VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY

Consent to Take Part in a Research Study

Title of research study: Technology-mediated‌ ‌recreation‌ ‌-‌ ‌habits‌ ‌and‌ ‌perspectives‌ ‌before,‌ ‌during,‌ ‌and‌ ‌after‌ ‌COVID-19‌

IRB #: 20-318

Principal Investigator: 

Dr. Scott McCrickard

email: mccricks@cs.vt.edu

phone: 540-231- 6698

Other study contact(s): 

Derek Haqq           

email:  dhaqq@vt.edu 

Phone: 540-835-4768

Key Information:

The following is a short summary of this study to help you decide whether or not to be a part of this study. More detailed information is listed later on in this form.

You are being invited to take part in a research study seeking to understand how people use technology to maintain connections with nature and loved ones, before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Participation is voluntary. You can choose not to take part in this research, or agree to take part and later change your mind. You can leave the research study at any time, for any reason, and it will not be held against you. 

If you agree to be in this study, we ask that you complete an online survey. The survey will include questions about your approach to using technology to maintain connections with nature and loved ones.  The survey will take about 20 minutes to 25 minutes to complete. Participation will not involve any in-person contact. There is the risk that you may find some of the questions to be of a personal nature.  You can choose to skip questions or, where this is not possible, you can indicate that you prefer not to answer questions you find disturbing or intrusive.

Specifically we seek to understand:

• How people use technology to support individual and shared recreational experiences  
• How people use technology to maintain connections with nature and with loved ones (both colocated and remote)
• How people use (or wish to use) technology to maintain connections with loved ones through shared participation in indoor and outdoor recreation activities with family, friends, and romantic partners (playing together via technology mediated means)
• How the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and accompanying safety measures, affected habits and routines involving using technology to maintain connections with nature and with loved ones (both colocated and remote)
• Why people adopt the strategies and habits they adopt 

This study will help researchers learn more about the habits and perspectives of participants with respect to leveraging technology to connect with nature and loved ones. From this improved understanding researchers will learn more about how to design and develop technologies to support stakeholders in this context.

Detailed Information: Below is more detailed information about this study.

Who can I talk to?

If you have any questions or requests for information relating to this research study, or your

participation in it, or if you want to voice a complaint or concern about this research, or if you

have a study related injury, you may contact the researchers identified above. 

This research has been reviewed by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (IRB). You may communicate with them at 540-231-3732 or irb@vt.edu if:

• You have questions about your rights as a research subject 
• Your questions, concerns, or complaints are not being answered by the research team 
• You cannot reach the research team 
• You want to talk to someone besides the research team to provide feedback about this research

How many people will be studied? 

We will be recruiting members of the general population who are 18 years or older. We plan to include approximately 400 individuals.

What happens if I say yes, but I change my mind later?

We are asking you to participate in an online survey.  The data collection will be based solely on Qualtrics surveys. Participation will not involve any in-person contact. There is the risk that you may find some of the questions to be of a personal nature.  You can leave the research at any time, for any reason, and it will not be held against you. Additionally, you can choose to skip questions or, where this is not possible, you can indicate that you prefer not to answer questions you find disturbing or intrusive.

We plan to do follow-up studies as circumstances with respect to COVID-19 evolve.  We will therefore be asking for your email address in order to contact you in the future. Note that providing these details to the research team does not mean that you are required to participate in future studies. Further your email addresses will be captured via a survey form that is separate and apart from your other survey responses.  We will enable the Anonymize Responses setting to permanently scrub your responses of identifying information like IP addresses before saving it. Your information will remain confidential.

What else do I need to know? 

This research is not currently being funded. Any expenses accrued for seeking or receiving medical or mental health treatment will be your responsibility and not that of the research project, the research team, or Virginia Tech.

You can choose to be included in a drawing for one of four $25 Amazon gift cards.  The odds of being selected for the drawing are dependent upon the number of people who participate. We hope that approximately 400 persons will take part, should 400 persons participate in the survey your chances of being selected would be 1 in 100.  We will limit the study to a maximum of 500 participants.  If more than 400 individuals enroll we will include an additional card in the drawing to maintain the worst-case odds of being selected as 1 in 100.

We will not offer to share your individual survey responses with you.