Departmental Research Participation Information

Each semester, faculty and graduate students in the CAS department conduct research projects that require large numbers of participants. Because CAS 100A enrolls a large number of students, the course provides support for such projects. Additionally, participating in research provides students with unique learning experiences. By participating in those research projects, you can have your thoughts, opinions, and voice represented in the literature and, ultimately, make an important contribution to the advancement of knowledge about human communication. This research participation requirement procedure is approved by the university’s Office for Research Protection.

You are required either to participate in the research project to which you are assigned, or to complete an alternate assignment (a speech critique). Upon successful completion of this requirement, you will receive 20 points or a grade of A for 2% of your final course grade. Research participation can include a variety of activities, such as doing an online survey or being part of a group interview. Every research project, as well as the alternate assignment, is designed so that participation takes between 30-60 minutes to complete.

We use a system called ExperimenTrak (http://www.psu2.experimentrak.net) to register and assign each student to a research project. This means you may not be assigned to the same study as many of your classmates. Your instructor will hand out additional information on this system. You need to register immediately, though your actual research participation will occur in the latter half of the semester. All contact from the researcher and the system administrator will be made via e-mail, so please check your e-mail account regularly (once a day, at least). Because virtually all mailer software utilizes a filter function by default, you should check both your inbox and your junkbox to prevent the “lost mail” problem.

Please read all handouts on ExperimenTrak and e-mails from researchers VERY carefully.

If you have any question and/or concern about this research participation requirement, please contact Mr. Masaki Matsunaga (mum181@psu.edu), the current system administrator of ExperimenTrak via e-mail.

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