I know I have been in these conversations before….ones where we were discussing whether what we were doing was human subjects research or just assessment-based program improvement. As researchers we want to make sure that we are conducting research in a responsible way where we are not harming any of our human subjects….so sometimes this is a tricky question.  Anyway, a while back, I contacted Rachel Wenzl from the University of Nebraska’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) to try to figure out if a research project that I’m embarking on was in fact research (because the participants are fellow extension educators and the intent of our project was to improve educator practices), and she provided me this great link to help us decide.

https://research.unl.edu/researchcompliance/review-approval-and-post-approval-requirements/

Thought I would share it with all of you!  ENJOY!!!!