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Becoming an ethical researcher
Becoming an ethical researcher

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

How do I achieve a badge for this course?

Getting your badge is straightforward! Here’s what you have to do:

  • read each session of the course
  • participate in a minimum of three of the course forum activities
  • score 50% or more in the two ‘badged’ quizzes in Session 3 and Session 6.

For each ‘badged’ quiz, you can have three attempts at most of the questions (for true or false questions you will get only one attempt). If you get the answer right first time you will get more marks than for a correct answer the second or third time. Therefore, please be aware that for the two badge quizzes it is possible to get all the questions right but not score 50% and be eligible for the badge on that attempt. If one of your answers is incorrect you will receive helpful feedback and suggestions about how to work out the correct answer.

If you’re not successful in getting 50% the first time you can re-attempt the quiz after 24 hours, and you can come back to it as many times as you like.

The course is designed to take six sessions of study (which you might cover over six weeks) but can be completed anytime other than the month of May each year, when the course is closed for maintenance. This means the course and its forums will be open any time other than the month of May each year to allow you to complete any forum postings you want to submit. Three postings are needed to meet the requirements of the badge. For your post to be counted towards your badge, please ensure it is a reply to the ‘parent’ post and not a reply to a participant’s post. However, please do also feel free to comment on one another’s posts in the spirit of collaboration and participation in the discussion.

We hope that as many people as possible will gain an Open University badge. Getting a badge is an opportunity for you to reflect on what you have learned, rather than seeing it as a test or hurdle to be jumped. Digital badges are increasingly recognised by employers.

If you need more guidance on getting a badge and what you can do with it, take a look at the OpenLearn FAQs [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . When you gain your badge you will receive an email to notify you and you will be able to view and manage all your badges in My OpenLearn within 24 hours of completing the criteria to gain a badge.