When you run studies, CloudResearch can add Worker ID, Assignment ID, and HIT ID to the URL of workers who enter your survey. By configuring your survey platform, you can automatically capture these values, eliminating the need to ask for them.
When MTurk workers click on your study link and enter your survey, CloudResearch can add "query string parameters" for each person's Worker ID, Assignment ID, and HIT ID to their URL. With these values appended to the URL, you can setup your survey to automatically capture and record them. When you do, each worker's Worker ID, Assignment ID, and HIT ID will be added to your data file, eliminating the need to ask for them.
Collecting Worker IDs from MTurk participants should be standard practice because Worker IDs are necessary for matching respondents on MTurk with their data in your data file. In addition, Worker IDs are used to bonus, Include, Exclude, or match workers' data across longitudinal studies. Automatically capturing Worker IDs saves the time of asking about them and prevents mistakes workers may make entering their IDs.
Technical Details
CloudResearch adds query string parameters to your URL so that you can take advantage of them in your data collection. The parameters we add are: workerId, assignmentId, and hitId.
- workerId = the MTurk Worker ID or CloudResearch Worker ID if Anonymize Worker IDs is turned on
- assignmentId = a unique ID Amazon generates for each worker taking your HIT
- hitId = the ID of your HIT
*Note: the 'I' in each parameter is case sensitive.
If your Survey Link is https://www.example.com, CloudResearch will add the parameters above to the URL. So, your final URL might look like:
https://www.example.com?workerId=ABCD1435&hitId=35hgfsbdu&assignmentId=vbwufg.
You can capture these parameters from the URL by setting up Qualtrics Embedded Data within your survey flow (or something similar in whatever survey creation platform you use).
TIP! If you are using the dynamic secret code and you are re-directing participants to a different task or survey, you need to collect the parameters a,b,c and pass that to the next survey or task. Otherwise, the dynamic code will not work.
Example:
http://www.qualtricsgamesurvey.com?workerId=${e://Field/workerId}&a=${e://Field/a}&b=${e://Field/b}&c=${e://Field/c}
Please see our blog post on this for more details.