Knowing and learning in the post-digital
The informant (the person being investigated, the data subject) should be informed of the processing of personal data in accordance with Articles 12-14 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Personal data is defined as such data, by means of which one can identify an informant, either directly or indirectly, for example by combining pieces of information. The Privacy Notice for Scientific Research contains the information that the informant should be given when personal data is processed in scientific research.
1. Name of the research
Knowing and learning in the post-digital
2. Data Controller
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada Ab (Arcada University of Applied Sciences), Jan-Magnus Janssons plats 1, 00560 Helsingfors
3. Contact information
Researcher in charge or research group
Henrika Franck, PhD, vice rector research, E-mail: henrika.franck
Corresponding researcher in matters regarding processing of personal data
Educational Researcher, M.Ed. Tore Ståhl, E-mail: tore.stahl
Data protection officer
Data protection officer, lawyer Anna Härmä, E-mail: dpo
4. Research partners and distribution of responsibilities
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada Ab (Arcada University of Applied Sciences).
5. Researchers
Arcada’s Educational Researcher and study psychologist, as well as additional researchers and research assistants that may be tied to the project. The researches will process data to explore the project’s research questions, as well as new questions and phenomena arising from the material or observable at the university or in society.
The material may also be used in other educational research projects within the university, and also in current and future doctoral research conducted by the university’s teachers (e.g. current dissertations regarding epistemic beliefs and First-year experience).
6. Description of the research project and the aim of processing personal data
The primary research questions of the research project regard exploring the relationships between knowledge view, media practices, reading and information competence, motivation, critical thinking and study success.
The research project is both descriptive and prognostic, and the purpose is to deepen the university's knowledge of its students in order to develop education at Arcada towards active learning and student centeredness.
From the material, no such reports are generated that would disclose the informants' identities. Results are reported in scientific publications and only in terms of group-wide trends and with respect for established research ethics.
7. Nature and duration of the research project
The research is by nature a follow-up research. The first data collection is performed among new students at the start of the academic year 2019 and after that, corresponding data collections are planned to take place at the start of each academic year. In addition, cumulative data may be collected among age groups in the middle and at the end of the study programmes to allow for comparisons across groups and over time. The data collection instruments may be fine-tuned during the project based on analysis results and development and phenomena in society.
8. Legal basis for processing personal data
The legal basis for the processing of personal data is in accordance with the EU GDPR Art 6.1
- the university's legal commitment to continuously monitor and develop its activities (Universities of Applied Sciences Act 14.11.2014 / 932, sections 4 and 62),
- a general interest in terms of scientific research and statistics.
Participation in the survey-based data collection is voluntary. At the beginning of the questionnaire, the informant can choose (checkbox) to provide her/his consent to processing of the data (also see section 17).
9. Sensitive personal data
The research does not involve personal data of sensitive nature.
10. Personal data in the research material
The cumulation of data takes place during the entire course of each age group, which requires the informant's user name to be used as identification data in the data collection phase. At each cumulation procedure, collected data are pseudonymized1 prior to being added to the existing data set. The pseudonymization key is stored separately and destroyed after the cumulation for each age group is completed. Data regarding each age group are stored in separate, pseudonymized records.
11. Data sources
The register contains the informants' answers to the questions in various surveys. Access to each survey is based on a unique link contained in a personal invitation message to the informant's Arcada email, and the informant's user name is saved together with the survey responses. In the register, survey-based data are cumulated and merged with learning analytics-type data and performance data from itslearning and performance data from the study registry.
Demographic data (first name and last name, year of birth, gender, nationality, home municipality, mother tongue, school language, secondary education, previous degrees, year of admission and education programme) are obtained from Arcada's student registry.
Surveys are used to collect data regarding knowledge views (so-called epistemic beliefs), motivation, critical thinking, IT and media practices, activities prior the Arcada studies etc. Various kinds of meta and paradata may be registered during data collection (e.g. time stamp, browser, computer / mobile device etc.).
12. Disclosure of personal data outside the research group
Research data are not disclosed to actors outside the research group.
Regarding data from Arcada’s net-based learning environment itslearning, itslearning serves as personal data processor on the basis of a current data protection agreement between the university and itslearning.
13. Transfer of personal data outside EU and ETA
Research data and personal data are not transferred outside EU or ETA.
14. Automated decision-making
Research data are not used for automated decision-making.
15. Principles regarding protection of personal data
Data protection
All research data are in electronic format and processed in information systems that only the project's researchers have access to. The access is based on Arcada login with username and password, and the information systems track the use of data.
Pseudonymization and anonymization
The material is pseudonymized at the collection stage, which means that direct identification data are removed: first name and last name (sect. 11) are removed and the user name is replaced with a pseudonym1 that only named persons have access to (sect.10).
16. Processing of personal data after the research project is terminated
Material containing personal data is destroyed after it has been pseudonymized and merged with previous data.
Research data are archived without identification data in pseudonymised format at the university, possibly also in the Finnish social science data archive in anonymized format (without pseudonymization key).
17. The informant’s rights
The informant’s rights
When it comes to data describing the informant her/himself, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guarantees the informant the right to:
- obtain information about the processing of personal data,
- get access to data,
- correct data,
- limit or object to the processing of data,
- submit a complaint to the Data Ombudsman's Office if they consider that the applicable data protection legislation has not been followed in the processing of personal data.
The informant can exercise her/his rights or request additional information about the rights by contacting the corresponding researcher or the data protection officer.
Exceptions from the informant’s rights
In scientific and historical research, the Data Controller may deviate from the informant’s rights of accessing data, correcting data, restricting the processing of data and the right to object to the processing if:
- processing is based on an appropriate research plan,
- the research has a researcher in charge or a responsible group and
- personal data is used and disclosed only for historical or scientific research or other compatible purposes, and also provided that data is processed so that information regarding specific persons is not disclosed to outsiders.
On the basis of the above criteria, the current research project deviates from the informant's rights by allowing the informant to exercise her/his right only within one week after each data collection. At a later point of time, exercising the right would require disproportionate effort and additionally, make it impossible to repeat analyses already made due to the changed content of research data.