Creating Pings
Creating pings in your schedule is the process by which you determine when your participants will recieve their survey notifications. Pings can be sent at fixed times or at a randomly selected time within a specified interval. Each ping allows you to specify how many reminders will be sent if the participant does not either click on the ping or complete the survey associated with that ping. Schedules can be customized to send the same set of pings for each day of the study, customized based on which day of the week the ping is sent, or a unique set of pings for each day of the study.
On this page, you will find information about:
Creating Pings
An initial random-interval ping is created for you when you create a new schedule. To add a new ping, either click on the Add Ping button at the top left of the page or at the bottom of an existing ping container.
Ping containers that are light gray indicate complete information. Ping containers that are red indicate that the ping either does not have enough information (e.g., the send time is not specified) or is not possible given your schedule settings (e.g., the reminders exceed the allotted expiration time).
To learn more about why a specific ping is red, select the View Schedule Analysis button in the Tools section in the schedule page.
Pings in a dynamic schedule are sent based on time-since-activation rather than time of day. For each ping, you specify a combination of minutes, hours, and/or days after activation in which that ping will be sent. Similar to pings from other schedule types, you can control the number and cadence of reminders for each ping.
For example, a dynamic schedule with the two pings shown below will sent a ping 15 minutes after schedule activation and a second ping 30 minutes after schedule activation.
Schedule Mode
Schedule modes apply to the Ecological Momentary Assessment and Longitudinal schedule types and determine your ping schedule based on the level of customization you require for your study.
- Same every day mode will send the same schedule of pings for all days of the study to the participant(s) for which the schedule is applied.
- By day of the week mode allows you to create a different schedule of pings for each day of the week.
- By study day mode allows you to create a different schedule of pings for each day of the study.
Fixed vs Random Pings
Fixed pings are always sent at the time you input. (Random Interval toggle OFF 
).
Random pings are always sent within the interval you specify. (Random Interval toggle ON 
).
You can mix-and-match fixed and random pings to achieve your optimal study design.
Reminders
Reminders are sent at a specified interval after the initial ping is sent, if the participant has not already either clicked on the ping or completed the survey associated with that ping.
The number of reminders, and the cadence with which those reminders are sent, is specific to each ping. For example, a ping with Reminders = 2 and Reminder Interval (mins) = 25 will send a reminder 25 minutes after the initial ping is sent, then a second (and final) reminder 25 minutes after that, if the participant did not interact with the ping.
To send reminders until the participant clicks on their ping, select Ping Clicked in the Send reminders until section. This setting can be used with any survey software.
To send reminders until the participants completes their survey, select Survey Complete in the Send reminders until section. You will need to use Inclivio's Survey Completion API to configure the survey to send a signal to Inclivio when the survey is completed.
Reminders are charged at the same rate as initial pings.