Managing Interviewer Quotas in CAPI Surveys

1: Managing Quotas in CAPI Surveys

In CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) surveys that use quotas, you can divide the required number of participants for each quota across the interviewers assigned to the survey. This article explains only the CAPI-specific functionality of quota management.

Refer to the Professional Authoring or Survey Designer documentation for more details.

Note: Quota limits are downloaded to CAPI App as part of the synchronization process and can be updated at any time. As surveys are completed, the quota count is updated locally on the device, counts are updated on the server when response data is uploaded during the synchronization process.

However, quota counts are not shared across other CAPI users. For this reason, it is recommended to distribute quotas across interviewers (see Creating Quotas by Interviewer).

Alternatively, use a survey quota and set an overall limit. Then as surveys are completed and synchronized from CAPI, monitor the quota counter in Survey Designer > Design > Quotas. When the count approaches the desired threshold, reduce the limit to 0 to close the quota.

2: How CAPI-Specific Quotas Work

When a survey is launched as a CAPI survey, a CAPI Specific folder is added to the survey. This folder contains:

• One question: capiInterviewerId

• One script node: record capiInterviewerId

Note: The single question capiInterviewerId must not be modified.

These CAPI-specific objects automatically set the interviewer ID during data collection. You can include capiInterviewerId in your quotas to track or distribute respondents across interviewers.

3: Creating Quotas by Interviewer

When you create a new quota (e.g., based on gender), you can include both the demographic variable and the capiInterviewerId variable.

To view or edit quota distribution by interviewer:

1. Double-click the quota or right-click it.

2. Select Edit to open the quota grid, where each cell shows how many participants are required for each interviewer per variable.

4: Managing Quotas in the Grid View

In the Quota Grid, rows represent variables (such as Male and Female), and columns represent the assigned CAPI interviewers. Each cell corresponds to a specific variable-interviewer combination and is editable.

To set targets:

1. Enter the total required participants for each variable in the Total column.

2. Right-click any cell in that row and select Distribute to automatically divide the total evenly across all interviewers.

If needed, you can manually adjust individual cell values, for example, if certain interviewers should only collect responses from a specific group (e.g., only Male participants). The values in the Total column will update automatically based on your changes.

5: Quota Notifications and Status Updates

When an interviewer completes their assigned quota, an email is automatically sent to the address specified in the quota’s Settings tab. This email includes the completed quota details and the associated capiInterviewerId.

Participants who attempt to respond after a quota has been filled are marked with the status Quota full. These participants appear on the Survey homepage and in their participant information records.

Refer to the Professional Authoring documentation for more details on Quotas and Quota Management.