Overview of Business Research Panel (Business Sona Systems)
Objective
Consistent with the polytechnic, “learn-by-doing” approach used at Cal Poly Pomona, the Business Research Panel (a.k.a Business Sona Systems) provides a supportive environment for innovative teaching and research in the College of Business Administration.
Benefits to Student Participants
A survey of Cal Poly Pomona students who participated in the past studies has revealed that the vast majority of the past participants found the participation very useful for enriching their learning experience for their degrees. Specifically, a survey of the participants of the Business Research Panel demonstrated that the vast majority of CPP students found participating in the business research was helpful in learning marketing concepts (77.9%), perceived there is value in participation (67.3%), held favorable attitude towards the participation (85.7%) and wanted to participate again in the future (64.1%). Your participation also helps your professors discover new knowledge and advance the field. Such new knowledge can be incorporated into the courses you will learn in a variety of forms including being part of the textbook materials in the future. Therefore, please be serious in this very important endeavor.
How Do I Participate?
To participate in the Business Research Panel, go to Business Sona-Systems at https://cpp-cba.sona-systems.com using any computer with internet access. If your professor already told you to participate in studies at BRP, the chances are that your account has been already created. All you need to do is to go to the site and log in using the Cal Poly Pomona single sign-on procedure and follow the instructions provided on your screen at the site. If you are new to the system, please read further down for the detailed procedure and answers to frequently asked questions. Please note that the web site of Business Research Panel (Business Sona Systems) is different from the similar system offered by Psychology and Sociology Department at Cal Poly Pomona. If you don't see your class or the study you are told to participate in, you are likely to be at the wrong site.
How to Get Started with Research Participation in Business Research Panel
Note that there is one important change made since the video was produced. That is about enrollment. Unlike what the video said about self-enrollment, we no longer provide a self-enrollment process. We will work with faculty to get their class roster and create everyone’s account to eliminate errors associated with self-enrollment. In short, ignore the account creation process. If your professor told you to participate in the BRP, the chances are that your account has already been created and you just need to log into the BRP system (aka, business sona) using CPP’s Single Sign-On procedure.
How to Successfully Participate in Studies and Manage Your Credits
Frequently Asked Questions
Step 1: First, go to the College of Business Administration Business Research Panel webpage (https://cpp-cba.sona-systems.com). Use your existing Bronco name and password to log in to the system.
Step 2: Once you pass the usual Cal Poly Pomona’s Single-Sign-On process, you will be asked to provide some information about you and the course you are from, as well as a consent statement for you to read and agree. Specifically, after you log in to the system as described in Step 1, you should then see your first and last name as well as your user ID and email address. Input your student identification number and telephone number in the spaces provided. For most students, we have already imported a class roster in collaboration with your professors, so there is no need for you to select which class you want your credits to be applied to; we already assigned the class for you. When you have finished inputting your information, click "Request Account." The system will then take you back to the Business Research Panel's login screen.
Step 3: In order to access your homepage where you can monitor your credits and view available studies, you must log in again using your Bronco name and password. The first time you log in after you provided all your personal information described in Step 2, you may be asked to take a short prescreen survey designed to understand your characteristics as well as a statement regarding your rights as a participant. Then, you will land directly on your account site where you can sign up for a study. You will also receive an email that includes information about your participant login.
To sign up for a study, log in to the Business Research Panel (also called Business Sona System). From your Sona homepage, go to “View Available Studies.” Note that studies are not always available. If there is a study and time slots available for the study you wish to take, you can sign up and participate in the study. Signing up for a study itself won’t earn you the credits; you must actually participate in the study, typically by taking the survey by either following the link provided for an online study or going to the lab if the study is conducted in the lab.
Studies take the form of in-person appointments or online appointments. In the case of the latter, the study is conducted online and the system shows you a timeslot and a deadline associated with it. For both types of appointments, you will receive an email reminder 24 hours before the appointment. It is your responsibility to cancel appointments that you cannot attend, at least 5 hours before the appointment time. If you fail to show up and do not cancel your appointment in advance, you may be prevented from participating in any future studies or given a penalty equal to the amount of credit offered for that study. Penalties reduce the total amount of credit earned. They also remove your previous credit assignments, so you will need to reassign all of your previously earned credits to your courses.
To remove a penalty, you may sign up for additional study. Researchers are also expected to give you advance notice if they must cancel an appointment. If a researcher cancels the appointment, no credit will be given and you should sign up for a different study (or reschedule another time for that same study). If the researcher does not show up and fails to cancel the appointment at least eight hours in advance, you will automatically be given credit for participation. Contact the System Administrator if this does not happen. Make sure your email mailbox does not become full -- important messages may be bounced by the system. Sometimes emails may be trapped in the junk email box. Delete mail or contact the Cal Poly help desk if you are not getting emails.
If you complete a study, you will be granted the predetermined amount of Sona credits to your account. Each study is worth a different amount of Sona credits and will be listed in the study information. You can keep track of your credits on your Sona homepage under “Credit Overview.”
You must assign each credit earned to a particular class. Each credit can only be counted for one course. You can change credit assignments at any time up until the Friday of Week 14, one week prior to the last Friday of the final instructional week (Week 15), as long as your instructors are okay with it. In other words, the last day to make changes to credit assignments is midnight on Friday, Week 14. We wrap up one week early to allow your instructor one week of time to incorporate your research participation score into your overall course grade prior to Finals week (Week 16). It is a good idea to check your assignments prior to Friday of Week 14, especially if you have earned any penalties, since assignments must be redone after a penalty. No changes can be made by students after Friday of Week 14.
Please note that as soon as you sign up for a study, you may follow the link to the survey and take the survey if you wish to do so. If you decide not to participate in a study, the allotted credits for that study go under your "Pending Credits." "Pending Credits" are credits that you have not earned. "Earned credits" are awarded only after you complete the study and will show up on your "Credit Overview" immediately following the successful completion of a study.
If you decide that you are not interested in the studies, but still want to get the same participation from your professors, contact the lab administrator. Per our policy, we will give you an alternative task that may take the same amount of time and effort as participating in the studies, but such requests must be made during the time studies are available. The alternative arrangement cannot be made after studies are completed on Sona.
Once you are registered with the Business Research Panel, you will receive an email on whenever a new study is available. If you are not registered with the Business Research Panel, you will not receive any emails.
Time slots refer to the allotted time that students have to sign up and complete either in-person in a lab or online. For a lab study, there are usually many time slots available as the space in the lab is limited. For an online study, however, there is usually just one time slot, as there is no limit on the number of participants added to a session. After signing up for an online timeslot, you must complete the study immediately.
Participant Rights
As a participant in business studies, you have the right to leave a study at any time if you wish to do so, without penalty. If you object to participating in a specific study and there are no alternative studies that you like to participate in, you can ask the researcher to give an alternative task (e.g., writing a short reaction essay to an article). If there is a shortage of studies posted during the quarter, your system administrator will provide you with an alternate assignment or way of earning credit.
Need Technical Assistance?
Enrolling in the Business Research Panel (Business Sona-Systems) is the responsibility of students themselves and the overall procedure and answers to the frequently asked questions are explained above. However, we understand that there may be unforeseen errors in the system that may cause you to fail to maneuver in the system successfully. If this is the case, please contact the Business Research Panel Administrator for help.
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Customer Insights Analyst | insights-lab@cpp.edu |
