Any UCC staff conducting audience research must follow this code of practice for workshops, focus groups or interviews. For the purpose of this Code of Practice, minor research participants are defined as people under the age of 18 but over the age of 16 who are participating in audience research activity and who are not currently registered UCC students. 

For any UCC staff members conducting or supporting audience research activity

1. At all times, consideration must be given to UCC’s child safeguarding statement. 
2. You must be Garda vetted. 
3. You must never be alone (either in a physical space or an online setting) with a minor research participant: 
   1. You must attend the physical meeting space where a workshop, focus group or interview is being held at least 10 minutes before the advertised start time of the activity and in the company of another UCC staff member. 
   2. In an online setting, you must start the online meeting at least 10 minutes before the advertised start time of the activity and have another UCC staff member in attendance. 
   3. Do not admit any participants to an online meeting unless another UCC staff member is in attendance. 
   4. All participation is by invite only – check against the invited list of participants before allowing a guest to join an online meeting. Where a meeting code is required, only share this meeting code with approved attendees.  
   5. End online meetings for all participants before the last participant has logged off. 
4. You must record the activity and advise the participants in advance that the activity will be recorded. 
   1. Recordings and a list of the attendees who attended a recorded session that involved minor participants must be saved to the Audience Research recordings folder on UCC’s SharePoint environment and kept for a period of 9 years. 
   2. You must also record the date and time of the activity. 
   3. The recording should start before the first participant joins the meeting and after the last participant has left. 
5. You must confirm that the participants are over the age of 16 and where they are under the age of 18, have parental or guardianship consent to participate in the audience research activity.  
6. You will document any incidents of inappropriate behaviour that would contravene child protection or cause harm to a child such as: 
   1. Participants of audience research engaging in bullying, disseminating inappropriate and / or offensive materials. 
   2. Uninvited participants crashing the meeting and disseminating inappropriate and / or offensive materials. 
7. You must ensure participants adhere to the code of conduct. You must: 
   1. Warn participants if they are potentially in contravention of the code of conduct. 
   2. Advise participants of the consequences of being in contravention of the code of conduct.  
   3. Remove any participants who continue to be in contravention of the code of conduct after receiving a warning. 
   4. Record any such incidents. 
8. You will report any serious incidents involving minor participants to the designated liaison person as outlined in UCC’s child safeguarding statement.  

Code of conduct for participants in UCC’s audience research activities 

We’re very happy for your help in understanding our audiences and understanding your needs as a member of the UCC audience. We are committed to making this research activity (workshop, focus group or interview) a fun and engaging activity for you as a participant but also a safe one for all participants. We’ve set out a code of conduct that we ask all participants to follow.  

1. Treat the other participants and the UCC staff conducting the research with respect and courtesy and be sensitive to the needs of others and the differences of experience and opinion that you will encounter during the activities. 
2. Harassment, bullying or discrimination of other participants and the UCC staff conducting the research will not be tolerated. 
3. Abusive language will not be tolerated. 
4. Sharing of inappropriate or offensive materials will not be tolerated. 
5. Make sure nothing inappropriate or offensive shows up on camera in your environment. 
6. Only invited participants are allowed to participate in the activities. 
7. Follow good “netiquette” during online meetings: 
   1. Keep your camera on (and be aware of what is displayed on screen while your camera is on.) 
   2. Keep your microphone muted unless asked by the host. 
8. Be wise about what personal information you share about yourself and your surroundings while online – only share what you are comfortable sharing.  
9. If at any time you feel unsafe during the research activity, please advise the UCC research staff straight away.  

Staff supervising activity will give a warning to participants who are not following the code of conduct. If a participant continues to behave inappropriately or if a participant is in serious breach of the code, they will be removed from the online meeting or asked to leave the physical meeting immediately. If we have to remove someone from the activity, we will record why the person was removed.