Post date: Mar 04, 2015 2:15:31 AM
You have two options to set up online experiments with SONA: SONA's proprietary system ("Online Survey Study" option) or a third-party site ("Online External Study" option).
Online Studies with SONA's Software
SONA allows you to streamline online surveys by offering an option to collect survey data on the site itself. The SONA online survey doesn't offer as many options as some external sites (e.g., conditional branching), and you cannot convert an existing online external study to the native service. However, it can be excellent for relatively simple online surveys, and it significantly simplifies the credit-granting process for participants. (Additionally, SONA options now allow you to randomize questions or groups of sections, even though the informational section about online surveys still says you can't.) Because it's native to the SONA system, you won't have to worry about matching up survey data to time slots based on participant ID numbers.
Online Studies with Other Services
Using this option can give you more freedom when designing the study but results in more difficulty when attempting to grant credit. You must ask students to provide their SONA ID number so that you can match them to their timeslot sign-up, but students will often include other IDs (e.g., SONA username, UCM ID number). Please make sure that you clearly specify what "SONA ID" means, as researchers cannot look up participants' SONA IDs with real names or other identifying information.