Rolling Schedule for EMA and ESM

How to Utilize Rolling Schedule for EMA and ESM

The rolling schedule allows you to schedule your ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and experience sampling method (ESM) surveys based on when your participants start the project. We recommend using this when you want to have a flexible start date for participants. This often occurs when you have participants join on a rolling basis.

Unlike the CALENDAR schedule, which ties the surveys to specific calendar dates, a researcher may seek to collect the same time length data from participants regardless of when participants start the project. The "Rolling Schedule" helps researchers to schedule and collect, for example, 2 weeks' worth of data from participants, beginning whenever the participant starts the project.

When you choose the rolling schedule, you will see your surveys on the left side and the layout comprising weeks (Wk.) and days (1-7), as shown below.

To schedule your surveys, drag the survey into the desired day and then choose window times. In the example below, the survey starts on the first day when participants add the project.

                               

"Week 1, Day 1" refers to when a participant enters the access code to start the project on their mobile device. Therefore, if a survey begins on "Week 1, Day 1" (where the "Start" is on the scheduler), a participant starts receiving notifications to take surveys on the same day.

It is possible for participants to miss surveys if they start the project past the time slot of the survey. For example, if a researcher sets a survey time slot to 9am-10am on Week 1, Day 1, a participant entering the access code and starting the project at 11am will miss the first survey time slot from 9am-10am.

If there is concern that participants add the project at a later time on the first day and miss the first survey day, we recommend that researchers start the project on Week 1, Day 2.

You can also toggle 'Make Survey Static', and this survey will always be available for a specific number of days, which you can set. You also have an option to let participants respond one time or multiple times in a day.

Rolling Schedule: Manage Schedule Start (Flexible Start Date, Start Day, and Intake Survey)

Flexible Start Date

For the ROLLING schedule, you can further personalize when participants want to start their project. There may be several reasons for this choice.

It provides flexibility to participants to choose when they want to start the project - and not just when they add the project to the ExpiWell app.

This is useful if you are interested in having participants start on a specific day of the week (e.g., Monday). When you onboard participants, you can have them add the project and request that they choose to start it on a specific day of the week (e.g., Monday).

How to set-up Flexible Start Date:

You can toggle the Flexible Start Date on the scheduling page in the rolling schedule type

                                                                                                                                                          

After toggling the "Flexible Start Date", participants will be prompted to select their start date after they entered the access code.

Start Day

This feature allows you to set a specific Start Day for their surveys and to precisely control the day of the week when your surveys begin, ensuring accurate and reliable data collection aligned with their study requirements.

In the Rolling schedule, you may want to participants start on a specific day of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

How to set-up Start Day

You can toggle the Start Day option on the scheduling page in the rolling schedule type. 

You can specify the exact day of the week (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, etc.) when the survey should start.

This ensures that surveys targeting specific periods, such as working days or weekends, begin as intended.

If you select the flexible start date, the option to choose a specific Start Day will be disabled, and vice versa.

Benefits:

• Improved Data Accuracy:
  
  • Ensures surveys are conducted during the intended periods, enhancing the accuracy of the collected data.
• User Convenience:
  
  • Simplifies the scheduling process for researchers, reducing the risk of incorrect start dates by participants.
• Enhanced Study Design:
  
  • Provides researchers with greater control over their study design, allowing for more precise data collection.

By implementing this feature, we enhance the functionality of our survey scheduling system, ensuring that researchers can accurately capture experiences on their preferred days of the week. This improvement will lead to more reliable data and more insightful research outcomes.

Intake Survey

This feature allows you to have an option to place an Intake Survey outside the main study schedule. This feature ensures that all preliminary data is collected before participants begin the scheduled surveys, streamlining the research process and improving data accuracy.

How to set-up Intake Survey

You can toggle the Intake Survey option on the scheduling page in the rolling schedule type

Choose the specific baseline survey that you want participants to complete first.

Example Scenario: 

Baseline Demographic Survey

Scenario:

• You need participants to complete a baseline demographic survey.
• You don't want the participant to continue if they do not complete this first survey.
  

Solution:

1. Set up an Intake Survey to ensure that all participants complete the baseline demographic survey before moving on to the main study. This ensures that all necessary demographic information is collected upfront.
   

Participant Identification

Scenario:

1. You need participants to enter their participant ID or email to identify them before they spend additional effort completing scheduled surveys.
   

Solution:

• Create an Intake Survey to gather participant IDs or emails. This ensures that participant identification is completed before they proceed with the main study, allowing for accurate tracking and data management.
  

Additional Use Cases:

• Eligibility Screening: Ensure participants meet specific eligibility criteria before they begin the main study.
• Consent Collection: Collect informed consent from participants before they start the main study.
• Pre-study Assessments: Gather initial assessments or baseline measurements that are critical for the study.
  

By leveraging the Intake Survey feature, you can ensure a smooth and efficient start to their studies, with all necessary preliminary data collected and verified before participants proceed with the main scheduled surveys.

Scheduling options

Randomize notifications: The default setting is that mobile app notifications will always be sent out at the beginning of the time slot.

Toggling the randomization option does three things: 

• Randomize the notification within the time slot. The randomization is also individualized across all participants.
• Closes the survey from when the notification is sent (default is 5 minutes but can be adjusted; e.g., 20 minutes)
• Shows that the initial notification will be sent between the open and close window times, minus the minutes you allowed your participants to respond.

Fixed reminder: Toggling this option sends a reminder notification to the participant if they have not yet responded to the survey. You can customize response time.

Snooze reminder: This works like an alarm clock, where participants can re-snooze at a later time. (available options for participants to re-snooze is 15 and 30 minutes)

Survey repeat: One can create repeats of the "Survey" across days by also using the "Repeat Survey" toggle in the "Options" tab. One can decide the frequency of the repeat and also the number of the total additional days. The survey will repeat until the total additional days are reached.

Repeating Surveys Across Times in a Day: One can also repeat the same survey across times in a day by dragging the survey to the date and setting the appropriate time slot.

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