FAQ Regarding Participants

Welcome to our Participant FAQ page! See below for answers to the questions that researchers most frequently ask about participants and their experience.

Participant Management

Can I Edit Participant Responses?

Yes! As a researcher, from the Explore page, click the edit response button at the top right of an entry to edit the response.

What Can I Do If A Participant Is Not Participating In A Respectful Manner?

You have two options: disable or delete. Disabling will prevent a participant from logging into the system going forward, but all their comments and activities will be retained. Deleting a participant will remove them completely from the study and delete all of their data forever. That data will never come back! Ever.

These two options can be controlled on Participants page. See Managing Participants to learn more.

Can The Participants See The Name Of Their Segment Or Other Study Information?

What participants can see:

• Activities you program
• Questions/probes you post for them
• The screen names and submissions of other participants for activities that you designate as social activities. They can also view any researcher comments for these submissions.
• All responses and comments in group discussion activities

What participants can not see:

• The profile information you create for them
• The segment they are in
• The info of other participants
• Comments left by observers
• Activitie contents before the activity is launched

How Will Participants Know How To Use The Forsta Plus Digital Diaries Web And Mobile App?

When a participant logs into the website for the first time, there are a series of pop-ups that will orient them on how to navigate and use each section.

The mobile app has a straight-forward interface, but if participants are having issues, they can visit our mobile app knowledgebase pages.

My Participant Is Trying To Login But It Keeps Failing?

• Check the participant email in the system. Confirm that there are no discrepancies between the participant’s email in the system and the one they provided originally.
• Make sure they haven’t registered already. Sometimes participants will register and create a new password only to try to use the temporary password instead.
• Make sure they passed the captcha. The captcha is that box with the funky letters you have to type out to prove to the system you are indeed human. If a participant didn’t type the captcha letters in correctly, it won’t let them log in.
• Double check that the participant is attempting to log in with the same email address they originally provided.
• Have the participant contact tech support at [e-mail].

My Participant Never Got The Invite Email, What Should I Do?

• The fastest way to remedy this is by skipping the invite email all together. All they need from the invite is the temporary password which you can send to them yourself. Go to the Settings>Project Settings page. You can find the Temporary Password in the Settings section directly under "Project Name." Tell them to use their email and this password to login and they should be all set.
• Have the participant check their spam folder for an email from studyspace.net. Although we have optimized the invite emails to prevent getting caught by spam filters, it can still happen from time to time.
• Check the participant's email in the system. Verify that there are no discrepancies between the participant’s email in the system and the one they provided originally.

What’s Included In The Invite Email?

When you send an invite to a participant from Forsta Plus Digital Diaries, the participant will get all the information they need to log in to the website and/or app and get started. The invite email will:

• confirm email they should use to log in
• provide temporary password for first time log-in
• provide information on the server location, which they should select on the login screen
• include links to iOS and Google Play app stores (this is not included for web-only projects)

Who Creates The Participant’s Username?

The moderator creates a participant’s username when they upload them into the system.

How Much Should I Pay Participants?

A good place to start is $25-$30 per day per participant. This is for an average project during which participants are required to spend 30 - 45 minutes per day completing activities. If you plan on having participants capture video during your activities you should consider increasing the amount to $40 per day as video can be time intensive to record and upload.

Moderation

How Will A Participant Know I’ve Sent Them A Message?

Messages will trigger an email notification, if the participant has chosen to receive them. If this is a part of a mobile study and the participant has push notifications enabled, they will receive that as a push. Also, once a participant has logged into studyspace.net or the mobile app, they will see that a message is in their inbox.

Can I Send Messages Through The System?

On the Overivew and Messages pages, you can access the internal mail system. You can send a message to a single participant, an entire segment, or all participants.

Do Participants Get Notified When A New Activity Launches?

The system does not notify participants when a new activity launches in order to give researchers more control over notifications and to prevent accidentally overwhelming participants. Alerts and notifications are best used with discretion so that people actually pay attention to them. There are typically multiple activities launched on any given day of a project, which when combined with alerts for messages and comments would soon result in over notification. We recommend you send out a daily reminder email through the system, which alerts participants to the new activities. This will not only send them a message inside of the system, but also let them know via their personal email and push notifications through the app that a message is waiting for them.

If you enable the Digest located in Project Settings, participants will receive an email summary. This summary includes a section called "Activities Launching" which will list the items to expect on their to-do list before the next Digest email is sent. The list will be marked with the specific time each activity is launching.

Forsta Plus Digital DiariesMobile App

What is the Activities Section?

The Activities section is the main area opened upon logging in to the mobile app. Here participants see and submit current and ongoing activities.

What is the Feed Section?

The Feed section allows participants to see and edit previous responses. For projects with activities that include social interaction (influenced and uninfluenced activities), this is also where participants can view, like, and comment on other participants' responses.

What is the Messages Section?

The Messages section is where participants can view, respond to, and send messages.

What is the Profile Section?

In the Profile section, participants can change their password, profile photo, email preferences, or timezone.

Is There A Size Limit To The Videos A Participant Can Upload Via The App?

No, there is no size limit, but there is a duration limit of 5 minutes. The app should be left open and connected to WiFi or data until the video fully uploads. Participants can upload multiple videos for a question/collector.

With Push Notifications, Is There A Difference In The Notification If It's A User Comment Vs. Researcher Comment?

No. The push notification will just let participants know they have a new comment. There is no difference between User and Researcher comments.

Can Participants Upload Data (i.e. Videos) Over WiFi To Avoid Impacting Their Data Plan?

If a participant is connected to a WiFi network, the Forsta Plus Digital Diaries mobile app will use it to send the data. However, if they are not connected to wifi then it will use their data plan.

Can Participants Enroll In A Study Completely Through Their Mobile Phone? Or Do They Have To Enroll Via The Website?

With the Forsta Plus Digital Diaries mobile app, participants can enroll and complete a study all through their mobile phone (provided all collectors are mobile-compatible). They do this by using a temporary password that is emailed to them as part of the invite email.

How Do Participants Get The App?

Like any app on Android and iOS, they do so by visiting the app stores and searching for "Forsta Plus Digital Diaries". There are also clickable links included in the invite email that will take them to the app in the iOS and Google Play stores.