ROWAN UNIVERSITY POLICY
Title:
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Electronic Survey Policy
Subject:
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Information Resources and Technology
Policy No: IRT:2015:06
Applies: University-Wide
Issuing Authority: Senior Vice President for Information Resources and Technology and Chief Information Officer
Responsible Officer: Vice President
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for Information Resources and Technology
Adopted: 10/31/2014
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Last Revision:
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04/
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11/
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2019
Last
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Review:
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04/
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10/
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2019
I. PURPOSE
As part of its mission to maintain and disseminate accurate data to support academic and administrative decision-making, assessment and compliance; as well as to provide technical and professional services to serve the information needs of Rowan University, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning (IERP) established the Rowan University Survey Policy to achieve the following goals:
A. Protect rights, privacy, and safety of potential survey respondents
B. Establish a central clearinghouse for survey administration
C. Minimize survey fatigue due to volume and oversampling
D. Maximize survey response rate and survey quality
E. Eliminate the collection of duplicate information
F. Effectively share survey results
G. Provide and support an online survey software tool
This policy sets forth the acceptable use of survey software and is intended to guide the development and use of electronic surveying.
II. ACCOUNTABILITY
Under the direction of the President, the Chief Information Officer
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and the
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Director of Information Security
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shall
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ensure compliance with this policy. The
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Vice
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Presidents, Deans, and other members of management will implement this policy.
III. APPLICABILITY
For the purpose of this policy, a survey is defined as a method of collecting data through the use of a standardized questionnaire. Modes of administration include electronic surveys, paper surveys and telephone surveys.
Surveys administered to the Rowan community under this policy include all faculty, student, staff, and third-party survey initiatives with the following exceptions:
- Faculty-supervised research surveys distributed within the confines of a classroom (or to a departmental research participant pool) that contribute toward students' academic progress
- Paper or telephone research surveys administered by students conducting research related to their master's thesis or doctoral dissertation
- Course/teaching evaluations for the sole purpose of providing feedback to individual instructor and/or supervisors
- Administrative forms
- Polls for student elections
- Web in-page/pop-up surveys collecting sign-up/contact/comment data
- The following two types of surveys are exempt from the reporting requirements that follow. However, if distributed electronically, the approved online survey software must be used to distribute to the Rowan community. (See VI. B.)
- Evaluation of a specific event or workshop by participants
- Customer feedback collected at point of service
Rowan faculty, students, or staff administering surveys to populations outside of the Rowan community are exempt from this policy. (NOTE: Qualtrics, the Information Resources and Technology (IRT) approved online survey software, is available and recommended for use in this application.)
Institutional surveys are not exempt from this policy.
IV. DEFINITIONS
Census: Survey administered to entire population.
Institutional Review Board (IRB): IRB's mission is to assure the safe and ethical treatment of human participants in research. Federal and university regulations require that all research involving human participants conducted by Rowan faculty, staff, and students be reviewed and approved by the IRB before initiation.
Institutional Survey: Survey used to collect data for institutional planning, assessment, and/or program evaluation. This includes surveys used to support external accreditation.
Population: All individuals who make up a single group of interest. For example, all first-year students, all students living on campus, etc.
Research Survey: Survey requiring IRB approval used to collect data for research purposes only. These surveys are not intended to inform decision-making or support assessment initiatives within the institution.
Survey Administrator: Individual responsible for final decisions on all aspects of survey methodology and analysis.
Survey Sample: Group of individuals from a population who will be surveyed.
Sampling Method: Process used to determine which individuals will be included in the survey sample.
Survey: Method of collecting data through the use of a standardized questionnaire. Modes of administration include electronic surveys, paper-and-pencil surveys, and telephone surveys.
Rowan Community: All prospective students, current enrolled students, employees and alumni.
V. POLICY
A. Any person, (now referred to as Survey Administrator) proposing to distribute a survey to the Rowan community must submit a completed Survey Schedule Request Form (SSRF) to the Office of IERP prior to engaging in survey activities under the scope of this policy. The SSRF requires the following information:
- Identification of the individual acting as Survey Administrator who will be responsible for survey administration activities as well as compliance with this policy (and all other applicable policies). Students administering research surveys will also identify the faculty advisor designated as principal investigator on the SSRF.
- Detailed population/sample size description when requesting email addresses for members of the Rowan community. Principal investigators requesting email addresses to administer census surveys will not be fulfilled. (Students needing help should discuss sampling methods with their faculty advisors.)
- Copy of the survey questionnaire
B. To ensure confirmation of requests for specific calendar dates and to schedule timely production of sample frame email lists we recommend Survey Administrators submit the completed SSRF at least eight weeks prior to survey launch date.
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This policy applies to any broad sampling or census of a population at Rowan University, including employees, students, applicants, former students, former employees, alumni and guest affiliates, conducted with survey software.
Examples of surveys covered by this policy include but are not limited to:
Surveys that address all faculty, staff, and/or students within the University
Surveys that are aimed at a broad subset of the population (e.g. first-year student population)
Surveys covering a variety of topics (e.g. use and satisfaction with various university services) which utilize survey software.
IV. DEFINITIONS
Refer to Rowan University Technology Terms and Definitions for terms and definitions that are used in this policy.
V. POLICY
Institutional Electronic Surveys
The University provides Rowan-licensed survey software for research-related and administrative self-service electronic surveys. It is important to use only Qualtrics, IRT’s approved software package, as other survey products may generate email that will be identified by Rowan systems as spam or other malicious email. The Office of Student Life has licensed Baseline for its own use and only its use.
Compliance with all other Laws and Policies
Surveys must comply with all other applicable University policies and state and federal laws, including the General User Password Policy and Acceptable Use Policy.
The survey service may not be used for personal or commercial gain.
Users will not spam or use other forms of unsolicited mass communication.
Eligibility and Access
The University provides Rowan-licensed Qualtrics software for research-related and administrative self-service electronic surveys. For information about accessing that software, go to the IRT Surveys page. The use of other tools, which may not work as expected, is not authorized. For example, large numbers of emails from unapproved vendors like SurveyMonkey may be blocked by University resources as spam.
Eligibility and access to Rowan-licensed Qualtrics is limited to the Rowan Community.
Student surveys are limited to two active surveys. Faculty may request additional active surveys on behalf of students for academic purposes. Employees have unlimited active surveys. The number of emails are limited by university policies for email usage.
Responsibility for Content/Content Ownership
Each survey has a primary survey owner.
The owner of a survey is responsible for content posted or distributed through the software.
The survey owner is subject to the normative rights and obligations in the Rowan community as expressed in the University policies, rules and regulations.
Use of this service excludes pornography, commercial use and confidential information as outlined in the Acceptable Use Policy.
If sensitive data is to be collected, or if you are unsure if your data is sensitive, please contact the Information Security Office through the IRT Support Portal. Rowan community members of the School of Osteopathic Medicine should review the policy Protection of Sensitive Electronic Information which applies to that school.
Contact the Institutional Review Board for approval regarding research.
Support and Service Availability of Applicable Services
In order to provide service improvements and maintenance, Survey Application Administrators have access to all accounts and content in Qualtrics.
In order to ensure that the survey owner has a successful survey, IRT provides a calendar of scheduled surveys and can advise the survey owner regarding scheduling the survey to avoid multiple surveys sent to our students in a short period of time. Please request consultation about survey scheduling through the IRT Support Portal.
Support will be provided by normal IRT processes at the IRT Support Portal.
Request for a survey sample should be requested through the IRT Support Portal.
Training materials are available on the IRT Training Resources page or you may request additional training through the IRT Support Portal.
Data Archiving
Survey owners are responsible for archiving their data to other media prior to the expiration of their Rowan accounts (either expiration of access of the individual to Rowan resources or the expiration of a particular survey in the appropriate software). Rowan University is not responsible for archiving data.
Administering an institutional survey establishes an obligation on the part of the survey
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owner to use, store, protect and archive the data responsibly, including not distributing the data to others in, or outside the university, unless the
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survey owner is an authoritative source for and an authorized distributor of the data and the recipient is authorized to receive the data.
D. Survey Administrators for institutional surveys may also be asked to share survey data and reports with the Office of IERP upon request.
E. IERP staff members serve as honest agents in administering Rowan University's survey policy as it pertains to research surveys.
F. Survey administration oversight by the Office of IERP does not supersede the policies and procedures of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). If a survey research project is subject to review by the IRB, proof of IRB approval is required before the Office of IERP will schedule the survey and provide access to email addresses. IRB approval is generally not required for surveys conducted to evaluate or compare programs, practices, curricula, methods, or outcomes for use solely by the university.
G. Office Of IERP Policy Support
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V. ATTACHMENTS
A. Attachment 1, Related Policies
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VI. POLICY COMPLIANCE
Violations of this policy may subject the violator to disciplinary actions, up to or including termination of employment or dismissal from a school, subject to applicable collective bargaining agreements and may subject the violator to penalties stipulated in applicable state and federal statutes. Sanctions shall be applied consistently to all violators regardless of job titles or level in the organization per the Acceptable Use Policy.
By Direction of the CIO:
Mira Lalovic-Hand,
SVP and Chief Information Officer
ATTACHMENT 1
Related Policies
- Data Governance Policy
- Information Security Policy
- Acceptable Use Policy
- Mobile Computing and Removable Media Policy
- Network & Computer Use Policy
- Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act