Recruiting for on-site studies
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Perigean assists with recruiting and scheduling on-site studies. As a lead researcher, you’ll identify and secure a location and communicate all venue information to Perigean, including any instructions participants need to follow to find and access the study location.
Note that recruiting for on-site moderated sessions will take approximately two weeks.
1. Gather information
Define your schedule
Before you submit your research for review, you’ll want to define a schedule. The following are a few things to consider when conducting research on-site:
VA staff availability
Ensure that the research sessions are scheduled when VA staff are available and needed for the sessions.End-of-day close-out sessions
Schedule end-of-day close-out sessions to review findings and troubleshoot any issues that arise. If VA staff are involved in the research, invite them to the close-out sessions as optional.Set up
Ensure enough time is blocked out on the first day for set-up, if needed, to test equipment, set up testing space, and run a mock session. Two hours is recommended.
Prepare directions for participants
If possible, get directions with visuals from the site staff for Perigean to share with participants. Include details for parking on the street or in the garage at the participating VA site. Ensure that Veterans know whether they’ll need to drive underground or in low-lit garages. Share resources for scheduling VA Transport to the participating site should participants need it.
2. Complete your recruitment plan
Once you have your schedule and directions ready, you’ll need to define this in your research plan. In the recruitment section of your research plan, write a rationale for why you want to conduct your sessions on-site (as opposed to remote). Make sure to include any location details and whether you already have approvals from the facility. Then, list any specific criteria you’d like to recruit for your study, including any screener questions you’d like to ask potential participants.
Next, in the timeline section of your research plan, provide Perigean with times that are good for you and your team. A general rule of thumb is to provide 2x available time slots for the number of research sessions you desire.
Inclusive research
We want to make sure all users are represented in our research. The VA Recruitment Checker is a tool to help us keep track of who we've talked to.
This is a team effort, not an assessment of your skill. This checker will not be used to judge anyone's ability as a researcher. It's meant to be a tool for creating a more mature and aware, inclusive research practice. We're committed to making VA services inclusive of underserved Veterans, and documentation is the first step toward that goal.
Why check on underserved Veterans in research?
It keeps us honest and transparent about whether our research includes underserved populations.
It helps us determine who we should conduct research with next
It prevents one-size-fits-all thinking. For example, if we didn't talk to Assistive Tech (AT) users, we can't be confident our research findings will apply to them.
Learn more about inclusive research strategies
3. Submit for a research review
Once you’ve completed your research plan, you can submit it for a Research review. Then, once approved, your study request will be sent to Perigean to kick the process off. From there, invitation emails are sent to potential participants. The email will also include screener questions if they were provided in the timeline section of your research plan.
4. Scheduling begins
Confirmed sessions are scheduled via Google Calendar. At this point, the project tracker, which includes the participant demographics for each session, is also updated.
5. Support before sessions
Before the session, Perigean offers location support and will send reminders to participants.
Referrals for research
If you meet a Veteran, caregiver, service member, or dependent who would be interested in participating in research, refer them to https://veteranusability.us/ .
Help and feedback
Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.
Submit a feature idea to the Platform.