Digital Support for Sustained STEM Inquiry

Explanatory statement

This page appears before any survey question and is the full information you need to decide whether to take part.

What this research is about

This survey is part of PhD research at Monash University exploring how digital tools can better support sustained STEM inquiry for students aged 11 to 13 in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws on the perspectives of educators, researchers and professionals working across learning design, artificial intelligence and educational technology.

The research is centred on Kōkiri Lab, a digital STEM inquiry platform for Year 7 and 8 students. This survey asks what a tool of this kind should actually try to support, before further design work proceeds.

Who is being asked

Anyone with relevant professional experience in education, educational technology, learning analytics or data ethics. You do not need to have taken part in any earlier survey or consultation to take part in this one.

Something you should know before you start

I built the tool this research examines, Kōkiri Lab, and I am a director of Regenpreneur Ltd, the New Zealand charitable entity that operates it, as well as being the researcher on this project. That gives me a real interest in the answers coming out a particular way, which is exactly why this survey is structured to make disagreement and criticism easy to give. My supervisors at Monash oversee the analysis, and the findings are published whether or not they suit the platform.

What taking part involves

The survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes. It asks about your background, then routes you to one of two versions depending on whether you have direct experience teaching Year 7 and 8. There are no right or wrong answers. Every question includes a way to indicate something is outside your experience, and you are asked to use that option rather than guess.

Before the questions begin you will be shown a short overview, one to two minutes, of the kind of digital support tool this survey asks about, so that later questions have a shared reference point.

Taking part is your choice

Taking part is voluntary. You may leave the survey at any time without submitting, and without giving a reason. Declining or withdrawing has no effect on any other relationship you may have with Monash University, Kōkiri Lab or Regenpreneur Ltd.

What happens to your answers

Responses are anonymous. No names are collected or associated with responses. If you choose to provide an email address to receive a summary of findings, that address is stored separately from your survey answers, with no link back to what you wrote. Data is stored securely on Monash University systems and retained for five years after the project finishes, then destroyed.

Findings are shared with everyone who requests them: what the whole group thought mattered most, where views diverged, and what changed in the design as a result.

Questions or concerns

If you have a question about the research, contact Richard Pedley at richard.pedley@monash.edu.

If you would prefer to raise something with someone independent of the research, contact the Executive Officer at the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee, muhrec@monash.edu or +61 3 9905 2052, quoting project 53733.

Consent

By continuing to the survey, you confirm that you have read this explanatory statement and consent to take part on the terms described above.