Truman State University does love its research paperwork. This is the main thing I have learned in the past few weeks.
The Good News
We received IRB approval for the initial draft of our project (after we submitted our French draft of the consent form, of course). We also received a $750 research grant to compensate the time it takes to conduct and translate the interviews. Both pieces of news filled me with joy, but we had a bit of a problem…
The Bad News
We decided to rework our project in order to create a final product that was more reflective of the people we were speaking to and more engaging for audiences. We believed filming the interviews would be a fantastic digital tool to include on our project site, because people would actually get to see and hear the stories for themselves. We still stand by this decision. However, this means we will have to drastically revise our IRB application and once again submit it for approval. This has pushed our project timeline back quite significantly, but we feel as though it will be worth it to be able to publish our interviews.
During my time in undergrad, I’ve found that research is never perfectly clean, never cut and dry. Being able to roll with the punches is a valuable skill when it comes to these endeavors. The way I see it, this delay has allowed us to explore some vital contextual materials (both of primary and secondary nature). Beginning this project with a solid background is key in order to help interpret and situate the testimonials we will be receiving. We will also be able to use this time to take a look at the aesthetics of our website, which we haven’t focused on thus far. Sometimes things don’t go as we planned, but we have to make the most out of the situation we’re in. I have high hopes for this project, and a few minor setbacks are inevitable with an undertaking like this.
We’re up for the challenge.