Web Interviewer Retraining Instructions

Collecting data with Survey Solutions over the phone

Online approach utilizing any computer with a web-browser

This approach is most suitable for the interviewers working at a location with stable/responsive internet connectivity. The functionality and interface of the web-interviewer is also described in the pages linked from here. It is recommended that these generic instructions are reviewed and customized by survey administrators for each particular survey. The article is oriented on the agencies already having experience in using Survey Solutions for face-to-face (CAPI) surveys and in need to re-orient their operations for the telephone surveys.

Web Interviewer CATI

Use in call-centres / CATI

One specific scenario where the use of web interviewer is particularly handy is in conducting telephone surveys. In this case a call-centre is usually set up, with interviewers working from this office by reaching out the respondents by phone. The identifying fields of assignments are supposed to be pre-filled with the proper phone numbers that the interviewers will dial to get a response.

This allows to avoid purchasing the tablets and to re-use the computer equipment available in the existing call-centre.

Web Interviewer Overview

Web interviewer is a facility of Survey Solutions allowing the interviewers to work from the server, similar to supervisors and headquarter users.

Similarly to the Interviewer App on the tablet, the web interviewer allows interviewers to view their dashboard and conduct interviews. There are, however, some differences between the web interviewer and the Interviewer App:

Further articles explain particular aspects of working with the the web interviewer:

Web Interviewer Login

Headquarters and administrator users may create new interviewer accounts. There is no separate web interviewer account. Every interviewer can login to the data server (synchronization point) with their assigned interviewer credentials.

Logging in to the server is usually not required in face-to-face CAPI surveys conducted with tablets. After successfully logging in, the interviewer can review his/her interviewer profile:

The link to edit personal information (full name, contact phone, and email) is available if permitted by the corresponding setting specified by the server administrator.

Web Interviewer Important Notes

To prevent collisions of multiple versions of the same interview, the interviewer is expected to utilize only one tool for each interview - either a tablet interviewer app or a web interviewer.

An interview may be started with the web interviewer, and then continued on the tablet after the interviewer initializes and synchronizes it. In this case all the started interviews are marked as received by the tablet, and are still visible on the server (in web interviewer, as well as for the supervisor and HQ users). But the interviewer should not and may not make any changes to the interview since it was already received on the tablet. If he/she tries to do such a change, an error message will be indicated and the software will refuse the change:

Web Interviewer Dashboard

Web interviewers have access to a dashboard equivalent in functionality to the dashboart of the tablet Interviewer App:

Dashboard tabs (pages)

The dashboard contains the following tabs (pages):

Search

Interviewers may utilize the search box located above the table to find an interview with known interview key or value of an identifying question:

Web Interviewer Interviewing

Web interviewers can conduct interviews as per their effective assignments. To start a new interview, the interviewer switches to the ‘Create new’ tab and decides which interview to start by inspecting the identifying questions visible in the assignments table, as well as any comments by the supervisor/HQ, which may be left by them (last column). Once the interviewer is ready to start the interview he/she clicks on it and confirms by selecting the corresponding item in the menu that appears: