Returning to last completed Component
in JATOS
Hello!
I am looking to enable functionality that would allow a participant to return to the last completed component should they exit/experience internet disruption etc.
Is this possible?
I am using OpenSesame Web. I am curious - are the participant responses stored in the cookie? Could this then be read to determine which Component to resume with?
Thanks!
Comments
Hi,
The short answer is: There is a way, but probably not with OSWeb.
If you use 'component' in the same way that JATOS does, as far as I know OSWeb will always create a study with a single component, so there's no way to restart from the last completed one.
If you code your study yourself you'll have a lot more flexibility. The result data (i.e. participants' responses) are not stored in a cookie. These are private data that are stored securely in your server's database. What you could do is store information necessary to continue a study (e.g. which was the last trial completed, what's the overall response accuracy, etc) in the Batch Session data (http://www.jatos.org/Session-Data-Three-Types.html#comparative-overview). The details of how exactly you recover this information will depend on the kind of worker link that you are using to let people access your study.
See also this http://www.jatos.org/Tips-and-Tricks.html#continue-an-abandoned-study, which is not an automatic way to continue an interrupted study, but might work.
Hope this helps
Elisa
Hi!
I agree with Elisa and just want to answer concretely to your questions if the participant responses are stored in cookies: the participant's responses (in JATOS they are called result data) are stored in a database on the JATOS server. They can't be stored in cookies due to them not having enough capacity. Only IDs are stored in cookies and with those IDs JATOS can identify the worker and the result data.
But it is possible to program an experiment in a way that it can be continued once it was interrupted and the browser tab closed. One way is with components (like Elisa suggested) and an even more flexible way uses the Batch Session. Both ways need some programming skills. If you want I can shine more light on them for you.
Best,
Kristian