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The CFR is pretty clear, and I have experience with this (being both an IRB reviewer, faculty member, and researcher). When it says "is exempt" it means "is exempt". Imagine otherwise: a teacher who wants change their final exam from a 50 item Scantron using A-D choices, to a 50 item Scantron using A-E choices, because they think having 5 choices per item is better than 4, would need to ask for IRB approval. That's not feasible, and is not what happens in the real world of academia. It is true that local IRBs may try to add additional rules, but the NU policy you quote talks about "studies". Most IRBs would disagree that "professor playing around with grading procedures and policies" constitutes a "study". It would be presumed exempted. Are you a teacher or a student? If you are a teacher, you have wide latitude that a student researcher does not. Also, if you are a teacher, doing "research about your teaching style", that's exempted. By contrast, if you are a student, or a teacher "doing research" that's probably not exempt and must go through IRB. |