Scheduled Assignment Template (first implementation)


This feature allows the researchers to use a Mobile Code as a template user for creating

Survey assignments. Note that this is the first version of this feature so any feedback for

improvement is welcomed, so please submit your feedback through the Customer Support

form.

How it works


For ease of understanding, we will call the Mobile Code that will be used as the source

template the “Source User”, and the Mobile Code to which the template will be assigned as

the “Target User”.


After assigning your desired schedule to the Source User, you can select that Mobile Code to

be set as the Source Mobile code for your template. Once you’ve set your Source User,

whenever you create a new participant, that schedule will be automatically applied to the

new participant (Target User).


The template will copy the exact schedule to the Target User, assigning the same selected

days and randomizations of the source user.


Important notes to keep in mind:

  • When the schedule is applied to the new Target User, it will always look into the next week and set the start date on the same weekday as the Source User
  • The distance between different assignments will also be kept. For example, if you have a survey that is scheduled on a past date (10th – 14th of June), and a survey that is scheduled for the next week (24th - 28th of June) from the present (present week would be 17th -21st June), when the template is copied, the 1 st survey will be set to start 1 week from the present (so the start will be from 24th -28th ), and the 2 nd survey will start 2 weeks away from the 1 st survey (8th -12th July)
  • Randomization order will also be kept the same
  • Selected days for Momentary and Repeating will also be kept the same
  • The survey availability window used on the assignments will be that of the Target Use, not the Source User
  • You can only have 1 Source User per Group
  • We suggest that the Source User will not be an active participant, but rather a Dummy User 


Making changes to the Source User or any of the Target users will not affect each other.

Once the template is assigned, you can freely edit or delete assignments from either one of

the Mobile Codes without affecting the Assignment Template.


Step by Step Guide


Step 1: Make sure that you have the permit to use this feature.  If you do not have access to the feature, please contact our Customer Support team. Once you have the permit you will see a new button available on the User actions area of the site (see figure below). This button will become visible when viewing the Assignment window for all participants.



Step 2: Create your assignments as you want 



Step 3: Set the Mobile Code as Source User



Step 4: Create a new participant (Target User) account/ Mobile code in the same group as the Source User, and observe that the Scheduled assignments are already set, with the starting dates 1 week ahead Overview:



Momentary assignment:



  • Note how the same randomized schedule is kept.


Repeating Assignment:


  • Note how the exact same selected blocks of times are kept.


Scheduled Assignment:


  • Note that in the screenshots above the “Scheduled Assignment” has the start date of the date of when the assignment was created, and when the template is assigned it looks for the same day of the next week to set it as a create date, but the schedule is correctly set on the expected dates.


OnDemand Assignment:


  • In the examples above, because the Scheduled assignment has the start date on the same week as when the template is applied, it automatically sets the rest of the assignments around that date, so it moves the rest of the assignments +1 week ahead.


If the Scheduled assignments wouldn’t be present, the rest of the schedules would be exactly the same for both the Source and the target users: