Focus Group Invitation Letter and Electronic Consent

Welcome to your first semester at CCC!
You are invited to participate in a focus group sponsored by Professor Martine Howard under the supervision of Dr. Christine Harrington, co-coordinator of the Doctorate in Community College Leadership at New Jersey City University.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation of a 15 to Finish campaign at CCC that informs students about the benefits of taking 15 credits per semester in order to graduate on time. Your participation will offer an understanding as to why students enrolled in 15 credits this semester. The information learned in this focus group will help improve the 15 to Finish campaign next semester at CCC.

As part of this study, you will be placed in a group of approximately 7 to 10 other students. A moderator will ask you several questions while facilitating the discussion. As approved through the New Jersey City University (NJCU) Institutional Review Board, this focus group will be audio/ video recorded. A note-taker will be present. However, your responses will remain confidential and will include no names in the final report. Your confidentiality will be maintained by asking you to choose a number to rename yourself within Zoom before the recording starts. The video recording will only be accessible by the sponsor in the cloud of her password-protected computer. Nobody else will have her password. The Zoom recording will disappear from the cloud in 28 days. A transcript from the recording will be kept for at least 3 years on the sponsor’s computer.

You can choose whether or not to participate in the focus group, and you may stop at any time during the interview without penalty, without any impact on your grades or class standing.

Please note that there are no right or wrong answers to focus group questions. The sponsor wants to hear the many varying viewpoints and would like for everyone to contribute their thoughts.

There is no foreseeable risk besides what you encounter in everyday life.

Should you choose to participate, you will be asked to respect other focus group members’ privacy by not disclosing any content discussed during the study. The sponsor, Prof. Howard, is a doctoral candidate at New Jersey City University and will analyze the data. As stated above, your responses will remain confidential and will include no names in any reports.

The first 30 responses before September 15, 2021 confirming participation and signing the below consent form will receive an invitation to participate. Please mark an X next to the date and time you can participate. All participants selected to participate in the focus groups will receive a $10 Amazon gift card to compensate for their time. This will be provided to you within the individual chat box.

Consent Form

I agree to participate in a study entitled “The Benefits of a 15 to Finish Campaign”, conducted by Prof. Martine Howard, the Chairperson of the Languages and Communications Department at Camden County College. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation of a 15 to Finish campaign to inform students on the benefits of taking 15 credits per semester to graduate on time. The data collected in this study will be used in a program evaluation dissertation for the Educational Doctoral Degree in Community College Leadership at New Jersey City University.

I understand that my responses will be anonymous, and that all data gathered will be confidential. I agree that any information obtained from this study may be used in any way thought best for publication or education provided that I am in no way identified and my name is not used.

I understand that I have the right to skip any questions.

I understand that the video recording will only be accessible by the sponsor in the cloud of her password-protected encrypted computer. Nobody else will have her password. The Zoom recording will disappear from the cloud in 28 days. A transcript from the recording will be kept for at least 3 years on the sponsor’s computer.

I understand that there are no physical or psychological risks involved in this study besides what I encounter in everyday life, and that I am free to withdraw my participation at any time without penalty.

I understand that my participation or lack of participation will not impact my grades or my class standing in any way.

If I have any questions or concerns regarding this study, I may contact Dr. Christine Harrington, PI/faculty advisor at NJCU, (201) 200-2432

If I have any questions or problems concerning my rights as a human subject in this study, I may contact Dr. Meriem Bendaoud, interim chair of the NJCU Institutional Review Board, (201)200-3310, .

I read the information and I agree to the statements put forward in the consent form. (Please sign)