Campus Survey Policy

Surveys intended for wide distribution (i.e.: use of email distribution lists, college social media sites, etc.) to any members of the college—student, faculty, staff and alumni—must be reviewed and approved by OIRA (i.e.: program review, alumni, or satisfaction surveys, etc.). Student course projects are not included in this purview and are advised to use alternative methods for survey distribution. If you are unsure if your survey requires approval, feel free to reach out to OIRA (IR@hood.edu).

Anyone requesting review and approval to administer a survey should consult the OIRA Survey Calendar before submitting a request. Approval from the division VP and Senior Team (if the division VP deems necessary) is required before submitting a request.

Submit your request through the online Approval Request Form. OIRA will coordinate the survey schedule and priorities will be given to mandated surveys so send your request as early as possible. OIRA may suggest alternate survey dates in order to limit the number of active survey invitations to students.

Survey data collected on Hood students, faculty, staff, and alumni using Hood resources will be considered the property of Hood College. A copy of the findings should be shared with OIRA and Senior Team. Access to data and additional analysis might be requested by the Senior Team.

Fall 2023

• Orientation Survey
• Religious/Spiritual Life Survey
• HEDS Sexual Assault Campus Climate Survey
• Dining Services Survey

Spring 2024

• Library Survey
• Maryland College Alcohol Survey
• Dining Services Survey

last updated 8/2023

The OIRA can assist, if needed, in the development, administration, design and analysis of surveys conducted by academic departments, committees and task forces and administrative units.

Requests for survey administration assistance will be scheduled and prioritized by submission time and ease of completion. The office, however, reserves the right to deny a request for assistance if office resources are limited or unavailable.

Survey requests that involve additional offices (i.e.: Alumni Office) should be submitted for consideration at least one month prior to the proposed administration. This will allow time for survey samples to be coordinated.

Enrollment Instructions

1. Go to https://hoodcollege.qualtrics.com
2. Sign in using your Hood College email and password.  If you are already logged into Blackboard or Office365 on your web browser, it will pass you to the next step.
3. Select ‘No, I don’t have a preexisting account here’
4. Click ‘Sign in with a username and password'
5. Click ‘I accept’ on the Terms of Service page
6. You should now be logged in. (Future logins will not require steps 3 through 5)

Student Accounts

Faculty and staff are responsible for general oversight of acceptable use of Qualtrics among students conducting research under their supervision. To enroll a student Qualtrics account, course instructors or staff members must send IT (helpdesk@hood.edu) the first name, the last name, and institutional email of the student. If requesting access for multiple students, please provide the information in an organized list. Using a Qualtrics account for non-college related activities is prohibited.

Resources

For a guide on how to create and distribute a survey on Qualtrics, click here.
For more information and Qualtrics Support, click here.

The use of incentives to encourage participation requires the collection of personal information from the respondents—i.e., name, email address, etc. Collection of this information violates any promised anonymity. However, to circumvent the conflict, respondents can be assured that their responses will be kept confidential, but not anonymous, and the information will only be used for identifying the winners—unless responses revealany threat to the physical health or safety to individuals or to the campus community. The OIRA regards the confidentiality of survey data to be of utmost importance. Raw data will be housed in the OIRA secure and password protected server.

The OIRA subscribes to the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Code of Ethics1 and Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research for any survey protocols and procedures.

The OIRA does not supersede the policies and procedures of the College Institutional Review Board (IRB). Researchers are still responsible for obtaining required IRB exemptions or permissions before implementing any survey, particularly if it pertains to asking questions of a “sensitive nature” and/or requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The office may also notify the researcher or requester that an IRB review will be required before beginning work on the survey project. Information about human subjects’ research and the IRB process can be found on the IRB website.

1Code of Ethics for Institutional Research, Association for Institutional Research (AIR), http://airweb.org

2“Sensitive information,” according to the National Institutes of Health, includes, but is not limited to: information related to sexual attitudes, preferences or practices; information relating to the use of alcohol, drugs or other addictive products; information pertaining to illegal conduct; information that, if released, might be damaging to an individual’s financial standing, employability or reputation within the community or might lead to social stigmatization or discrimination; information pertaining to an individual’s psychological well-being or mental health.

3Nonpublic student data can be used without the student's consent by College employees for "legitimate educational" purposes provided the data are not reported in such a way that individual students can be identified. All other users must receive written consent from the students to access nonpublic student data.