Subject pools and student research participation in exchange for course credit are notorious elements of face-to-face undergraduate coursework across diverse disciplines. In this session, the presenter will discuss the Health Education Research Experience (HERE); an entirely online delivered and managed undergraduate subject pool implemented in an introductory health education course.
Innovation: The Health Education Research Experience (HERE) online subject pool is innovative as the first known subject pool designed and delivered for students in an online, asynchronous health education course. Within this project, the primary author led an effort to incrementally incorporate one survey per course module (with the survey topic in alignment with the module topic). In exchange for anonymous participation in each survey, students were awarded five points of course credit. With over 800 points possible in the course, each survey reflected a nominal amount of credit. For students not interested in participating in the online surveys, alternative assignments for equivalent credit were approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board and included as alternative options for equal credit. These alternative assignments were written journal entries asking students for their subjective position on a health education-related debate.
The presence and practices of subject pools have been debated since their inception. Some scholars argue that subject pools and exchanging undergraduate students’ time in research participation for course credit renders poor quality data. Other scholars argue that the practice of subject pools provides opportunities for undergraduate research exploration that would not be feasible through other avenues. The HERE project appreciates the criticisms of subject pools yet has provided research opportunities for undergraduate students unable to participate in campus restricted subject pools.
Replicability and Scope: Due to the versatile nature of this project, individuals across disciplines could replicate such an online subject pool across all types of higher education institutions. While this project is predicated in research topics related to the field of health education, individuals of all disciplines could replicate and scale the basic structure of this project to meet their unique instructional needs.
Impact: The student-level impact of the HERE project is well documented. To date, the HERE project has included 14 different studies resulting in 10,457 usable surveys across diverse health topics. The diverse topics are all rooted in the HealthyPeople 2020 framework and range from intimate partner violence and firearm accessibility to sexually transmitted infection knowledge and awareness. A pre-post summative evaluation of the project revealed that most participants were satisfied with their research experience participation and most also reported learning about the field of health education by participating in one or more HERE-related surveys.
Target Audience: The target audience for this presentation includes higher education personnel interested in student research participation across all types of institutions. More specifically, this session is intended for educators/faculty, administrators, advisors, and instructional designers interested in increasing opportunities for research and/or online survey design for undergraduate students enrolled in online courses.
Audience Engagement: Through the nature of this session, participants will be engaged in one-to-one or small group interactive discussion with the presenter regarding online undergraduate research participation.
Session Objectives and Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
Identify two ways students reported benefitting from their online subject pool experience.
Identify two privacy concerns regarding online subject pool data.
Describe two limitations to implementing an online subject pool.