An Integrated Modular On-line Experiment Platform Proposal for Simulation-Based Experiments with Domain Experts as Participants

Abstract

Researchers face difficulty in accessing subject-matter-experts as participants in lab settings for many common human factor research studies. Delivering such experiments online would allow researchers access to a much broader population of subject-matter-experts; however, currently, there appears to be a lack of demonstrated techniques to design and deliver complex research studies on the web. This is particularly the case for experiments involving communication between multiple participants, simulated dynamic task envi-ronments, and participant screening for domain expertise. This paper describes and demonstrates a novel technique of integrating current online video-sharing technology, web-site templating and embedding third-party technologies to create a re-usable, customizable, on-line experiment delivery platform. This allows researchers to include a broader population of subject-matter-experts in a time and cost efficient manner.