Usage
Creation: A new group can be added via the "New Group" icon, renamed
using the "pen" icon and deleted with the "delete" icon.
Assignment:
Within each group one can assign a session to the group via the "Add session"
icon. The order of sessions within a group can be changed by drag & drop.
However, only
longitudinal studies will have more than one session per group.
Demographic Criteria & Group Selection:
The group property panel can be opened and be used to define demographic
participation requirements individually for each group. The following
criteria are possible:
-
Gender: (male, female)
-
Age: minimum and maximum (1 to 120)
-
First Language (selection of all languages)
-
Location / Country (IP based location or participant selected
location)
-
Custom Requirement (text-string which has to be approved by the
subject)
Based on the participants responses (and IP localization) it will be
determined for which groups the subject fulfills the participation
requirements. IP address will not be stored but only be used for
localization.
If no requirements are used or a participant meets the participation
requirements for several groups, the group with the fewest participants so
far
is chosen for that subject. This guarantees an equal number of participants
in the different groups (balancing of subjects groups).
If a participant does not meet the participation criteria for any of the
groups, the subject will not be allowed to participate in the study.
Groups for Between Subject Balancing:
Groups can be used for between subject balancing in two ways. First, to
(exactly) counter balance the order of tasks or blocks, and second to present
slightly different tasks versions to different subject groups.
In both cases one can create different groups, and respectively add different
sessions, with various blocks and tasks. The automatic balancing of subjects
groups will guarantee that there are the same number of subjects in each group.
Longitudinal Studies & Session Order:
If several sessions are defined within a group, the session execution order for
each participant is strictly chronological. Each participants will first
do session nr. 1, then session nr. 2, then session nr 3, and so on. To insure
this, new participants will always start with the first session. When the first
session
is finished, a participant will receive an email which says when the next
session will be due, as well as another reminder email once the next session
can be started.
Within these emails there will be a link which directs each subject then to the
next (correct) session. In order to send out these reminder emails Labvanced
will ask
for the participants' email for longitudinal studies. However, this information
will only be stored internally, and not given away to the experimenter or and
other person, but only be
used for reminding the participants.
Participation Time Settings:
For each assigned session within a group, it is possible to determine when this
session can be started / executed by the subject. If this participation time
has not yet come,
or is already over, participants will see (upon website visit) a message and /
or a countdown when the session will be available. This is mostly useful for
longitudinal studies,
but can also be applied for single session studies (e.g if the study should run
only at a specific time point). The following settings are available for each
assigned session:
- Participation always allowed / anytime (default value)
- One specific starting point:
- earliest starting point (date, time)
- latest starting point (date, time)
- Repeated starting point:
- earliest starting point (date, time)
- latest starting point (date, time)
- restart interval: daily/weekly/monthly
- Depending on former session:
- earliest starting point (days, hours, minutes after completion
of the former session)
- latest starting point (days, hours, minutes after completion of
the former session)