Teaching Research Methods in a Digital World with Gorilla

Dive into the future of research education with our latest webinar Teaching Research Methods in a Digital World with Gorilla. Led by Jo Evershed, Johanna Tomczak, and Dr. Miles Tufft, this session highlights innovative strategies and concrete examples reshaping research methodologies for the digital age. An essential watch if you’re an educator training the next generation of researchers: stay at the forefront of behavioral science education!

About the Speakers

Jo Evershed is the Founder CEO of Gorilla Experiment Builder, a powerful, flexible and intuitive platform for running behavioural research online that allows researchers to go far beyond surveys. She also convenes and hosts the Behavioural Science Online Conference. As an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award Winner and Computer Weekly Rising Star Women In Tech, Jo is on a mission to provide behavioural scientists with tools to liberate their work from the lab and accelerate research initiatives that can be tested rigorously at scale. Jo leads a multidisciplinary team of software engineers and psychologists focused on creating powerful and accessible experimental research infrastructure. 

Johanna Tomczak works as a Research Specialist at Gorilla Experiment Builder. She completed her degree in Mathematics, Computer Science and Cognitive Science at the University of Grenoble (France), before obtaining her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Leeds (UK) in 2022. Her thesis, which examined the impact of bilingualism and ageing on the communication between the cerebral hemispheres, has shown her the benefits of online research and she decided to join Gorilla to work on improving behavioural science as a whole.

Dr Miles Tufft is a Lecturer in Experimental Psychology and co-director of the Eyethink Lab at University College London. He graduated with a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and holds an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from UCL. Prior to academia, he worked for over a decade in industry including seven years as a management consultant where he applied data science to inform strategic and organisational change. His research examines the perceptual and attentional mechanisms that underpin distributed cognitive systems. Currently, he investigates the ways in which information deemed to be the responsibility of others in joint contexts is actively prioritised or de-prioritised to optimise individual or team performance (social offloading). He has received a Provost Teaching Award from UCL and currently convenes research methods on the BSc Psychology programme. He also works extensively with industry partners to help embed enterprise and knowledge exchange activities into the undergraduate curriculum.

Additional Resources

For £50 research credit

Gorilla Grants - expression of interest

Gorilla Presents Webinars

Onboarding Webinar

Support

Due diligence support information

Bot check samples

Samples

Gorilla Open Materials

Recruiting participants

Webinar about improving participant engagement

What over 1,000,000 participants tell us about online research protocols

Teaching Faculty mentioned:

Gillian Brooks: Students’ Presentation and her Module

Miles Tufft: Open Teaching Materials

Rachel Theodore: Her Experience 

Previous Sage Partnered Gorilla Webinars:

• Online Research for PhDs and PIs - New Possibilities

• Gamifying Cognitive Tasks

• Introduction to Online Behavioural Research

---

Q&A

+ Which operating system or browser do I need to use for Gorilla?

Gorilla operates seamlessly in web browsers, accessible from various devices, including smartphones, for both study creation and data collection. Comprehensive support resources are available, including tutorials on YouTube and documentation on the Gorilla website. These resources provide thorough guidance for users, ensuring smooth navigation and utilization of the platform.

+ Are participants restricted by location, or can you recruit internationally?

Participants can be anywhere globally.

+ Is Gorilla applied in qualitative research?

This platform offers a range of survey components for qualitative research, including open text responses, multiple choice questions, and image, audio and video stimuli. It allows for various data collection methods, such as talk-out-loud protocols and video recordings, even enabling the creation of sign language corpora. Subsequent analysis can be conducted outside the platform, offering flexibility for researchers.

+ How is data security ensured?

We meet stringent data security standards required by universities worldwide and are fully GDPR-compliant, ensuring robust protection for human data. With extensive experience across 1,000 universities, we undergo rigorous assessments and maintain top-tier servers subject to annual penetration testing. Our platform offers comprehensive data processing agreements, privacy policies, and tools for anonymous data collection and minimization. We prioritize data security, providing customizable options to safeguard sensitive information effectively.

+ How do you ensure that the participants are not bots or bad actors?

We offer various options to control for factors like attention checks in tasks, allowing researchers to filter out incomplete data effectively. Using Gorilla, you only pay for complete participants, minimizing costs associated with incomplete responses. Online research with Gorilla generally shows minimal evidence of checkbox or bot issues, ensuring data quality.

+ In using Gorilla for teaching, do you have sort of a user manual that people can use to get started?

Our platform supports student success with onboarding tutorials and resources, including the Gorilla Academy and Gorilla support pages. Many universities use Gorilla for undergraduate teaching, enabling students to engage in research projects and gain valuable skills. We offer ample samples and materials, alongside webinars teaching effective navigation and modification. Gorilla Open Materials provide additional content for exploration and extension of research projects.

+ How does utilizing Gorilla assist students in grasping research methods such as counterbalancing, randomization, and experimental controls? Specifically, how does this interaction facilitate understanding, and what benefits does it offer in terms of comprehension?

Engaging students with Gorilla effectively enhances their understanding of research methods such as counterbalancing and randomization. Rather than solely conceptualizing these complex ideas, interacting with them in a tangible way on the platform allows students to grasp them more deeply. By actively manipulating elements on the screen, students can experiment, make mistakes, and refine their understanding, leading to a more embodied comprehension of research design concepts. This approach is vital as it shifts the focus from mere mechanics to broader thinking about good research design and question formulation, essential aspects of experimental psychology. Ultimately, by offloading technical aspects onto the platform, students can concentrate on developing robust research questions and collecting meaningful data, which is crucial for their growth as experimental psychologists.

+ Can you give some more information about eye-tracking?

Yes, eye tracking in Gorilla is feasible through webcam technology. It allows researchers to measure participants' gaze location on the screen, albeit with some differences compared to in-lab eye tracking. Despite potential noise in the data, online eye tracking still yields comparable results to lab-based studies. This method is particularly useful for experiments involving visual stimuli, such as comparing participant gaze between different images on the screen. Comparisons between lab-based and online eye tracking data show similar trends, with variations in noise levels across different environments, like classrooms and home settings.

+ Are there tutorials on Youtube?

Yes, here.

---

Do you have a question or comment?

If you did not find an answer to your question in the Q&A section above, send it over to us and we will get back to you with an answer.

Explore How To Webinar Series