Testing Live Activities

Live Video Interview and Live Group Chat Activities allow you to host 1:1 interviews and focus groups within your Recollective site. These Activities are designed with usability in mind and are easy to navigate for Hosts, observers, participants. On demand training webinars are available to help Hosts familiarize themselves with the meeting interface. 

Some Hosts may prefer a more hands on testing approach. This article will cover:

  • How to test your audio and video equipment using the System Check
  • How to preview a live Activity entry page from the perspective of a participant or observer
  • How to run a full meeting walkthrough/test session

Note: Any live sessions will consume live video minutes, so keep this in mind when planning and performing live test sessions. 

System Check

We strongly recommend asking all users (hosts, observers, & participants) conduct a System Check before their scheduled meeting. This will allow you to identify and troubleshoot any issues before the meeting begins. The System Check button appears on the entry page for all live activities. Using the System Check does not consume live minutes. To ensure participants are aware and make use of this feature, consider notifying them in advance.

For Live Video Group Chats, we recommend including verbiage within the Activity description that asks participants to conduct a System Check before the scheduled session. This can be added on the Activity Setup page within the Description text box at the bottom of the page:

This description will appear on the waiting room for the Live Video Group Chat:

For Live Video Interviews, we recommend including a note within the Invitation to Schedule a meeting. This can be added on the Activity Setup page within the invitation text box at the bottom of the page:

When Admins are scheduling all meetings, participants will only receive the Meeting Scheduled and Meeting Starting soon notifications. These notifications can also be customized to include a reminder to conduct a System Check.

The System Check is browser and device specific. If a participant completes the test and gives Recollective permission to access their camera and microphone on one device or browser and then joins the meeting from another device or browser, they will be required to provide these permissions again.

Using Preview Mode

Enabling Preview Mode at the Study Level allows an Administrator to view the study from the perspective of a participant or relevant Administrator roles (Client or Moderator). To view your Study as any of these roles, simply click into the Study Admin menu and select the first option. 

Once Preview Mode is enabled, you will be able to view your live activities from the perspective of the selected role. Using Preview Mode is recommended to understand how live activities will appear in the sequence if there are other Activities in the study, and to become familiar with how the Meeting Entry page will look.

When Admins Schedule all meetings is enabled for a Live Video Interview Activity, the Activity will not be visible in Preview Mode because participants are only able to view the meeting entry page after their meeting has been scheduled.

Walkthroughs & Test Runs

You may want to run a practice Live Group Chat or Live Video Interview for your Moderator(s) and end Client(s). Any live sessions will consume live video minutes, so keep this in mind when planning and performing live test sessions. 

To avoid any confusion between the test session and the real Activities in your study, we recommend creating a separate Study space for testing and walkthroughs. Once you have completed your test session(s), you can archive the test Study.

If the Study for the project has already been programmed, you can simply copy the Study space. This will carry over any assigned Admins, Activities and Settings that are already configured. Just be sure to change the copied Study state to OPEN in order to invite a test participant.

If the Study has not already been programmed, you can create a new study for testing by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Dashboard > Add Study
  2. In the new study, add a Live Video Interview or Live Group Chat activity
  3. To allow backroom observers such as translators or end clients to join, go to the Admin > Permissions > Collaborate in backroom
  4. Save your changes
  5. Set the study state to Open

After copying or creating the new study and activity, create a test participant account. 

  1. Go to Site Administration > Panelists > Add Panelist
  2. Fill out the account details 
  3. Click Save
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the panelist profile
  5. Select Add Study
  6. Assign the testing Study
  7. (If the test session is a Live Video Interview) Navigate back to the interview activity and schedule a meeting with the new test participant

After setting up the test study and participant account, you'll need to assign the specific Moderators and Clients access to view the test study using the steps below. 

  1. Go to Site Administration > Admins > Invite to Studies
  2. Select the Admins
  3. Assign them to the test Study
  4. Click Invite
Note: In order for the test participant to login, Participant Access will need to be live on the site. Once Participant Access is live, it cannot be modified. For testing in advance of Participant Access, please contact us at helpdesk@recollective.com  
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