Sessions anywhere
Launching an Anywhere Session¶
Anywhere sessions are designed to allow participants to join research studies on FindingFive without the need to sign up for a FindingFive participant account. This is especially useful for research that prioritizes participant privacy and accessibility over eligibility requirements or convenience features for researchers.
Anywhere sessions have restricted features
Because these sessions do not require participant accounts, FindingFive cannot track participant identities. This makes it impossible to apply eligibility criteria, demographic filters, or FindingFive-managed participant rewards.
Are You Ready to Launch?¶
Before launching a recruitment session, make sure to check the following:
- You have permission to launch a session of this study. You must either own the study yourself, or be a collaborator with session launching permissions. If you are not, contact the study owner to request the necessary permissions.
- You have an active FindingFive subscription. A subscription is required to recruit participants. Plans start as low as $20/year, but you can find the right plan for your needs on our pricing page.
- You have acquired all necessary permissions from your supervisory ethics board (IRB, REC, etc.). This is human subjects research, after all! You know the drill.
- You have a PDF of your approved consent form on hand. You will need to upload it as part of session setup.
- If using FindingFive’s cash payment system, you have sufficient funds in your account to cover all participant payouts and payment processing fees. This does not apply if you are using course credits or rewarding participants outside of FindingFive.
- You have recently completed a full preview of your experiment. In some cases, FindingFive will not allow you to launch a recruitment session until you have completed a full preview. In other cases, it is still a good idea to help identify issues that might otherwise cause problems or confusion for your participants.
- You have downloaded that preview data and verified that it includes what you expect. Nothing would be more frustrating than downloading your data after your experiment is complete only to find that critical response data were not properly collected. By checking the data after a preview, you greatly reduce the risk of this happening.
Once you can check each of these boxes, you are ready to set up a session and start recruiting participants!
Select Anywhere Recruitment¶
From the study editor page of the study you wish to recruit for, click Recruit and select From Anywhere (no sign-up required).
Click Confirm to open FindingFive's session launcher, which provides a step-by-step process for configuring all details of your session.
FindingFive saves your progress
You can leave the session launcher and return to it at any time by once again selecting Recruit and choosing the same session type. FindingFive will give you the option of picking up where you left off.
Choose a step from the tabs below to view information about that step of the session launcher:
Step 1: Welcome¶
The Welcome page highlights several important features and requirements of Anywhere sessions. Review the information carefully before proceeding.
Access Code Required¶
An access code is an alphanumeric string that participants must enter correctly before they can participate in a session. These sessions require an access code to help prevent members of the general public from accidentally joining studies that are intended only for a specific group of participants.
You may either:
- Enter your own access code, or
- Click Generate to create one automatically.
Researchers commonly distribute access codes through participant management systems, recruitment emails, classroom announcements, or subject pool platforms such as SONA.
Shareable URL¶
Study sessions can be found by browsing available studies on FindingFive, but it is much more convenient to give participants a direct link to the study. FindingFive generates a unique URL for sessions that can be safely shared, even on public channels.
Researchers typically distribute this URL to potential participants through various means, including email invitations, laboratory websites, classroom systems, institutional participant pools, or external participant management tools. Participants who visit this URL will be able to view information about the study before choosing whether or not to participate.
Sign-Ups Not Required¶
Participants do not need to create or sign in to FindingFive accounts to participate in an Anywhere session.
This reduces barriers to participation and allows participants to take part without providing identifying information to FindingFive. However, because FindingFive does not manage participant identities, we cannot provide you with information about who participated in your study.
If you need to identify or track participants, you will need to manage participant identities outside FindingFive, collect the necessary information as part of your experiment, or choose a different session type.
No Eligibility Control¶
Because Anywhere sessions do not require FindingFive accounts, FindingFive cannot apply eligibility criteria based on previous participation history or participant demographics.
If your research requires prerequisites, exclusion based on participation in related studies, demographic screening, or other eligibility controls, you will need to choose another session type or manage those requirements outside FindingFive.
In addition, FindingFive will not be able to reliably prevent the same individual from participating more than once in an Anywhere session. However, later in the setup process you will have the option to enable an experimental feature that helps prevent multiple participations from the same device and browser combination.
Additional Anywhere Session Notices¶
Because FindingFive cannot track the identities of Anywhere session participants, we also cannot support compensation. Please ensure you are compensating participants through other means, as appropriate.
When you are ready to continue, click Next.
Step 2: Task Details¶
The Task Details page collects the information that will be displayed to potential participants who visit your study's unique URL.
What's the name of this experiment (to the participant)?¶
Enter the name that participants will see when deciding whether to participate in your study. Choose a clear and descriptive title that accurately reflects the purpose of the experiment without revealing information that could bias participant responses.
This field is required.
What will the participants do? List any requirements here as well.¶
Provide a brief description of the participant experience. Researchers commonly use this field to describe:
- The purpose of the study.
- The activities participants will complete.
- Any technical requirements.
- Any participation requirements not enforced automatically by FindingFive.
Participants may use this information to determine whether they are interested in participating and whether they meet the requirements for the study.
This field is required.
Privacy Level¶
Because participants in Anywhere sessions are not required to have FindingFive accounts, no identifying or contact information is available for any participants. This provides the greatest level of participant privacy.
Consent Form¶
Upload the consent form that participants should review before deciding whether to participate. Consent forms must be uploaded as PDF files. Researchers are responsible for ensuring that all consent materials accurately reflect the procedures approved by their IRB, REC, or other supervisory ethics board.
Once you have completed the Task Details page, click Next.
Step 3: Time Requirements¶
The Time Requirements page allows you to estimate how long participation should take and define how long the recruitment session should remain active.
Based on your best estimate, completing this experiment should generally take [X] minutes.¶
Enter your estimate of how long it should take participants to complete the experiment under normal conditions. This estimate is displayed to participants before they begin the study and may influence their decision to participate.
Researchers should provide a realistic estimate based on pilot testing, study previews, or previous experience with similar experiments whenever possible.
Kick out participants if they don't finish in [X] minutes.¶
This setting defines the maximum amount of time participants may spend in the experiment before they are automatically removed. Leaving this setting blank or setting it to 0 disables the timeout entirely, allowing participants to take as long as they need to complete the study.
Researchers are generally encouraged to provide participants with as much time as practical, particularly for longer studies or studies where interruptions may be common. A common approach is to set the timeout substantially higher than the expected completion time.
Participants that time out are reported separately from completed and abandoned participations in the session summary. However, data from timed-out (and abandoned) participations are not included when exporting the session's participant data.
Once launched, this session will stay open for [X] days and [Y] hours.¶
This setting determines how long the recruitment session will remain active after launch. Once the specified duration has elapsed, new participants will no longer be able to join the session. The session will also automatically close once the requested number of participants have been recruited, even if the specified duration has not yet expired.
Researchers should select a duration that provides sufficient time to recruit the desired number of participants while remaining consistent with project deadlines and recruitment goals.
When you are satisfied with your time requirements, click Next.
Step 4: Number of Participants¶
The Number of Participants page allows you to specify how many participants to recruit.
This session will recruit [X] participants.¶
Enter the total number of participants you would like to recruit for this session. The session will automatically close once this number of participants have successfully completed the study, even if the session's scheduled duration has not yet expired.
Note that only successfully completed participations count toward this total.
When you are satisfied with your recruitment target, click Next.
Final Step: Review and Launch¶
The Review and Launch page summarizes your session configuration before the session is created. Review the information carefully to ensure that everything is correct before proceeding.
Important details listed¶
Important details, such as the number of participants to be recruited, compensation details, and any limits on eligibility will be listed here and should be carefully reviewed. Note that the specific details listed will depend on the specific configuration of your session.
A session fee invoice may be generated...¶
This notice refers to FindingFive's session fees, which may apply to your session when you download your data if you have exceeded your subscription plan's free participation record quota.
Will session fees apply?
Depending on your subscription plan, a certain number of completed participation records are included at no additional cost. If the total number of completed participation records downloaded across your account exceeds your plan's complimentary quota, a session fee invoice may be generated when you download this session's participant data.
Unlike participant rewards and payment processing fees, session fees cannot be calculated at the time of session launch because they depend on your cumulative participation record usage when your session data are downloaded. Please see our cost management FAQ for more information.
Launch¶
When you are satisfied with your session configuration, click Launch to create the recruitment session. Once the session has been launched, participants can begin joining immediately using the session URL.
Data Sharing Agreement¶
By launching a session, you agree to share session-related data with FindingFive.
As a nonprofit organization, FindingFive uses these data to improve the platform and the experiences of researchers and participants. No action is required beyond launching the session.