Creating Conditions in Qualtrics

Transcription

1 Creating Conditions in Qualtrics This guide provides a Step-By-Step example detailing how to make different conditions in Qualtrics. You can either work your way through the example, or use the information as reference when you are creating your own surveys. EXAMPLE: Participants will randomly be exposed to one type of image: Cute Animals Popular Memes Pictures from News Stories Random non affective control pictures.

2 Creating a new survey 1. Login via: 2. Click: Create Survey 3. Click: Quick Survey Builder 4. Type Online Picture Study as the Survey Name. 5. Click Create Survey Assigning a participant a random number To set up advanced features on Qualtrics, we generally use the Survey Flow page. This is essentially a flow-chart, displaying the order that blocks and other items are presented to the participant. In this page, you can manipulate how and when Blocks/Items will be presented, by adding functions into the flowchart. Once set up, Qualtrics will then be able follow the flow chart in order of top-to-bottom. 1. When in the Edit survey tab, click the Survey Flow Icon.

3 2. This brings up the Survey Flow page where you will see the beginning of a flow-chart. To start building elements to this, click Add Below. 3. You will now see a list of functions and items you can create and build. You will use a few of these in the current tutorial. At the moment we are interesting in using the Web Service function. This is because we are going to use an online random number generator to randomly assign participants a number within a given range. 4. Press the Web Service icon and type this URL in to the URL box: Also, have a go at typing the URL into your internet browser. You will be taken to a website that displays random= a number. Reload the webpage a few times and you will notice how the number changes every time. Because of this, we need to set a minimum and maximum range of numbers it can randomly select from.

4 5. Still in the Web Service box, click the text Add a parameter to send to the web service 6. A pair of boxes will appear underneath. Because we have four conditions, we want Qualtrics to pick a random number out of 1, 2, 3, 4. In the left box where it says Parameter to Web Service, type in the word min. Then, click on the right box where it says value and type in the number Now we need to define the maximum number. To add another pair of boxes press.

5 8. Another pair of boxes should appear underneath. In the left box type max and then, in the right box type We have now told Qualtrics that we want it to access an online random number generator and to select a number in the range of 1-4. However, we are not quite done setting up the Web Service. Now, we have to tell Qualtrics what we want doing with the random number. In this example, we would like Qualtrics to save the number in the background of the survey. This is so we can access it throughout the survey when defining who sees which questions. Qualtrics calls this kind of background data Embedded Data. To do this click: Test URL 10. On this page, you can see all the data that is on the random number webpage. Normally, webpages contain lots of data. The purpose of this window is to select what piece of data we want storing. As there is only one piece of data on this webpage (called random) click the tick box on the left and then press the Add Embedded Data button.

6 11. These two boxes will now appear under the Set Embedded Data heading. 12. The box displays the name of the embedded data. The box states what data is being retrieved from the website. 13. We have now finished setting up a random number generator that randomly assigns participants to a number, a.k.a. condition. To save all the work we have done, press: Building your questions 1. You should now be back on the edit survey tab. To begin, we want to make an information sheet and consent question. To create a new item, press: 2. A multiple choice question template will appear. To change this item to a question which contains just text and acts a bit like a word processer, change the item type to descriptive text.

7 3. Type the Study Information into the descriptive text question.. 4. Once completed create a new, multiple choice question. 5. Where it says type question text write something like Do you consent to take part? It should automatically change the question so that it has 2 responses: Yes & No. 6. Now we want to create 4 new blocks, one per picture condition. To make our first picture block, click: Study Information: You will be exposed to 4 types of images: Cute Animals Popular Memes Pictures from News Stories Random non affective control pictures. If you consent to taking part, please look and then click your way through the images until the end of the survey. 7. Rename the block Cute Animals. 8. You now have the lovely task of googling cute animals and picking 5 of your favourite pictures. Save these to your documents. Note: To save a picture on google, click on it, and right click Save Picture as

8 9. Make a new question in the Cute Animals block and change the item type to Graphic. 10. Then press: 11. An Insert Graphic window will pop up. To upload a new picture press Upload a New Graphic. 12. We now want to select the first cute animal file from your documents. Where it says Select a file press the Browse button. You will now be able to find your file by using the windows explorer.

9 13. If you want to resize the picture, you can do here. However, if you are happy with the picture, press Save. 14. Continue making new questions in the same way until you have 5 pictures in the cute animal block. 15. We now want to make a new block. Rename it Popular means. Again, you have the joyous task of typing funny memes into google and choosing 5 of your favourites. Do exactly the same as you did for the cute animal block and upload 5 pictures. Once completed, repeat the whole process until you have 4 blocks containing: Cute Animals Popular Memes Pictures from News Stories (you can find pictures on the BBC website) Random non affective control pictures. (Type alphabet or numbers or road maps into google images to get some generic neutral pictures). Remember each block should contain 5 pictures each.

10 Setting up different paths Linking Blocks to the Random Numbers To recap, we have created some embedded data, which assigns participants to a random number upon starting the survey. We have also made 5 blocks: 1 containing your survey information and consent question, 4 containing different types of pictures. We now want to set different survey routes for participants, dependent on which random number/condition they are assigned to. For example we want participants who received the random number 1 to see the cute animal pictures only. To be more specific, we want each random number to be associated with a condition: Random Number 1 = Cute Animals Random Number 2 = Popular Memes Random Number 3 = Pictures from News Stories Random Number 4 = Random non affective control pictures. 1. To start re-organising and finalising the flow of our survey, on the Edit Survey tab click the Survey Flow icon. This essentially brings up a flow chart of your survey. 2. Make sure that the Web-Service function we created is at the top of the flow chart. If not, click and hold Move in the bottom right hand corner of the web-service box, and drag it to above the Default question block. 3. So now the Web-service function is at the top, followed by the Default questions block. Remember, the Default questions block is the block containing your information and consent

11 question, and is named Default questions block simply because we did not rename it. At this point, after consent has been given, we want the survey to branch out in different directions. This is so the picture block a participant sees in the survey differs depending on the number they were randomly assigned to at the beginning. 4. To do this, click Add below in the box which contains the title Show Block: Default Question Block: Then press Branch. 5. Qualtrics will ask you to set a condition, which if met, will take the participant down this new path. Click Add a Condition and then edit the drop down menu so it reads If, Embedded Data, random, is, Equal to, 1. Then click ok. 6. So now if a participant is given the random number of 1 at the start of the survey, they will follow this new path after the consent question. Now we want to drag elements, (one being a picture block) in this new path, so that people who are randomly assigned the number 1 see the cute animal pictures. Click and hold Move in the box titled Show Block: Cute Animals, and drag it to where it says + Add New Element Here underneath the branch.

12 7. As the picture block is the last thing they see in the survey, we would like the survey to end after viewing this block. We are going to make a final element in this path which will terminate the Survey. Click + Add New Element Here and then press: 8. We now want to do exactly the same for the three remaining conditions. Click Add below in the box which contains the title Show Block: Default Question Block: Then press Branch. Don t be confused by this branch being above the Condition 1, Cute Animal Branch, as it doesn t matter which branch comes first as they will only go down one. The only thing which changes between the branches is the number you write in the branch logic i.e. is equal to, 1/2/3/4. Also, make sure you drag the correct picture block underneath each branch. Tip: You can scroll up the screen whilst dragging a block by positioning your mouse in the grey above the survey flow box. 9. In the end you should have made 4 branches, containing a condition as to when to branch, a picture block, and the End of Survey Element. Click Save Flow.

13 Downloading your data, who was in each condition? 1. Click on the View Results tab. 2. Then click download data. 3. Then click the blue writing under CSV. 4. Then scroll up to the top, and where its says downloads in progress wait till the progress bar is finished and click Click here to download your file. 5. Search for the column random and underneath you will see the random number each participant was given. This tells you which condition they were placed in. Using Survey Flow to get consent: Now we know how to use the Survey Flow page, you can start experimenting with how it is useful for other things. 1. Click Add below in the box which contains the title Show Block: Default Question Block: 2. Press Branch. 3. Press Add a Condition. 4. Edit the drop down menu s so it reads If, Question, Q2 Do you consent to take part?, No, is, Selected. 5. Then click ok. 6. Click + Add New Element Here and then press End of Survey : 7. Then save your flow.

14 We have now set up a path whereby if someone doesn t want to take part in the Survey, the Survey flow automatically takes them to the end. Randomising within a condition: Back in the Edit Survey tab, don t be surprised if the order of your questions has shifted around a bit. Your blocks and questions will now follow the flow chart. In each picture block, there are 5 pictures. As well as randomising which picture block the participants see, you might also want to randomise the order of the pictures inside each condition. For example, in the cute animal condition, you might want to randomise the order of the cute animals so you do not always see: penguin, kitten, puppy, duckling, bunny, in this order. 1. To do this, at the top right hand corner of each picture block, click Block Options. 2. Then press Question Randomization 3. In this Window, you will be presented with several ways to randomise the questions in your block. In the current example, we want to randomize the order of All the questions in this block. However, because we only want to show one picture per page, we have to select the Advanced Randomisation option and click Set Up Advanced Randomisation. 4. In the Fixed Display Order box, click on a picture name to highlight it, and then press the top right hand ( ) arrow button to transfer it into the Randomise Questions box. 5. Do this until all the questions have been moved over, leaving the Fixed Display Order box with 5 parenthesis saying {Randomized}.

15 6. Then in the bottom right hand corner, where it says Questions per Page, type 1 and then click Save. 7. Do this for all 4 picture conditions and then press: 8. You should now be randomly presented with one of the four picture conditions. In addition to this, the order of the pictures in each condition has been randomised. To see this, repeatedly press:. And you will see all the different ways in which your survey has been randomised. Pairing Pictures with Questions It is probable that with each picture you show, you might want to ask a question about it. This is simple to do, and requires you to alter the question type from Text/Graphic, to whatever style of question you are wanting to ask. For example, you might want to create a slider question underneath each picture, asking how pleasant it is on a scale from 1-10.

16 1. To do this, click on a picture and change the question type to slider. Then, on the right hand side, edit the question so there is 1 choice and 2 labels. 2. Then click on the labels and change the text to read Unpleasant on the left and Pleasant on the right. 3. Then click where it says Click to write Choice 1 and write On a scale to 1-10, please rate how pleasant you think this picture is. 4. On the right hand side, click the tick box Snap to Grid. Then put the Min Value to 1 and the Max Value to Then click on the text box above the slider and press Rich Content Editor. 6. Use this window a bit like a word processor to delete and edit any text. Also you can insert a picture above or below any text by clicking the landscape looking icon.

17 7. Insert a graphic in the exact same way as you did before, or click a picture that is already in the library, and then click off the Rich Content Editor. 8. Do this to all of your questions to then press Preview Survey. 9. Your questions should randomise and branch in exactly the same way as it did before, however, with the addition of this slider question under each. Tip: In practice, it doesn t really matter which question style you choose as you can always add a picture in the questions Rich Content Editor. 10. Experiment with Matrix tables, Hot-spot questions and multiple choice items. You can do all-sorts when creating conditions in Qualtrics. There should be a solution for any type of question you want to ask.