TORONTO METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
Diversity Institute, Future Skills Centre, and Ontario Chamber of Commerce
Consent to Participate in Research - Online Survey
Learners

Project title: Unleashing Learning Management Systems at Scale - Capacity Building for Canadian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE
You are being invited to participate in an evaluation project. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of addressing skills needs among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through:

● the deployment of free and sponsored training and skills development content for SMEs;
● the identification and validation of training content that meets the needs of SMEs;
● providing SMEs with access to training resources that promote diverse and inclusive hiring practices; and
● the development of an evidence-based training model that is cost-effective and scalable.

The project is being led by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) and is being funded by the Future Skills Centre as an evaluation project. As a research lead for the Future Skills Centre, the Diversity Institute is providing research support for this evaluation project and is leading the data collection portion of the project.

Before you consent to participate, please read this consent form so that you understand what your participation will involve. Data collection for this project is being led by Dr. Wendy Cukier at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute. This project comprises four testing phases and a beta launch phase. Data generated in the phases will be used to improve the learning management system (LMS) being deployed as a part of the project and content being offered to SMEs on this LMS. Data collected in each phase will be used to enable additional operational improvements to the program and evaluation of the program’s effectiveness.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Wendy Cukier, MA, MBA, PhD: Academic Director, Diversity Institute and Future Skills Centre

CO-INVESTIGATORS
Magdalena Sabat, PhD: Director, Research, Special Projects (FSC), Diversity Institute (Future Skills)
Simon Blanchette, MSc: Senior Research Associate, Diversity Institute (Future Skills)
Erin Grosjean, MA: Research Program Manager, Diversity Institute (Future Skills)
Other members of the Diversity Institute’s Evaluation Project Team may also be granted access to this data as necessary.

PARTICIPANT ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees.  

WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO DO
You are being asked to complete a survey to evaluate and provide feedback on the content of course you recently completed. The survey will take about 5 minutes to complete. You will be asked to complete one survey after each course you take throughout the evaluation period. You will be asked to consent to your data being collected at the beginning of each of these surveys.

Once you have completed the survey, you will be asked to confirm that you consent to having your data collected by clicking “Submit Survey” at the end of the survey. If you do not confirm your consent to participate at the end of the survey by clicking the “Submit Survey” button, no data will be collected, even if you have partially filled out the survey.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS
The information gathered from this evaluation project will help the OCC, Magnet, the Diversity Institute, and the Future Skills Centre understand how best to support SME business owners in accessing skills training content for their employees. Participants will receive free skills training from the courses taken on the platform in exchange for their participation.  

WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL RISKS TO YOU
There are minimal risks to you in participating in these online surveys. You are free to refuse to participate in this evaluation project, to refuse to answer any questions you do not wish to answer, or to stop participating at any time without giving a reason. The survey will NOT include questions asking for personal data; rather, questions will focus on your experience with the course content.

Your responses will be kept confidential and any data generated by your participation in these online surveys will be de-identified before it is analyzed. Raw data will not be shared outside of the Diversity Institute’s Evaluation Project Team; only aggregated summary data will be shared with project team members at the OCC, Magnet.

Your choice to participate or not participate in this evaluation will not influence or affect your future relations with Toronto Metropolitan University, the OCC, or any of its partners.

There are some other risks associated with participation. These risks are minimal and are outlined in this section. You may experience emotional or psychological discomfort as you may find some of the questions to be sensitive. In this case you can choose not to answer these questions or exit the survey, however any responses collected up to that point will be used in the project.

Given the nature of virtual surveys, there is a risk that your participation and/or responses may become known to others if you choose to complete the survey on a shared device or in a public location. We strongly encourage participants to complete these surveys in a private location on a personal device or one supplied by your employer. Your data will be stored on secure servers and once you submit, your responses are protected with safeguards that ensure your privacy and confidentiality.

CONFIDENTIALITY
Any information you provide is confidential, including your choice whether or not to participate in the evaluation project. The online survey is confidential and will not be collecting identifying information such as your name or address. Your email address will be collected to confirm your participation in the project, but will be removed from your data as soon as this has been done. Although your Internet Protocol (IP) address can be tracked through the survey platform, the evaluation team will not be collecting this information. Your IP address could be observed only to ensure that there are no duplicate submissions from the same individual. The Diversity Institute will store your personal information and response data in a secure Toronto Metropolitan-provided password protected Google Workspace Drive. The server will only be accessible to members of the Diversity Institute’s Evaluation Project Team. Please note that we cannot guarantee privacy and confidentiality if you complete your survey in a public place, or on a public server.

HOW YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE PROTECTED AND STORED
The online survey is hosted through QualtricsXM, a company based in the United States. However, your data will be stored on Canadian servers and is protected through a strict privacy policy (https://www.qualtrics.com/privacy-statement/). To further protect your information, once data gathered by the online surveys is downloaded by the researchers, it will be deleted from QualtricsXM and stored as password protected and/or encrypted files on a secure Google Workspace Drive. Only members of the Diversity Institute’s Evaluation Project Team will have access to the information and data collected. All data will be de-identified and aggregated before being shared. Once the research is completed, the lead researcher will store the data for three years after completion of the evaluation project to ensure that all evaluation work related to the project can be completed.

HOW YOUR DATA WILL BE USED
The aggregate data will be used by the Future Skills Centre and the OCC to evaluate the effectiveness of this program at addressing skills needs among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to improve both the means by which training content is delivered and the training content that is offered.

At this time, there are no plans to use any of the data collected, or any of the analysis undertaken as a part of this evaluation project, for the purposes of academic research or the publication of peer-reviewed journal articles, or for the publication of non-peer-reviewed research reports. Your data may, however, be used for secondary analysis at a later date to support future research publications.

VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
Participation in this evaluation project is completely voluntary. You can choose whether or not to participate. If any question makes you uncomfortable, you can skip that question. You may stop participating at any time. 

If you choose to stop participating, you may also choose to not have your data included in the evaluation. Your choice of whether to participate will not influence your future relations with Toronto Metropolitan University, Diversity Institute, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce or the investigators involved in the research.

If you choose to revoke your consent and no longer wish to have your data included in this evaluation after you have submitted your responses and within four weeks after today’s date, you have the right to request the removal of your data from the evaluation. If you decide to withdraw after four weeks from today, we cannot remove your data from the aggregated results, but we will delete your individual results from our servers.

QUESTIONS
If you have any questions about the research now, please ask. If you have questions later about the research, you may contact:
Wendy Cukier, MA, MBA, PhD, DU (Hon) LLD (Hon) M.S.C.
Professor, Entrepreneurship and Strategy
Ted Rogers School of Management
Director, Diversity Institute
350 Victoria St., Toronto Ontario M5B2K3
Email: wcukier@ryerson.ca 
Phone: 416-979-5000 x6740

Please print or save a copy of this page for your future reference. By clicking “Submit Survey” at the end of the survey, you are consenting to the collection and use of your full responses. Request for consent to any future data collection will accompany any future invitations to participate throughout the evaluation period.