Speeders are survey participants who rush through a survey and complete all questions in a much shorter than expected time. Because speeders are not taking their time to give thoughtful answers, their responses can be considered poor quality and may compromise the overall quality of your data. If you're concerned about speeders, you can follow these instructions to add a speeder check to your survey. This workflow comprises adding scripts to capture times, using Group elements to organize your survey, and using hidden questions to record time and speeder values.
Detailed Steps
- At the beginning of your survey, add a Page element.
- Add a Group element named Time Variables.
Ensure the Group element is nested underneath a Page element. -
Inside the Time Variables Group element, add the following questions in exactly this order using the exact names specified below:
- A hidden Short Answer question named SurveyStartTime
- A hidden Short Answer question named SurveyEndTime
- A hidden Numeric Text Field question named TimeSeconds
At the end of steps 1 to 3, the Time Variables Group element should look like this:
- After the Time Variables group, add a Group element named Main Survey.
The Main Survey Group element is where you add all the questions, pages, and survey elements that participants will actually see. - Inside the Main Survey group, add a Text and Image element as the first survey page to display to participants.
Important: These scripts work best with Text and Image elements as the first and last survey pages. You can make the opening Text and Image element a welcome message. The closing Text and Image element can be a message thanking participants for completing the survey. - In the Table of Contents, in the Main Survey group, click the first Page element.
- Click the Scripting button.
- Copy and paste Script 1 into the On Load tab.
- Click Save.
- Add a Text and Image element as the last survey page to display to participants.
- In the Table of Contents, click the last Page element that participants see.
- Click the Scripting button.
- Copy and paste Script 2 into the On Complete tab.
- Click Save.
- After the Main Survey group, add a Group element named Results.
- Inside the Results group, add a hidden Single Choice question named Speeder on its own page.
This question records whether speeding has occurred. - Add an answer for "Yes" in the Speeder question.
- Before the Speeder question, add a Set Value action named Set Speeder.
- In the Set Value action, add an action rule for This Survey TimeSeconds Less than 100 Then Set value as Speeder Yes.
Tip: Update 100 to your desired time in seconds. This value will vary depending on how long or short your survey is, and what you consider to be a reasonable time to completion. -
Optional: Add a test screen to ensure the speeder check is being recorded correctly.
- After the Speeder question, on a new page, add a Text and Image element named Results.
- Copy and paste the following text into the Instruction text field:
Survey Start Time:
Survey End Time:
Time (seconds):
Speeder (yes): - Pipe the corresponding Time Variables questions into the instruction text after each colon.
- Preview your survey.
Test your survey by speeding and not speeding. When you speed and arrive at the Results page, you should see the recorded times and the "Yes" answer piped in at the end. - Before you distribute your survey, remove or hide the Results page.
- At the end of steps 15 to 20, the Results group should look like this:
Script 1
/* Script Name: How do I add a speeder check to my survey? (Modern Surveys) Script
1 of 2
To ensure your script works as expected, always copy the original script from
the Script Library found in the Alida Help Center. Failure to use the latest
script from the script library may cause unexpected results. */
//update to match your question name here.
const timerStart = response.getDataPoint('SurveyStartTime');
// Get the current dateTime as a UTC string
var date = new Date();
// Check the 'start' hidden question to see if it has a value, populate it if not
const cur = timerStart.get();
if (cur == null){
timerStart.set(date);
}
Script 2
/* Script Name: How do I add a speeder check to my survey? (Modern Surveys) Script
2 of 2
To ensure your script works as expected, always copy the original script from
the Script Library found in the Alida Help Center. Failure to use the latest
script from the script library may cause unexpected results. */
const timerStart = new Date(response.getDataPoint('SurveyStartTime').get());
const timerEnd = response.getDataPoint('SurveyEndTime');
const timeSpentSeconds = response.getDataPoint('TimeSeconds');
// Get the current dateTime as a UTC string
var date = new Date();
// Check the 'end' hidden question to see if it has a value, populate it if not
const cur = timerEnd.get();
if (cur == null){
timerEnd.set(date);
}
// Check the 'timeSpentSeconds' hidden question to see if it has a value, populate it if not based on the calculated time
const timeS = timeSpentSeconds.get();
const calcS = String(Math.floor(Math.abs(date-timerStart)/1000).toString()).padStart(2,
'0');
if (timeS == null){
timeSpentSeconds.set(+calcS);
}