Sona Instructions

Your interaction with the system will be minimal and hopefully as painless as possible. After you log in to the system, you can view a list of available studies and any restrictions, sign up for studies that interest you, and track your progress throughout the semester. The system will track when you receive credits for a study, so you can view this online as well. The system works best if you use a web browser that is less than 2 years old. It works well with Internet Explorer version 4 and above, Netscape version 4 and above, and Firefox version 1 and above. It will work with other web browsers, and with older versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape, however the layout may not be as clean. No functionality will be lost by using an older web browser. This documentation assumes you have a basic knowledge of how to use the web. On this system, it is not necessary to use the Back button. You can always use the toolbar on the top of every screen to navigate anywhere on the site.

If you see a link on the front page of the site to request an account, then your organization has enabled the feature to allow you to request an account. Click the link, and you will be required to provide some very basic information. Depending on how your system is configured, you may receive an email notification immediately with your login information, or you may receive the notification only after the administrator has approved the account. The email notification will include login instructions for the system. You will be assigned a default password, which you can change after your first login. In many cases, you may also provide an alternate email address (after your first login) if you prefer to receive future notifications at another email address. The email will come from the administrator’s email address (listed on the request account page), so be sure to configure your junk mail filters to allow email from that address.

Once you have your login information, go to the front page of the site and enter your user ID and password to login.

Important: When logging in, be sure to select a course. Courses will be listed by course title followed by the instructor name. Select the correct course to ensure that experiment credits are assigned correctly.Your login (also known as a session) will expire after a certain period of inactivity, usually 20-60 minutes. This is done for security purposes. If this happens, you can always log in again. When you are done using the system, it is better to explicitly log out, to prevent any problems that may arise if someone uses your computer before the session expires. This is especially important if you are using a public computer lab.

If you have forgotten or do not have your password, and the feature is enabled on the system, then you may choose to have your password emailed to you. You will see an option on the front login page if this feature is enabled. Your password will be emailed after you submit the form, and should arrive in your email box momentarily. If you provided an alternate email address (see the Email Address Options section of this documentation), it will be sent there. Otherwise, it will be sent to your main email address, which is derived from your user ID.

When you are done using the system, choose Log Out from the toolbar on the left side to log out. You are now logged out. It is always a good security measure to close all your browser windows as well, especially if you are using a computer that is shared by others.

If you would like to change your password or other information about yourself, choose My Profile from the top toolbar. If you would like to change your password, type your new password (twice, for confirmation) in the provided boxes. If you would not like to change your password, simply leave these boxes empty.

There are certain events in the system which will cause an email notification to be sent to you. Most often, these are notifications that you have received credit for a study, or a confirmation that you have signed up for a study. Your email address is also displayed to the researcher when they view who has signed up for their study, in the event they need to contact you.You have two choices for your email address. When you update your profile, you will see a box where you may provide an alternate email address. If you provide such an address (this could be a Hotmail account, for instance), this is the address where any notifications will be sent, and this is also the address that will be displayed to researchers (if enabled).If you do not supply an alternate email address, the system will derive your email address from your username. Typically, it will add your organization’s Internet domain to the end of your user ID to form the address, so if your user ID is “jsmith” and your organization’s Internet domain is “yourschool.edu” then it would derive your email address as “jsmith@yourschool.edu”.In some cases, depending on how the system is configured, you will be required to provide an email address (which will be listed as “Email Address” instead of “Alternate Email Address”) and all emails to you will go to that address.On some systems, the Alternate Email Adress option is not available.

With the system, you may view studies and sign up for those that interest you and where you meet any special requirements. You may cancel your sign-up through the system as well.
You may see some studies that are online studies. You should read the details of these studies closely, but generally you may participate in them online. It is usually assumed you will participate in the study shortly after you sign up for it, though you have until the Participation Deadline Date to participate.

To view a list of studies, click on Studies from top toolbar. You will see a list of studies. A brief description of each study will be listed, as well as any special requirements that may restrict your eligibility to participate in the study.Studies that currently have available participation times (timeslots) will have “TIMESLOTS AVAILABLE” listed next to the name of the study. If no studies have available timeslots, you may want to logon to the system a few days later to see if new timeslots have been added. You may also select a specific date to view studies with available timeslots on that dateTo view more information about a study, click on the name of the study.

To sign up to participate in a study, find the study you would like to participate in (see Viewing Studies in this documentation). Click on the study name for more information. You will see a list of any special restrictions or eligibility requirements, as well as a contact person if you have questions about the study.Some restrictions are automatically enforced by the system. If the study has certain pre-requisites or disqualifiers (studies you must not have participated in to participate in this study), those will be listed, as well as a note about whether you meet those eligibility requirements.The study may have other restrictions listed as Subject Restrictions. An example of a Subject Restriction is “Left-handed people only.” If listed, then the system does not enforce this restriction, but you should only sign up for the study if you meet this restriction. If you sign up for the study and you do not meet the restrictions, you will not receive credit for the study.Some studies require a special password to sign up. If this is the case, it will be noted. The researcher should have given you this special password. It is not the same as the password you use to login to the system. You will need to enter the special sign-up password just before you click the Sign Up button to sign up for a timeslot.You may only sign up for a timeslot up until a certain time before that timeslot is scheduled to occur. The system will not show a Sign Up button for timeslots where it is too late to sign up.

Once you have determined you meet all the requirements, click on View Timeslots for This Study and you will see a list of available timeslots. Choose a timeslot that is convenient for you, and click Sign Up. After you click Sign Up, you will see information displayed confirming the time and location of the study you plan to participate in. You may receive an email confirmation as well, depending on how your system is configured. You are now signed up for the study. To cancel your sign-up, see Canceling a Sign-Up in this documentation.

If you need to cancel a timeslot you have signed up for, you can do this from the My Schedule and Credits page. Choose the My Schedule/Credits option from top toolbar.You will see listed all the studies you have signed up for, as well as those you have completed (see the Tracking Your Progress section of this documentation for more information).Studies you have signed up for that you are allowed to cancel will have a Cancel button next to them. There is a time limit before the study is to occur, when it is too late to cancel. This restriction is listed at the bottom of the page.Once you click Cancel to cancel your sign-up, you will see a confirmation page. You will also be warned if your cancellation might affect your ability to participate in other studies you have signed up for, due to pre-requisite restrictions. If the cancellation will affect your ability to participate in another study you are signed up for, it is your responsibility to deal with this issue (usually by canceling the depending study as well). The system will warn you, but will not block the cancellation.Click Yes to cancel your sign-up, and the sign-up will be cancelled immediately.

If you cancel the first part of a two-part study, the second part will also be cancelled. If you cancel the second part of a two-part study, the first part will not be cancelled, but you will need to ask the researcher to sign you up for the second part again, if you would like to participate in it at a later date.

You may track your progress at any time by choosing the My Schedule/Credits option from the top toolbar. When you view this page, you will see at the top a list of the number of credits you are required to earn, and how many you have earned so far. Below that, if you have signed up for any studies, those are listed as well. In the list of studies, you will see information about your credit status, including studies you attended and any studies for which you made an appointment, but did not attend. Next to each study, you can also see any comments the researcher left regarding the study and your credit for it.It is possible that older records of your participation are in the system, but not displayed. If that is the case, you’ll see an option to view the older records as well.