If you organize any talks for Fall 2024, and could make space in the audience for some interested undergraduates, please list those opportunities on SONA. PBS needs to offer an alternative to experiment participation for people who can't be in research studies (e.g., under the age of 18 years) or who choose not to participate. We need as many talks as possible to include opportunities for undergraduates to attend as an alternative to research participation.
If you organize a talk or a series of talks:
1) Request a SONA researcher account if you don't already have one. Email psychsona@umass.edu to let them know you are a talk organizer and include your name and email address.
2) Create an in-person experiment with the title ALTERNATIVE - [title of talk or talk series]
3) Include sufficient information in the "experiment" description for someone to find and attend the talk(s). Time, place, speaker ... title and abstract if you have them. You can also include any other information that would make undergraduates welcome guests in the audience - cell phones must be turned off, if you don't arrive by x time do not come in to the room, we encourage you to ask a question at the end of the talk, etc.
4) Include Kelly Tierney (the SONA admin) as a researcher.
5) Create time slots for the time of the talk and the number of seats you can spare.
6) In SONA, send a request to approve your "study" so that the timeslots will be visible to students.
7) Before the talk, note the names of the students who have signed up to attend. You can require that students sign up at least 24 hours before the talk (or another deadline of your choice), and can have SONA notify you when there is a sign-up or cancellation if you would like.
8) If a talk is cancelled, be sure to take those timeslots out of SONA - students who have already signed up will be notified.
9) At the talk, require that undergraduates seeking SONA credit sign in and meet any other requirements that you set.
10) After the talk, go into SONA and assign SONA credits (1 credit for each 30 minutes of participation) to the students who attended. If they did not attend, or showed up too late, assign them a no-show unexcused.