Going Through an Interview

This part of the documentation provides a short summary of the interviewing process and briefly explains some terms related to the interviewing procedures. This part of the documentation mentions different procedures which are not described in details hereafter.

Selecting and Starting an Interview

The interview must be selected and started before the interviewing process can begin. The interview is selected differently in different Interviewing modes (go to Selecting a Survey/Interview for more information).

Work Area of the CATI Interviewer Console

The Work area in the CATI Interviewer Console is a space between the toolbar at the top of the application window and the status bar in the bottom of this window (go to User Interface for more information). In some Interviewing modes an interviewer starts his work by manually selecting a survey and an interview to work with, and then the Work area displays the list of surveys and interviews. In case an interviewer is assigned to work in an automatic choice mode, the Work area displays the interview page right from the start.

Usually when the particular interview is chosen, the work area of the CATI Interviewer Console displays the interview page containing the question and answer variants (this is the case most of the times but it actually may contain a special information, or a prompt). An interview page contains different control elements and indicators which help in selecting answers, or provide necessary information to the interviewer. Actual page layouts and the interview logic are composed in the Authoring module - refer to the relevant Authoring documentation for information on how to create and edit a survey.

Commands that are used in the CATI Interviewer Console

The CATI Interviewer Console provides support for a wide variety of keyboard commands - in some situations they can be used as a substitute for the toolbar buttons, and sometimes they provide the unique functionality. Available keyboard commands are described in Keyboard Support, and the basic set of hot key combinations supported by the CATI Interviewer Console can be found in Appendix C.

Entering Respondent's Answers

In general the interviewing routine goes like this. The interviewer asks the respondent a question and reads out all answer variants if needed (actually they read it from the currently displayed interview page). When the respondent chooses the answer variant, the interviewer marks the chosen answer (or enters a text in the corresponding field) in the appropriate way. For example, in the picture shown below the interviewer has to select some radio buttons to mark appropriate answers.

Figure 1 - Selecting an answer to the question

Keyboard Entry Box

Note that when a new interview page is displayed, the keyboard input focus is always automatically set to the keyboard entry box regardless of what question type is displayed. This means that until you submit the entered string (by pressing Enter on the keyboard or Enter button beside the keyboard entry box) or intentionally choose another UI element in Console the characters you are typing using the keyboard are displayed in the keyboard entry box only.

The interviewer can select the required answer variant by typing its precode (if such is available) in the keyboard entry text box in the bottom of the CATI Console window. When the Enter button located next to that field is pressed the Interviewer Console marks the matching answer variant in the list.

There are two answer types that can be predefined in the answer list – the “default” and the “refused” answer. If present, both answers are marked in the appropriate way. The interviewer can either choose them in the list, or he/she can click the Default Answer or the Refused Answer button in the bottom of the question area to automatically select one of these variants. Alternatively the interviewer can press the Ctrl+D hotkey combination to select the default answer, or Ctrl+R to select the refused answer.

Moving Back and Forward Through Interview Questions

The interviewer can move one question back and one question forward by pressing Page Back or Page Forward button on the toolbar. These actions are also executed when the following hot key combinations are pressed – Ctrl+Backspace, or Left cursor key, or PgUp for moving one page back, and Right cursor key, or PgDn for moving one page forward. These buttons duplicate Back and Next buttons that are usually placed on the question page below the answer list. You cannot move one page forward without providing an answer if the current question requires that an answer has to be selected.

Jumping Back to an Already Answered Question

Sometimes respondent may decide that one of his previous answers was wrong, and ask the interviewer to correct it. This action also applies in case the interviewer decides to correct previous answer himself. The best way to get back to the required question is to click the Redo button on the toolbar (see Modifying an Already Entered Answer for instructions).

Jumping Forward or Returning to the Last Question

When the interviewer moves a number of questions back, they have the option of returning directly to the question page they left without the need of going forward through questions one by one. To return to the last question page, click the Fast Forward button on the toolbar, or press the Ctrl+Enter hot-key combination (go to Modifying an Answer for more information).

Quick Dial and Redial Functionality

The interviewer may be asked by a respondent to quickly redial the same number (for some reason) or dial another number instantaneously provided by the respondent (to connect using another telephone line). To perform this operation the interviewer should click the Redial button on the toolbar.

Connection Status Indication

Connection quality affects console operation. Poor connection may cause operation delays or errors. The Interviewer Console helps in monitoring connection health - it sends out periodical "KeepAlive" requests and measures time needed to receive a response. The system uses a sequence of results over a period of time to calculate an average response time. When an average response time stays below 300 ms threshold - connection quality is considered "Good" (a green indicator icon), when it is between 300 and 1000 ms - connection quality is considered "Normal" (a yellow icon), and when it drops below the 1000 ms threshold - connection is considered "Poor" (a red icon). Series of timeouts are reported as "No connection" (grey icon with a red exclamatory sign across it).

The connection status indicator icon is displayed in the rightmost part of the Status Bar, next to the Console version number.

A tooltip explains an indicator - hover a mouth pointer over the connection status indicator to display it.

Good connection

Normal connection

Poor connection

Figure 2 - No connection

KeepAlive duration values (which are used to determine connection state) are stored in the CatiInterviewerConsole log file and can be used to analyze the situation.

Contact the system administrator as soon as possible if the connection status indicator changes to "Poor connection" or "No connection".

Communication and Dialer Error Messages

If a loss of connectivity occurs during the interview, the CATI Interviewer Console displays the appropriate warning message in the working area, like in the picture below.

Figure 3 - Warning message displayed in Console upon connectivity loss

The interviewer can resubmit the previous interview page to the system. To do so he should press the F5 key on the keyboard. The situation may not improve so it is recommended to repeat the action several times pausing between the attempts. When connection is reestablished, the Console will display the next interview page after F5 is pressed. If connection is not reestablished over a substantial period of time, the interviewer should contact the supervisor and report the situation to him.

Sometimes an error may occur on the dialer side (this can happen if you work with the dialer). In this case the CATI Interviewer Console aborts the interview and displays the appropriate error message in the working area. You should write down the message text (or make the screenshot), and contact the supervisor or your system administrator and describe the situation showing the message text. The list of the dialer related error messages can be found in Appendix G - The list of dialer related error messages.

The Interviewer Console communicates Forsta services at the interview start, end or at dialer specific activities during interviewing. Such communications take place in the following situations:

• interview end;
• an open-end review is due to be done;
• interviewer enters the Interviewing mode which was set up for him by supervisor (upon logging in);
• interview node assumes using a dialer;
• interviewer resumes his work in the Interviewer Console when returning from a break.

If connection cannot be established in any of the above situations the Interviewer Console tries two more times and, if the situation persists (three unsuccessful reconnection attempts are completed), the Console will provide the interviewer with the choice of either repeating the attempt or exiting (shutting down the Interviewer Console). Upon completing three unsuccessful attempts Interviewer Console displays the following dialog.

Figure 4 - Connection lost during Console service activities

Selecting Retry will initiate three extra reconnection attempts. If they prove to be unsuccessful too, the same dialog will be displayed again.

Selecting Exit will shut down the Interviewer Console, but will not log the interviewer out of the system; they can attempt to log back into the console, but if there are continued problems the interviewer may need to be logged out by the supervisor from the Interviewer Activity List (see Terminating an Interview and Forcing the Interviewer to be Logged Out for instructions).

Inbound Call Handling

(only for systems using an integrated dialer which supports inbound call routing)

The CATI Interviewer Console displays no warning to the interviewer when the system delivers an inbound call.

When an interviewer is working on an inbound call, the CATI Interviewer Console toolbar and status bar change color to green, and a corresponding badge appears on the right side of the toolbar.

Figure 5 - Indication of an inbound call

Except for the fact that the interviewer is working with the inbound call and the Interviewer Console shows appropriate indication, all interviewing procedures and actions are performed as usual.

Survey Run in a "test" Mode

There can be times when a survey containing real life data should be tested for some reason. If this is the case this survey is most of the times simply duplicated. This creates a potential situation when a real life survey and its test version could be mixed up. To avoid this error users are suggested to append a special "#Test" string to the survey name using the Authoring module (consult the appropriate part of the Authoring documentation dealing with survey design). When the survey with the name ending in "#Test" is open in the CATI Interviewer Console it displays a special interface warning the user that this is a test version fo the survey, see the illustration below.

Figure 6 - Survey run in the test mode

A situation is possible when a survey that has inbound calls is run in the test mode. In such case the CATI Interviewer Console displays the "test mode" interface as described in this instruction and in addition displays a flashing "Inbound call" badge next to the "Test mode" badge, same as the badge used to indicate an inbound call, see Indication for operating on an inbound call for details.

Dial Cancellation

When allowed by configured settings, an interviewer has the option of canceling the dial procedure while preview dialing is in progress or when making an attempt to dial a number via the redial feature (go to Redial Functionality for more information).

The option is located in the Settings menu Interviewer Console tab.

When dial cancellation is allowed, the Interviewer Console will look as in the figure below at the beginning of the dial or redial procedure.

Figure 7 - Cancelling a dial operation

Figure 8 - Cancelling a redial operation

Clicking Cancel will cancel Dial or Redial operation.

Call Transfer Functionality

A system administrator may enable the Call transfer functionality. This assumes enabling of two separate functions: Internal and External call transfer. Internal call transfer allows the interviewer to transfer call to another interviewer working in the same company. External transfer means a call can be transferred to any telephone number which is specified in the CATI Supervisor External Transfer list by a supervisor.

When the appropriate function is enabled, the Internal Transfer and External Transfer buttons become available on the Console toolbar. Then the interviewer can transfer a call he is currently working on at any point of the interview. Only already started interviews (calls) can be transferred to another person (go to Performing Call Transfers for more information).

Taking a Break

If you need to leave the desk and your work must be temporarily halted, you can click the Take break button on the toolbar and choose what type of break you are going to take. You cannot take a break while the interview is in progress, but you can do it in between the interviews (when the previous one is finished, and another one has not started yet). When an interview is in progress, this button acts like a toggle button - it will stay depressed until the current interview is finished and then you will be automatically switched to the Break mode (go to Taking a Break as an Interviewer for more information).

Making an Appointment

In case the respondent expresses his will to continue the interview at a later time, you can create an appointment for that time (go to Making an Appointment for more information).

Logging Out

The interviewer may decide to log out of the CATI Console after the current interview is over. To do that he/she, before the interview finishes, should toggle the Log out after finishing current interview button on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+Q on the keyboard (go to Logging Out and Closing the Console for more information). An alternative way of logging out is also applicable when the interviewer works in the Manual Interviewing mode. In this case, when the current interview is finished, they click the Log Out button . Both buttons look the same but are available in different situations - the Log out after finishing current interview button is available only when an interview is in progress, and it is grayed out when an interview is completed, while the Log Out button which remains inaccessible in the course of an interview becomes active only when an interview is finished.

Terminating an Interview

The Interviewer can terminate the current interview immediately without leaving the CATI Console. To do that he/she should click the Terminate current interview button on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+X on the keyboard (go to Terminating an Interview for more information).

Finished Interview

The interview is considered finished when all interview questions are answered.