benett_axtell@sfu.ca)

What Happens to the Information I Provide?: No one except the researchers and their collaborators will be allowed to see any of your data. Your results will remain confidential from all other participants and researchers. For privacy reasons and for the validity of our data, you should refrain from discussing your survey responses with other participants.
Confidentiality will be strictly maintained. All survey responses will be labeled with a participant ID (like Participant 1). A link between your name and this participant ID will be kept on a separate server until the final survey has been completed. At that point it will be deleted.
All information collected will be anonymized after completion of the final survey, meaning your name or identity will not be linked to the data after all surveys have been completed. Nothing that can identify you will be kept alongside the data. Survey responses will be kept on a secure online storage system (SFU OneDrive) until 2025 or until the study analysis is completed. At this point, they will be permanently destroyed. The study data will not be uploaded to any online repositories for use in future research.
Refusal to participate or withdrawal/dropout after agreeing to participate will not have an adverse effect or consequences on the participants.
Public presentations of the results will show the results in an anonymized form. When using data from an individual, like a quote from a survey questions, we will ensure that it does not reveal or suggest the participant identities.

Acceptance of this Form: Your acceptance of this form indicates that you 1) understand to your satisfaction the information provided to your participation in this research project, and 2) agree to participate in this study.
You are free to withdraw from this research project at any time. You should feel free to ask for clarification or new information throughout your participation.
To accept this form, please click yes in the space below as a form of a digital signature. Otherwise, please close this form now.
Yes

Questions/Concerns: If you have any questions about the study, please contact Benett Axtell at benett_axtell@sfu.ca
If you have any concerns or complaints about your or your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, you may contact the Director, SFU Office of Research Ethics, at dore@sfu.ca or 778-782-6593.