Wax Wrote:I have now looked at the forms and the guidance notes and they even state that they are assuming a level of prior knowledge. This does not strike me as a serious attempt to involve volunteers as without some degree of training the guidance notes are not going to work. Give people a set of notes without any on the ground training and they will interpret what they are supposed to do in as many different ways as there are people who undertake the surveys. They will do this even with the training but at least you will mitigate the variation in approaches.
The project may well be valid but the results the will get from the volunteers will vary so much to make those results virtually meaning less. The whole volunteering side has not been thought through. Unless they are testing what you get if you give people a form and a set of guidance notes ( think they mention that duplication is ok so perhaps they are testing the volunteer survey methodology).
Wish them the best of luck but think they have totally missed the point (and a fantastic opportunity) with the volunteering side of things. As for that disclaimer!
yep. nail on head
Doug, brilliant post!
Though my cynical side still thinks that if people are working/ contributing, they should be trained, fall under a duty of care and be paid!
I dread the day when I receive medical treatment based on evidence gathered by the public on a 'volunteer/ community outreach medical research project'.