Page - 40 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

42 D.Griffiths Data iscollected fromlearningand teachingsystems, retainedandutilised for thepurposes ofenhancing learningand teachingby: (…) – Contributing to research and scholarship in learning and teaching (Charles Sturt University, 2015) At the same time theUniversity ascribes to theNational Statement on Ethical Conduct inHumanResearch,whichstates that Consent toparticipate inresearchmustbevoluntaryandbasedonsufficient informationand adequateunderstandingofboth theproposed researchand the implicationsofparticipation in it. (NHMRC,2018) I have actively promoted LA for a number of years, and it is notmy intention here to proclaimmea culpa, or to condemnmy colleagues for failing to abide by codes of practice for research with human participants. Rather I seek to achieve someunderstanding of the shifting contextwhich has causedwell-intentioned and conscientious people to find themselves in this tangle, and to provide a way of conceiving of the forceswhich are shaping the future of education. To do this,we need toexamine thehistorical contextwithinwhichLAhasdeveloped. 3.2 TwoTraditionsofResearchEthics The academic community working on LA has defined itself as a distinct field of study.Thismakes it possible tomaintain a scholarly community anddiscourse, but tends to disguise the degree to which the ethical issues of LA are not specific to the field, but rather are symptomatic ofwider changes inwhich networked data is used tomediate andmouldhuman relationships.Tounderstand these changes, and their ethical implications, it is necessary to look back in the past, well beyond the developmentoftheInternet.Knowinglyorotherwise,practitionersofLA,academics andethicalreviewbodieshaveallsituatedthemselveswithinethicaltraditionswhich date back to theSecondWorldWarwhen framing theuseof data inunderstanding andpredicting theactivities andperformanceoforganisationsand individuals. Following theNuremberg trials of those involved inNazi atrocities during the SecondWorldWar, theNurembergCode (U.S.Government, 1949)wasestablished toensurethatresearchwouldneveragainestablishanabusiveorexploitativerelation- shipwith its subjects.According toShuster (1997), theCodehasnotbeenofficially adoptedbyanynationormajormedical association,but “Nonetheless, its influence on global human-rights law andmedical ethics has been profound.”Of particular relevance for this chapter is article1of theCode: The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential…the person involved should…beable toexercise freepowerofchoice, there shouldbemadeknown tohimthe nature,duration, andpurposeof theexperiment; themethodandmeansbywhich it is tobe conducted…. (U.S.Government, 1949)