Integration of emoTouch

SoSci Survey offers an additional module called “Advanced Methods” for collecting continuous response measure (CRM) or real-time response (RTR) data for video and audio files, which is a paid feature.

Since 2021, there is also the emoTouch platform available for collecting CRM data. The application was developed at the University of Osnabrück and can be used for “scientific, non-commercial purposes free of charge” (emoTouch¹⁾).

emoTouch can display audio and video elements, as well as various buttons, sliders, or a two-dimensional rating coordinate system. The data collection can be integrated into a questionnaire directly using an <iframe> (window within a window).

1. Register at emoTouch (https://www.emotouch.de) and log in.
2. Create a new study under “Studien” (Studies).
3. Arrange and save the elements on the page in the editor.
4. Start a “Durchführung” (Execution) under “Durchführungen” (Executions).

In the “Durchführungen” tab, click on the created “Durchführung” and you will see a QR code and a link with an ID for the study. Right-click on the link, choose “Copy link address” to copy the link to the clipboard, and switch to SoSci Survey.

In SoSci Survey, it is advisable to add a separate page for CRM data collection under “Fragebogen zusammenstellen” (Compile questionnaire).

Optional: If the emoTouch element should be displayed fullscreen, first activate the “presenter” layout under “Fragebogen-Layouts” (Questionnaire layouts) (see also Layout and Question Types and insert the following PHP code on the questionnaire page:

option('layout', 'presenter');

Insert an “HTML-Code” element on the questionnaire page and add the following HTML code inside it:

<iframe width="100%" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-height: 100hv" src="https://pi.emotouch.de/ABC123/1?s1=%caseNumber%&fullscreen=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen></iframe>

• After the “src” attribute, you will see a URL with the section https://pi.emotouch.de/ABC123. Replace this with the link you copied from emoTouch. You can also replace “ABC123” with the “shortcode” displayed in emoTouch under “Durchführungen” (Executions).
• By default, emoTouch uses a size of 1920 × 1080 pixels, which corresponds to an aspect ratio of 16:9. If you have defined a different area, adjust the value behind “aspect-ratio” accordingly.

Please read the instructions for the pretest and thoroughly test the data collection before going into the field.

After completing the survey, stop the “Durchführung” in emoTouch under “Durchführungen”.

• Click on the “Durchführung” you created for SoSci Survey.
• On the right, you will find a discreet box called “Angezeigte Parameter” (Displayed Parameters). Mark “s1” here to display the case number transmitted by SoSci Survey.
• Click the “Exportieren” (Export) button in the top right corner to download the collected CRM data. The format settings may vary depending on how the data is to be analyzed. After clicking the download button, the dataset will be prepared, which may take a few minutes, and then it can be downloaded.
• Also, download the “Sitzungsdaten” (session data) to merge the CRM data from emoTouch with the survey data from SoSci Survey. The linkage is as follows:
  • It is advisable to analyze the CRM data first and then merge it with the survey data.
  • Combine the emoTouch data based on the variables “session_id” (time series data) and “id” (session metadata).
  • Then, merge this dataset with the SoSci Survey data based on the variables “s1” (previously combined data) and “case” (SoSci Survey).

If you want to view the pretest data, open the pretest in a new private browser window (most common browsers offer this function). This ensures that emoTouch records a new “session” with data. If you open the pretest multiple times in the same browser without using private windows, only the first “session” will be recorded.

If you want to test the integration of emoTouch and the collected data, you need to temporarily stop the “Durchführung” to download the data. Afterwards, you need to create a new “Durchführung” for the actual survey. Note that the link or shortcode will change, and you will need to modify the HTML code in SoSci Survey.

Creating continuous sliders in emoTouch is not straightforward. For example, if you want to label a slider with steps 1 to 7 but also allow values between the whole steps, enter the value 601 for “Stufen” (steps) and the value 1 for “Stufenintervall” (step interval). The value of 601 is calculated as follows:

• 7 - 1 = 6 steps of distance from the smallest to the largest value,
• multiply by 100 for smooth operation, resulting in 600,
• plus 1 because not only the space between the steps is possible but also the maximum 1.