How do I estimate how long it will take participants to complete my study?
Often in your instructions, it can be helpful to include “this will take approximately…”. In order to have that statement be based on data, rather than intuition, we did a statistical regression study on the relationship between number of items and mean completion times, using a sample of 25 studies. The relationship is:
Mean completion time = .34 (number of items) + 4.
For example, if you have 50 items in your study then Mean completion time = .34(50) + 4 = 21 minutes
Of course, all the standard disclaimers apply: your ridiculously long item descriptions might slow people down, or having 250 items might force your participants into reckless speed-sorting mode. But this equation is definitely handy to have as a rule of thumb.
Once you actually have your study up and running, you can get the actual completion times from the WebSort Study Manager. Just go to the Results tab and choose Other Downloads from the dropdown menu and download the Items x Participants table. At the top of each column (starting the second one), you will see the Participant ID, and underneath that the date & time they took the study (second row) and the number of minutes it took them to complete the study (third row). Using this information is of course the best way to get an idea of how long it will take!
For other helpful tips and answers on how to set up and run a quality card sort study, check out our new FAQs page.
