The experiment serves two purposes:

1. to test the effectiveness of the CLEAR model as an online teaching model that can facilitate active learning of students;

2. to collect the students' feedback on using TUT's new LMS platform and Mahara platform.

A total of around 30 students will be participating in an online experiment. It is a pre-experiment that will use the one-group pretest-posttest design.

The students will study a pre-designed course that follows the CLEAR instruction model. Students’ online engagement will be logged automatically by the experiment environment https://lms.cite.tut.ac.jp/ and https://mahara.cite.tut.ac.jp/.

Students will need to complete a survey to finish the whole experiment. The survey is to be conducted by using SurveyMonkey.

The participant can expect approximately a maximum of 6 hours' commitment in this experiment.

Reality: 30 students at TUT. (Plan: 100 students)

There is no perceived risk for the participant in this research. By participating in the online experiment, students can experience online active learning, and offer suggestion for its improvement.

• Being a subject is voluntary, and your free will is respected.

• Even if you agree to be a subject, you can withdraw at any time during this project.

• Your participation in this project is voluntary. Your withdrawal from it will not result in any disadvantageous consequences.

• If you are a student, withdrawing from this research will not influence your grade or credit in the attended class.

• In case of withdrawing, please contact the lead researcher of this project by referring to the contact information in this document.

• If withdrawn, the data of you obtained up to that point of your withdrawal will be discarded and will not be used in the research.

• If the research results have already been submitted or published, or if the data are completely anonymized and cannot be identified, they cannot be discarded.

• If you withdraw from this research project, the incentive if paid must be returned, if unpaid yet it will not be paid.

• The result of this project will be published in academic publication outlets such as conferences and journal articles.

• All personal information will be omitted during the writing and the reporting process. All participants will be anonymous. No data such as name or affiliation will be made identifiable to track the subjects.

• Even though this project covers an intervention study, it does not involve any biomedical or health outcomes therefore it will not be registered in any public registry.

All data containing personal identifiers will be kept for a maximum of five years after the publication of the first paper. Personal identifiers will be removed for longer-term retention of the research data.

• If you desire, you may request materials on research plans and research methods. These materials can be browsed within the range that does not interfere with the personal information of other subjects, and the securing of originality of research.

• To submit such a request, please contact the lead researcher of this project by referring to the contact information at the beginning of this document.

There is no conflict to claim in this research.

The participants will be paid with incentives in accordance with the regulations of the university.

Within five years upon receiving the consent and collecting the data from the subject, if there arises some follow-up research such as comparative research with scholars at other research institutes, no further consent will be needed from the subject. However, all data collected should be anonymized to protect the personal information of the subject.

Contact for inquiries regarding the contents of the research plan

Principal Investigator:

Dr. Lin Jingjing　　

Assistant Professor

Center for IT-based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology

Phone: 0532-44-1308, E-mail: lin.jingjing.qc@tut.jp

Contact for research ethical review, complaints, etc.

Research Support Division, Toyohashi University of Technology　

Phone: 0532-44-6982

E-mail: kensien@office.tut.ac.jp

The online experiment will be delivered on the Moodle-based course management system at https://lms.cite.tut.ac.jp/. The survey will be conducted by SurveyMonkey.

The experiment design is as follows.

Step 1: Online learning courses development

The reality was that one course that follows the CLEAR instruction model will be developed on the new TUTLMS platform.

Course name: Creative Commons: Create, Distribute, and Use Content on the Internet

(Original plan: Two separate small online learning courses will be offered. One course follows the CLEAR instruction model, and another follows a traditional way of lecturing. )

Step 2: Recruit students

The following ways will be used to recruit students.

• Print and paste poster at the campus.

• Include the invitation in the CITE newsletter.

• Distribute the invitation through the Global House and Kyomu-ka emailing system.

Students can sign up to participate by submitting the online sign-up form.

Step 3: Sign consent form

Voluntary students need to read and sign the online consent form by typing their full name and indicating the signature date. Agreeing to participate in the online experiment will complete tasks as assigned, allow the platform to log their online behaviors, and submit responses to the survey questionnaire. Students’ email addresses will be collected when they reply to the consent form (via Google Form) so that their identifies can be verified.

Step 4: Students enroll in the course.

The reality was there were not enough students for a proper experiment design. Therefore I changed the research design to conduct a pre-experiment with only one group of students. Students were sent an email to enroll in the course.

(Original plan: The participating students are assigned randomly into either the treatment group or the control group. Treatment group students are enrolled in the active learning course. Control group students are enrolled in the traditional learning course.)

Step 5: Online learning period

Students are required to complete the course within one month (January 1 - 31, 2022) and submit their assignments and tests before the deadline. All students' activity logs will be automatically recorded by the platform.

(Original plan: Both groups’ activity logs will be automatically recorded.)

Step 6: Online survey

All students will finish an online survey to share their active learning experience so far, indicate their

satisfaction in the learning within the experiment, and provide feedback.