Creating Mechanical Turk Custom Panels With CloudResearch Worker Groups

Jonathan Robinson, PhD

published on March 23, 2015

Problem:

Suppose you need to run a group of HITs open only to participants who are women under 50. You previously ran a HIT and know the Worker IDs that you want to reach, but have no way to email them and limit your survey to only them. How can you proceed?

Solution:

CloudResearch.com Worker Groups and Worker Emails

  1. CloudResearch recently added a new feature called Worker Groups which allows any MTurk Requester to create a Reusable Worker Group based on MTurk Worker’s Worker ID.

    Screenshot of CloudResearch's Create Worker Group interface showing where to enter Worker IDs to create a custom panel
  2. Then, Design your HIT and Select your Worker Group as a Requirement, as shown below. When launched, your HIT will only be available to workers in that Worker Group.

    Screenshot of CloudResearch's HIT design interface where you can configure your study parameters
    Screenshot showing how to select your Worker Group as a requirement in CloudResearch's interface
  3. You can then, if you wish, invite the workers with an Amazon email requesting their services.

  4. Some Requesters may wish to bonus specific high performing Workers. This can be accomplished easily with the Grant Bonus button on the Dashboard.


    Screenshot of CloudResearch dashboard showing the Grant Bonus button for rewarding high-performing workers

    Simply specify the workers you wish to bonus (or, bonus all workers) and in moments you are complete.


    Screenshot of the Grant Bonus interface where you can specify which workers to bonus and the amount
  5. If you wish to reuse your group or add or remove workers, all of those options are easily available.

How It Works Under the Hood

When you create a Worker Group, CloudResearch creates a Worker Qualification and grants that Qualification to the users you specified. The HIT you create with that Worker Group Requirement, is limited by Amazon to the workers you specified.

Fine Print

Amazon requires that the Workers you specify have worked for you in the past.

If you need a larger pool of workers, or need a custom demographic panel you may wish to consider using CloudResearch Managed Research which, for a small fee when compared to Panel Providers, will obtain your panel for you.

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