Welcome PSYC 1000/1060 students!

 

All students enrolled in PSYC 1000 and PSYC 1060 are required to complete 5 credits of research activities for 5% of their final grade. The following instructions detail how to earn these credits. Please note that students are not given extensions or allowed to take an incomplete in the course in order to finish this requirement.

 

To fulfill this requirement, you must complete the following:

 

1.     Create an account at ecu.sona-systems.com

1.1.   Go to ecu.sona-systems.com. Look for “New Participant?” in the lower left of the screen, and click “Request an account here.”

1.2.   Provide the required information, being careful to (a) use your PIRATE ID and (b) select the correct course section.

1.2.1.     YOU MUST USE YOUR PIRATE ID AS YOUR USER ID in order for your credits to show up on your professor’s report. Your PIRATE ID is what you use to access your ECU e-mail account (e.g., xxx0123).

1.2.2.     You must select the correct section that you are enrolled in to show up on your professor’s report.

1.3.   Click “Request Account.”

1.4.   Check your e-mail for a verification message to complete your registration.

1.5.   Logon to ecu.sona-systems.com using your PIRATE ID and the password that was emailed to you.

2.     Earn research credits. You can earn credits by:

2.1.   Completing the start-of-semester survey (SOSS) that is available at ecu.sona-systems.com from August 25th through September 7th. Completing the SOSS is worth 1 credit.

2.2.   Participating in research studies conducted by faculty and students in the Psychology Department. For each hour of participation you earn 1 credit. You may participate in research studies from September 8th through December 4th.

2.3.   Reading research articles and passing an associated quiz regarding the articles. For each quiz you pass you earn ½ a credit. You may read research articles and take quizzes from September 8th through December 4th.

2.4.   Completing the end-of-semester survey (EOSS) that is available at ecu.sona-systems.com from December 5th through December 14th. Completing the EOSS is worth 1 credit.

2.5.   Any combination of the above choices.

 

Here is some more information about how to earn your 5 credits:

 

Option #1: Participating In Research Studies

 

You can view available studies, sign up to participate, and track your credits on ecu.sona-systems.com. Studies will be worth varying amounts of credit depending on how long they take. Each hour of participation is worth 1 credit.

 

When you sign up for a study, be sure to write down (1) the time, (2) place, (3) experimenter’s name, and (4) experimenter’s e-mail address. It is very important for you to show up promptly at the scheduled time. However, if you cannot attend a study that you have signed up for, go to Sona-Systems and cancel your session as soon as possible so that other students may sign up in your place. If it is less than 24 hours before your scheduled time, send an e-mail message to the experimenter informing him/her that you will not be there for your appointment. Please note that if you miss multiple appointments you will be prevented from participating in further studies and will then have to complete the research requirement with Option #2 and #3.

 

Option #2: Reading Research Articles

 

After you have registered through Sona-Systems, go to the Blackboard website (blackboard.ecu.edu) and select the course entitled PSYC 1000/1060 Research Participation to find copies of articles that you may read for credit. Your instructor may have another Blackboard site for Psychology 1000, but this site should be listed separately. If you do not see it on Blackboard, please e-mail experimentrak@ecu.edu with (1) your name, (2) your email address, (3) the course in which you are enrolled and the section number, and (4) a brief statement of the problem. We may have to add you to the course roster. Please note that the research articles on Blackboard may not be available until several weeks into the semester.

 

The research articles will be in PDF format, so you can download them and read them on your computer or you can open the file and print out the article. Each article is worth ½ a credit. You may want to take notes to help you understand the article. When you are ready to take the quiz, open the quiz file for that article. The quizzes are open notes, so you may look at the article as you are answering the questions. To receive credit you must score at least a 60% on the quiz.

 

After taking a quiz you should immediately check the gradebook to ensure that the quiz score was registered. If your quiz score does not appear in the gradebook please send an email to experimentrak@ecu.edu that includes (1) your name, (2) your ECU e-mail address, (3) the relevant course and section number in which you are enrolled, and (4) the name of the article quiz that you completed and was not registered in the system. We will schedule a time for you to come to the Experimentrak office to complete a paper-and-pencil version of the quiz. If you do not notify us of a quiz score failing to appear in the gradebook within 7 days of taking the quiz you will not be awarded any credit for that quiz.

 

Option #3: Complete the SOSS/EOSS

 

At the beginning and the end of the semester you may take a brief survey assessing your knowledge of psychology. Both the start-of-semester survey (SOSS) and end-of-semester survey (EOSS) are accessible via ecu.sona-systems.com. Both the SOSS and EOSS are each worth 1 credit.

 

If each of the above steps are not completed by the indicated deadline then your grade in PSYC 1000 will drop by up to 5%.

 

Click here for a discussion pertaining to the purpose of this research requirement

 

Click here for detailed Sona-Systems instructions

 

Click here to access the Sona-Systems website

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Need more help? Just send us an email:

experimentrak@ecu.edu

 

Revised: 8/18/2009