Using Qualtrics responsibly

Overview

This article outlines the ethical and professional responsibilities of all survey researchers at WSU: students, faculty, and staff. It applies to anyone who uses Qualtrics to gather survey data from any population residing either on or off campus.

Surveying WSU Students

WSU students are invited to participate in many surveys during a typical academic year. Students provide critical feedback on important campus issues, respond to national student surveys, complete course and program evaluations, and participate in faculty and student survey research projects. It is your responsibility to consider the impact of your student survey on other survey research efforts and on the student participant pool as a whole. Are there other student surveys in the field that yours might influence? Will your results be influenced by other surveys? Will your project contribute to students' survey fatigue? Here are a couple tips for managing WSU student surveys responsibly:

Start planning early and consult with IPAR

Give yourself at least six months in advance of the desired launch date to coordinate with others and schedule your survey window properly. Notify Institutional Planning, Assessment, and Research (IPAR) if you plan to administer medium to large-scale student surveys. IPAR is a great resource for you as you plan your student survey. They are aware of many other campus survey research projects already underway and should be consulted early in your planning process.

Consider Assessment Day

Assessment Day is a campus-wide opportunity to gather feedback on how well we are meeting our mission to create a community of learners improving our world. All classes that meet before 3:30 p.m. (except labs and classes that meet once per week) are cancelled on Assessment Day. Managed by IPAR, Assessment Day kicks off in mid-February each year and the surveys remain open for about three weeks. Depending on the nature of your survey, you might include it in the Assessment Day instrument. Contact IPAR to discuss this opportunity. If this is not possible, please do not schedule any student surveys during the Assessment Day window and contact IPAR if your survey window is in close proximity to the start or end of the Assessment Day period.

Minimize survey fatigue

Student survey fatigue is every researcher's problem and we have to work together to reduce it. Over-surveying can reduce response rates and increase response bias across the board.

1. Never conduct a student survey unless you have well-developed, important research questions and have determined that a survey is the best way to answer those questions.
2. Never include an item in a survey that is not tied to your research questions. If you don't need it, don't include it.
3. Coordinate with other campus researchers to schedule your survey at the proper time.
4. Make it very clear to the respondents approximately how long it will take to complete the survey.
5. Design your Qualtrics surveys to make it as easy as possible for the respondent to complete. Use skip logic, display logic, and branching to streamline the respondent's experience.

Private Data

Private information means "information about behavior that occurs in a context, in which an individual can reasonably expect that no observation or recording is taking place, and information, which has been provided for specific purposes by an individual and which the individual can reasonably expect will not be made public (for example, a medical record). If you plan to collect private data in your survey, special rules apply. If your survey constitutes research on human subjects, private information must be individually identifiable (i.e., the identity of the subject is or may readily be ascertained by the investigator or associated with the information). Consult with the Human Protections Administrator, Brett Ayers (Maxwell Hall 155, 507-457-5519, bayers@winona.edu) if you have any questions.

Anonymity vs. Confidentiality

There are important differences between anonymity and confidentiality. You need to understand how this applies to your survey, how to configure Qualtrics accordingly, and how to describe to your potential respondents clearly whether their responses will be anonymous or confidential.

Anonymous responses

Truly anonymous responses cannot be associated with individual respondents at any time by anyone. Survey researchers try to preserve anonymity in two ways: either by not collecting any identifying information at all or by completely separating all identifying information from individual responses (e.g., storing them in two separate databases that cannot be connected in any way). Even when taking such precautions, you should be mindful of some common threats to anonymity. In open-ended responses, participants may purposely or inadvertently identify themselves, either by name or through the nature of their responses. It may also be possible to identify respondents by cross-tabulating demographic variables that break the sample down into very small groups. Finally, tools like Qualtrics often collect technical information such as the IP address of the device that the respondent used to take the survey. This information may be used to identify the individual. You are responsible for managing these threats through your research methods. Potential respondents should be informed of all credible threats to the anonymity of their responses before they agree to participate.

ANONYMOUS TECHNIQUES

GOAL	DISTRIBUTION TECHNIQUE
Collect anonymous responses from an open link and be able to see the IP address and general location of the respondent.	Use the Qualtrics static 'Anonymous Link'
Collect anonymous responses from an open link but not see IP Address or general location of respondent.	Use the Qualtrics 'Anonymous Link' with the 'Anonymize response' survey option turned on.
Email an anonymous survey to a list of participants, and allow the participants to submit the survey multiple times.	Use the Qualtrics Mailer with the multiple completes per link option and the 'Anonymize Response' survey option is turned on.
Email an anonymous survey to a list of participants, send reminder and thank-you emails, and see who responded without seeing how they responded.	Use the Qualtrics Mailer with the individual link option and the 'Anonymize Response' survey option turned on.

Confidential responses

Confidential responses can be associated with individual respondents, but the information is held in confidence by a defined, trusted person or group of people. Typically, the primary investigator is the only person who can identify responses. In some cases, other investigators or research team members may also have access to this information. You are responsible for communicating this to potential respondents before they agree to participate in the survey.

CONFIDENTIAL TECHNIQUES

GOAL	DISTRIBUTION TECHNIQUE
Collect confidential responses from a list of participants (only one response per participant) with the option of sending reminders and thank-you emails.	Use the Qualtrics mailer to send out an individualized link option.
Collect confidential responses from a list of participants with Multiple possible responses per individual (sending reminders and thank-you emails through Qualtrics is not supported in this case).	Use the Qualtrics mailer and the "multiple completes per link" option.

COLLECT NAMES

GOAL	TECHNIQUE
Want to use the 'Anonymous Link' but still end up with identifying information, making the survey confidential rather than anonymous.	Connect a 'Contact List' to a survey with the 'Authenticator' object.

Related Resources

• WSU Regulation 3.7 Policies and Procedures for the Use of Human Subjects in Research
• WSU Grants and Sponsored Projects Homepage
• Five Basic Ways to Avoid Survey Fatigue