The UNLV Department of Teaching & Learning offers graduate and undergraduates the opportunity to earn course credit by participating in research experiments or by completing article summaries. Below are guidelines for researchers who wish to use the Subject Pool to conduct experiments. If you have questions, contact the Subject Pool Coordinator (tl.subjectpool@unlv.edu).

Simple Guidelines to Remember

1. Researchers are UNLV Teaching & Learning faculty and students under their supervision
2. Experiments must have IRB approval & experimenters must complete the CITI course
3. Use Sona Systems to advertise your study & post appointments
4. Participants get a copy of the consent form
5. Assign credits within 24 hours (30 min = 0.5 credit, 60 min = 1 credit, etc.)
6. Participants can drop-out at any point
7. If the experimenter is a no-show, participants get full credit
8. If a participant does not show, they do not receive any credit.
9. Participants can be debriefed at the conclusion of the experiment
10. Deadlines are posted on the Subject Pool website

Using the Subject Pool

1. All researchers must be UNLV Teaching & Learning faculty or students under their supervision.
   
2. Before starting, all experiments must be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Forms and procedures can be obtained from the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects, at https://www.unlv.edu/research/ORI-HSR. All researchers, experimenters, and lab assistants must complete the CITI ethics course (www.citiprogram.org) before working with participants or data.
   
3. To begin you will need to request an account (https://unlv-tl.sona-systems.com/Default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f). To setup an experiment in Sona Systems log-in with your lab account, click “Add New Study”, and fill in all of the requested information (except the IRB code). Note that you will have to provide the IRB letter stating the study has been approved in order to gain access to the subject pool. Please list the duration in intervals of 30 minutes so that it is consistent with the number of credits it is worth (e.g., if your experiment lasts 45 minutes and is worth 1 credit, please round up to 60 minutes).
    
4. Arrangements can be made for the Subject Pool Coordinator to make classroom visits to answer questions and to encourage students to participate. We will also send reminder emails to students. We do this to promote participation in general, rather than specific studies. Researchers are discouraged from contacting instructors to promote their study or to collect data in class. Remember that students may feel pressure to participate in a promoted study; they may think that the instructor is endorsing that study. Also, the Subject Pool is already taking steps to encourage students to complete the research activity.
   
5. All participants in experiments should receive a copy of the consent form. Keep the signed copy for your recordsand provide them with a blank one.
   
6. Researchers should assign credits in Sona Systems within 24 hours after a student has participated.
   
7. Please remember that participants are allowed to drop-out of a study at any point.
   
8. If you are unable to attend an appointment, do the following (under “My Studies” click on the timeslot links to see your specific appointments. (a) If no one signed up, simply cancel the appointment. (b) If people have signed up, email them as soon as possible (double click names), then remove their appointments (email BEFORE removing the appointment, or you will lose their email addresses). (c) Finally, if possible, have someone meet the subjects (in case they didn’t get the email) or at least post a note on the door. If you cannot provide at least 12 hours notice, then you must assign full credit.
   
9. If a participant signs up for an experiment but does not show up, DO NOT assign a 0.5 credit penalty (the IRB states that penalties are not allowed).
   
10. Upon completion of the experiment, you may debrief participants as to the purpose of the study, the expected results, the general setup of the experiment, etc… remember, this should be a learning experience.
    
11. Deadlines for the current semester can be found on the Subject Pool website. All credits must be entered within 24 hours of the deadline – this is important because instructors need to get their class lists for assigning grades. If it takes more than one semester to collect your data, please notify the Subject Pool Coordinator at the beginning of each semester.

Before conducting research with human subjects, researchers should be familiar with the APA’s Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants (1982) and its 2001 revision. Researchers are required to treat participants with respect, obtain informed consent, ensure participants’ privacy, and provide an educational experience for them. Remember, this research is dependent on the cooperation and understanding of participants.

If you have questions contact the Subject Pool Coordinator: tl.subjectpool@unlv.edu.