ESPRMC Research Participant Pool
Participation in research studies may involve taking an online survey or doing a computer-based task in a research lab on campus. Participants receive 1 to 3 credits for each study. The nature of the study and how many credits are given after completion is indicated on the website for each experiment. Students are required to complete 4 credits of research studies over the course of the semester. Students are given 1 bonus credit if they do not have any UNEXCUSED no-shows. In this case, they would only need to complete 3 credits to achieve the 4-credit research requirement.
A professional research participant pool system is used to manage the ESPRMC participant pool. You can click on the link below to visit the ESPRMC pool portal to sign-up for studies (students) or to post new studies (researchers). Please use your UA email to signup for the pool.
Information for Students
REMINDER: The research pool will close on 03/31/2020 for the Spring 2020 semester.
How to sign up for a study?
- Go to http://ua-esprmc.sona-systems.com
- Log in to the system using your BAMA username and password.
- Select the course(s) you are taking this semester (to select more than one, hold down the ctrl key).
- You will be directed to a short prescreen.
- Review any studies that are available and sign up.
- SONA will send reminders of upcoming studies.
- Be sure to show up for your appointments. If you cannot make it, cancel your appointment online 24 hours in advance (or an emergency arises, as soon as possible).
- You will receive an extra credit if you show up on-time for all studies in a semester.
- If you do not wish to participate in research studies, there are other ways to earn credit in your course. Please speak to your professor to find out about these opportunities.
What should you expect from each study you participate in?
- Courteous treatment. The researcher should be present at the appointed time and place and should treat their subjects considerately. Failure to be treated courteously should be reported to your instructor or the pool coordinator (esprmcpool@ua.edu).
- Consent. Subjects must consent to the study procedures. To do this, researchers must obtain consent from participants (unless consent requirements have been waived by the IRB) prior to the study. So that subjects are informed concerning what they are consenting to, the researcher must provide a fair and as full an explanation as possible of the procedures before asking subjects to sign. This description should include information concerning any discomfort or risks as well as any benefits to be expected. Researchers also should offer to answer any questions concerning the procedures and mention the right to leave the study (see point 3).
- The right to leave any study at any time. Subjects may leave a session at any time and still receive credit.
- Informative feedback. Researchers must explain each study to the students that participate. This explanation should be clear and useful. Failures to provide adequate feedback should be reported to your course instructor.
- Prompt arrival at the session. Students should arrive on time at the session. When students do not show up, the researcher’s time is wasted. Often researchers lose an hour or more every time a subject fails to show up. Of course there are times when it cannot be helped. It is important that you contact the researcher and explain the situation. No-shows are tracked by SONA.
- Earning extra credit through Human Subject Studies is a privilege. If you accumulate 3 or more no-shows in a semester, you may lose the privilege to participate in any more studies that semester.
- Pay attention to the feedback provided at the end of the study. Making participation genuinely educational is an obligation of students as well as researchers. Feedback is more likely to be interesting if students pay close attention to the researcher’s explanation and ask a few probing questions.
Information for Researchers
Researchers using the pool to recruit subjects agree to the following terms:
- Studies that are submitted to the pool should have an active IRB approval. The researcher is solely responsible for acquiring an IRB approval for the protocol used. By submitting a new study to the pool the researcher confirms having obtained the appropriate IRB approval. The IRB approval date and protocol number is required when submitting a new study to the participant pool.
- The research participant pool will be open between 01/16/2020 and 03/31/2020. No subject recruitment or scheduling will be done after 03/31/2020.
- Courteous treatment. The researcher should be present at the appointed time and place and should treat their subjects considerately.
- Consent. Subjects must consent to the study procedures. To do this, researchers must obtain consent from participants (unless consent requirements have been waived by the IRB) prior to the study. So that subjects are informed concerning what they are consenting to, the researcher must provide a fair and as full an explanation as possible of the procedures before asking subjects to sign. This description should include information concerning any discomfort or risks as well as any benefits to be expected. Researchers also should offer to answer any questions concerning the procedures and mention the right to leave the study.
- The right to leave any study at any time. Subjects may leave a session at any time and still receive credit.
- Informative feedback. Researchers must explain each study to the students that participate. This explanation should be clear and useful.
- When posting a study on the participant pool, please assign 1 credit for online studies (per session), 2 credits for lab studies that takes up to one hour, and 3 credits for lab studies that takes more than one hour (e.g., neuroimaging studies typically takes 2 hrs).
Posting a New Research Study on the Participant Pool
| researcher_instruction_0905.pdf |
Syllabus Statement for Instructors
Research Participation Requirement
The Department of Educational Studies requires that all BER/BEP students satisfy a research requirement by participating in educational research studies as research subjects during the semester. Students who are uncomfortable participating in research, have the option of completing an assignment to satisfy the research requirement. The purpose of this requirement is to help students learn about different methods used by researchers and to help advance our knowledge of various educational and psychological processes. Faculty members and graduate students who are part of the Educational Studies Department conduct these studies. Participation in these studies may involve taking an online survey or doing a computer-based task in a research lab on campus. Participants will receive 1 to 3 credits for each study. The nature of the study and how many credits are given after completion is indicated for each experiment. You are required to complete 4 credits of research studies over the course of the semester. Note, however, that you will be given 1 bonus credits if you do not have any UNEXCUSED no-shows. In this case, you would only need to complete 3 credits to achieve the 4-credit research requirement.
You will need to visit https://edneuro.ua.edu/esprmcpool.html for information about the pool and to view available studies. You will first need to create an account to use the system. The research requirement must be fulfilled completely (partial credit is not an option). If you fail to complete this requirement, your grade will be reduced by one full letter grade as stated in the Department Policies. Therefore, if a student has a B in the course it will become a C. Be sure to look at a copy of the research participation requirement on the website to make sure you are eligible to participate and will be able to fulfill the requirements.
The research pool will be open between 01/16/2020 and 03/31/2020. Therefore, you will need to complete your research participation by 03/31/2020. You can track your progress using the online system.
***Completion of this requirement does not factor into your final grade, but LACK OF COMPLETION will reduce your final grade, per departmental policy***
NOTE: As stated above, if you are uncomfortable participating in research, you have the option of completing an assignment to satisfy the research requirement. If you decide to choose the writing assignment option, please let me know as early as possible in the semester.
Please email esprmcpool@ua.edu with any questions or concerns.
