Student pool - questions and answers

Before the semester 

• The ISPR opens to participants a week after classes have started. It is not possible to log into your participant account until the system has opened as your account is not yet active. 

During the semester 

• All accounts are created about a week prior to the opening of the ISPR (but not activated until the opening day). As such, if you registered for your course anytime close to the first day of class, or during the semester, your account may not have been created. If you do not have an account, please reach out to our team so that we can create and activate your account.  

When looking at your ISPR user account page, the line called “Course(s) “ (under “Phone” and above “Points Earned”) indicates the course(s) to which your ISPR account is linked. Please make sure that these reflect courses to which you are still registered. Dropping a course will not remove these from your ISPR account, so you need to remove them yourself by selecting “modify” and removing the course(s) to which you are not registered. Similarly, if you don’t see your ISPR course, you need to add it by clicking “modify” and adding your course. Failing to do so may result in not obtaining your ISPR points.

When looking at your ISPR user account page, if you scroll down, you can see all the studies to which you are registered (or have completed). The column named “Course” indicates the course to which your point is assigned. Note that this can only be seen if you completed the study and obtained your point. If you are signed up to two different courses, you can choose/modify the course to which the point is assigned by clicking on “reassign”. If you are only registered to one course participating in ISPR, you cannot do this and your points will all automatically be assigned to this course.  

You may earn a total of 4 credits per course in which you are enrolled. Studies and surveys lasting under 30 minutes award 0.5 credit, and those lasting between 30-60 minutes are worth 1 credit. 

The time it takes for you to obtain your points after having participated can vary. Some studies are set up so that you automatically get your point after you finish the study, while others require that the researcher manually gives you your points. As such, it can take up to a few days for you to receive your points. 

If you receive an error message indicating that your ISPR account cannot be found, it is likely that it does not exist and needs to be created. In this case, please email us using your uOttawa email, and provide us with your full name, your student number, the course code(s) for which you need an ISPR account (including the letter at the end, e.g., PSY1102F) and the name(s) of the professor(s).

The prescreen questionnaire is mandatory as this questionnaire determines your eligibility to some of the studies in our system. As such, filling out this prescreen is mandatory as it determines the studies that you will see when you log in. That said, if there are specific questions within the prescreen questionnaire that you would prefer not to answer, you will have the option of selecting the “I prefer not to answer” option for that specific question. Alternatively, if you do not want to participate in research, please email us to inquire about the film alternatives to research. 

Some new studies may appear on ISPR throughout the semester, so keeping an eye out for new studies is recommended. Otherwise, we offer an alternative to research studies for students who do not wish to participate in research. This consists of watching informative psychology films (about 45 minutes) and completing a related questionnaire. These films are not available on the ISPR. Please email us for more details on accessing these films.  

You may take part in alternative film activities to earn your ISPR credits. You will have the option of viewing one or more films or podcasts on topics relevant to psychology in the language of your choice (English or French) and answering questions about them. If you are interested in completing these research alternatives, please email us.  

The protection of all research participants’ rights, including confidentiality, is of paramount importance in research and we take all necessary precautions to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone who participates in research. The procedures of the ISPR were developed in compliance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Research with Humans and the ISPR’s procedures have been reviewed by the University of Ottawa Research Ethics Board (REB). Each individual study that recruits participants from the ISPR system has been independently approved to be in compliance with ethics policies by the REB. Names and all other identifying information will always be treated as confidential and will never be released without explicit permission from each participant.

Everyone is welcome to sign up to the ISPR community pool to participate in research. The community pool portal offers a variety of interesting research opportunities available for participation. For more information visit our pages I am a community member and ISPR Community Pool.