Pool Survey Platforms

Set up a survey on Sona

Although online pool software (Sona's ExperimentLink) allows researchers to create surveys right within the online pool management software, we no longer allow researchers to use this tool becuase Sona will not secure the data on their servers. This means that we are not able to meet the requirements of the IRB, HIPPA and other standards regarding storage and anonymization of data from student participants. Instead, we recommend that you use one of the popular external survey systems, which offer significantly more features and increases security.

In this section, we also describe how to setup your Experimentlink external survey study so that it will automatically send participants to your survey using a unique encrypted code. When they've completed your survey, your external survey system will automatically communicate back to experimentlink and credite the participant. In this section we explain how to setup popular external survey systems to do this auto-crediting.

Remember that for each survey study, you must:
  1. Properly setup your study on experimentlink. This step is the same no matter what kind of external survey system you use.
  2. Properly setup your chosen external survey system to setup the auto-crediting function. This step differs slightly from one survey sytem to another.

External Online Survey Systems

All of the following allow researchers to use custom email invitations to invite and track participants (while manually crediting their hours in Sona). Most also allow for an automatic connection with the online pool website so that everything is handled automatically.

1. SurveyMonkey.com
SurveyMonkey provides a modern and capable survey tool, but we recommend you NOT use the free accounts to collect data, as the data connection is not secure. The paid accounts all offer secure connections, but you must have a gold account or better to seamlessly link a SurveyMonkey survey to our online pool software (Sona) for automatic participant crediting.

Set up a survey on Surveymonkey

2. Qualtrics.com
Qualtrics provides a rich and powerful survey tool, but I don't know enough about the differences between paid and free accounts. We do know that with the paid accounts (and possibly the free one), you can connect a Qualtrics survey to our online pool software (Sona). You must contact the company and ask for a quote.

Set up a survey on Qualtrics

3. PsychSurveys.org (free)
PsychSurveys was started by a former student of our program and is now run by a group of volunteers. Although free, PsychSurveys has most of the features offered by paid services (missing ones tend to be less useful for psychologists) and seems both capable and stable. There doesn't appear to be any development, so it is not known if any new features will appear. Unfortunately, it is not currently possible to connect PsychSurveys to our online pool software (Sona) for automatic crediting of participants.

4. Our Own LimeSurvey Website (free)
LimeSurvey is a survey system similar to the others listed above, however, it is free and hosted locally in the Psych Department. To obtain an account, contact the Psych Pool administrator. Like Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey gold, it is possible to connect PsychSurveys to our online pool software (Sona) for automatic crediting of participants.

Set up a survey on Limesurvey