What is the Research Experience Credit?
UFV Psychology students enrolled in PSYC 101 and/or PSYC 102 are required to fulfill a research experience exercise worth 4% of the final course grade---the equivalent of one letter grade. This exercise is designed to expose introductory students to one of the most fundamental and important learning outcomes in this discipline: how research is conducted in psychology.
How do I participate in the Research Experience Exercise?
There are two streams of the Research Experience Exercise to choose from to obtain your Research Experience Credit.
1. You can take part directly in research being conducted in the Psychology department as a participant. This option DOES NOT include a written assignment component.
2. You can complete an observational learning assignment on research materials provided to you by the Psychology department. This option DOES include a written assignment component.
What you need to do for OPTION 1: you may choose from a selection of research studies being conducted during the semester of your enrollment in PSYC 101 or 102. You may participate in online or in-person studies to complete your research participation credits.
Online Studies:
Each online 30-minute study is worth 1 credit. Sometimes a study is worth more than 1 credit if it is expected to take more than 30 minutes. You receive 1% for each of the first two credits, and 2% for the third credit, so completing three 30-minute studies will result in the full 4%.
In-Person Studies:
If you participate in an in-person study on campus, you will receive an additional 1 credit for taking part in that study. Thus, you will receive 2 credits for participating in a 30 minute in-person study. Sometimes a study is worth more credits if it is expected to take more than 30 minutes. You receive 1% for each of the first two credits, and 2% for the third credit, so completing two 30-minute in-person studies will result in the full 4%.
***If you are enrolled in BOTH PSYC 101 AND PSYC 102, you MUST PARTICIPATE in the Research Experience Credit independently for EACH COURSE (PSYC 101 AND 102). Participation credits WILL NOT be applied to more than one course or more than one semester.***
What you need to do for OPTION 2: you may choose from a selection of research-based presentations to observe and answer a set of written questions, which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Each of these presentations is worth 1% credit and requires a written responses to a set of questions about the presentation. Having completed your first 2 presentation observation assignments, the last assignment you complete will be valued at 2%, so IF YOU PARTICIPATE IN 3 PRESENTATION ASSIGNMENTS, YOU WILL RECEIVE YOUR FULL 4% RESEARCH EXPERIENCE CREDIT.
***You may mix and match any 3 options from EITHER the ACTIVE RESEARCH PARTICIPATION stream (option 1) OR the OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING ASSIGNMENT stream (option 2) in order to obtain your full 4% Research Experience Credit.***
How do I sign up for the Research Experience Credit?
We use the Sona Systems Experiment Management System for you to sign up for your Research Experience Credit and track your progress throughout the term. You can access the system at any time, from any computer or mobile device with a standard web browser. Here is how you sign-up:
1. Go to Sona Systems
- Click on Create an Account located on the front page of the site
- Enter Basic Personal information
- IMPORTANT!! Make sure to choose your correct Introductory Psychology section when signing up. If you do not choose the correct section, your instructor will not be able to assign credit to you.
- An email will be sent to you with your userID/password (ensure your junk email filters will allow email from the administrator’s email address listed on the request account page)
- Once you have received your userID/password information, go back to the front page of the SONA site and enter this userID and password
- Review and acknowledge the Human Subject Policy for Research (you only need to do this once)
- Click on View Available Studies to select studies to participate in.
All research studies have ethics approval. Once you have participated in the study you signed up for and read/heard the study instructions, if you do not want to participate in the study, you can decline to participate and you will still receive your participant credit.
Having trouble?
Email Tracy.Porter@ufv.ca, Tracy administers the Sona site.