If enabled, you may set up studies that are web-based (online). These studies may be set up internally in the system (online internal survey study) or outside the system (online external study). The options will vary depending on how your system is configured.

There are a few things to note about web-based studies:

• Once you indicate to the system that the study is web-based, you will not be able to change it to where it is no longer web-based. However, you can copy the study and convert it to a lab study (if it was an online external study).
• Web-based studies are typically set up so that there is one timeslot. That timeslot contains the maximum number of participants you would like to participate, and the last date and time when they can participate (this is often at the end of the term). It is not recommended that you set up multiple timeslots for web-based studies. Though the system will support it, it confuses participants. It is acceptable to have multiple timeslots, where only one study is active at a time. For example, one could have had a deadline date at the end of the previous semester (currently in the past), while the current timeslot has a deadline date at the end of the current semester (i.e., in the future).
• It is generally presumed that participants will participate in an online study shortly after they sign up. In this case, the system will expect you to grant credit to them soon after they sign up. If you are creating an online survey within the system, credit will be granted automatically, immediately after the participant completes the survey.
• In the case of an external web study, if you are using a survey product like Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, LimeSurvey, SurveyGizmo, etc., then you may be able to set up credit granting, where it occurs automatically as soon as the participant completes the study. See External Study Credit Granting for more information.

Throughout the sign-up process, participants are notified that the study is online.

If the study is not administered by the system (online external study), then participants are not given the URL for the study website until they have signed up. This is to ensure they complete a sign-up in the system for the study. Participants can see the URL after sign-up, while the timeslot they signed up for is still in the future. Once the timeslot they have signed up for is in the past, they will no longer have access to the study URL. There is also an option when setting up the study where the URL will no longer be available as soon as the participant is marked as having participated in the study (regardless of the timeslot date). This restriction regarding viewing the study URL applies only to participants and to web-based studies administered outside the system. Online external studies are discussed in more detail in the section Online External Studies. Also see Multi-Part Online Studies, as the behavior of when URLs are visible to participant is slightly different in that situation.

Online internal survey studies (surveys administered by the system) are discussed in great detail here: Online Survey Studies. Please read this page and the topics pages at the bottom carefully before setting up an online survey study.