SurvConf (www.SurvConf.com) is a tool that can be integrated directly into survey platforms (e.g., Qualtrics) to let participants interact in real time directly within surveys (i.e., no external platforms, like Zoom, are needed), via video, audio, or text chat interactions in groups of two to eight people. Currently, the program is optimized for the use within Qualtrics platform (although we provide the raw code for use on other platforms). For Qualtrics, we provide detailed instructions and survey import files to allow you to easily integrate SurvConf into your survey without the need to code anything yourself.
We offer SurvConf as free-to-use and open-source. However, you will need to sign up for services that SurvConf leverages (e.g., Heroku for connecting participants and Amazon Web Services for storing video and audio interactions among your participants). Most of these services have free tiers, and are generally inexpensive even when you have to pay (e.g., AWS allows for 5 GB of video storage for free and charges <$0.03 per GB thereafter; Heroku may cost $10 per month when you use SurvConf, but if you are a student or turn it off for the whole month, you can avoid this charge). Instructions on how to connect these services to your personal SurvConf account are included in the document.
Before using SurvConf, we suggest you read the Tips & Resources Page. Then, to start using SurvConf, simply download the instruction document and the program files from Downloads section!
If you downloaded earlier versions of SurvConf (prior to 7/15/2022), please make sure to download SurvConf v3.10 on the downloads page (along with the updated instructions). If you downloaded SurvConf v3.00, please see page 4 of up-to-date SurvConf instructions to check what has changed.
**On December 9, 2024, the SurvConf Instruction was updated to reflect the latest changes in Heroku apps. Users must follow the steps in the instruction (pages 11-12) to deploy both apps using the new links, but using the same credentials as before, to save videos correctly to the AWS S3 server.
For more details see:- Brodsky, A., Lee, M.J., Leonard, B. (2022). Discovering new frontiers for dyadic and team interaction studies: Current challenges and an open-source solution—SurvConf—for increasing the quantity and richness of interactional data. Academy of Management Discoveries. doi:10.5465/amd.2021.0257