Qualtrics

Can you set up a Qualtrics account for a departmental email address?

Yes!  Please apply for an account and provide the departmental email address you would like associated with the account.

I want someone else to work with me on this survey.  How do I do that?

Qualtrics Support provides some information on how to collaborate on a survey. In order to do so, each person must have an account.

Qualtrics looks different.  What happened?

Like all software, Qualtrics continues to develop and change.  Here's a page on the Qualtrics support site that might help you navigate.  And here's a page that provides more information about the March 31, 2021, switch from Qualtrics Classic Reports to Advanced Reports.

Who can access my surveys and view responses?

Typically, only you will be able to access your surveys and view the data obtained from them. However, in order to facilitate customer service, Analytics and Institutional Research may at times access your account to look at the content and structure of your surveys. We will never share or distribute your surveys without your permission. AIR will not access data obtained from a survey (i.e., respondents and responses) without the survey owner’s explicit permission.

What is the difference between an anonymous survey link and a unique link?
There are two types of hyperlinks you can use to distribute your survey:  anonymous links and unique links.

  • An anonymous survey link is generated when you click the "Distributions" tab within a survey and select “Anonymous Link” from the left-hand menu. This link is designed to be copied and pasted into an email or onto a website. Anyone who has internet access can click on this link to take the survey. If you use an anonymous link, you won’t be able to track who has completed your survey.
  • A unique survey link is generated when you distribute email invitations to your contacts using Qualtrics (click the "Distributions" tab within a survey and select “Emails” from the left-hand menu). With a unique survey link, each email recipient receives their own individualized link, which can only be used once and cannot be shared. Using a unique survey link will allow you to keep track of exactly who is responding, because the respondent's email address will be displayed along with their response.

I've created a survey, but there is no "Back" button that will help respondents navigate.  How do I add a "Back" button and/or a progress bar to my survey?

You can add and customize survey buttons with the Look & Feel button at the top of the screen.

I don't want my survey emails to be caught in spam filters.  Is there a way to prevent them from being sent to clutter or junk folders?

Ithaca College’s IT team has made every effort to ensure that emails sent via Qualtrics land in recipients’ inboxes instead of clutter or junk folders.  Qualtrics servers are whitelisted on Ithaca College’s email system (Outlook).

However, IT does not have control over all aspects of Outlook or other email applications. For example, in Outlook, emails are sent to the clutter folder based on an algorithm that examines which emails the user typically opens and reads. If several similar email messages are ignored (e.g., survey invitations), Outlook may take that as a cue to send similar messages to clutter. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to control this behavior.  It's good practice to thoroughly review emails that wind up in clutter or junk before you delete them.

Survey Research

How many people should my survey sample include?

Instead of surveying an entire population, you can use a sample. Determining the number of people to include in your sample can be complicated, but there are handy online tools to help, such as this one. As stated on the website, this calculator can tell you how many responses you need in order to get a statistically valid result. Immediately below the calculator is an explanation of the numbers you need to calculate either a confidence interval, a confidence level, or both.

Is this survey confidential or is it anonymous?

Best practices stipulate that researchers inform participants whether a survey is confidential or anonymous. But what’s the difference?  There's actually a very big difference, and the choice you make when you design your survey will have substantial implications for your results.

Anonymous surveys

  • Do not contain any identifying information about the participants. It is impossible to know exactly who participated in the survey, and responses cannot be tied to any specific individual.
  • Do not allow basic demographic information to be matched in from other sources, so any such information must be requested as part of the survey
  • May solicit more candid responses
  • May result in the submission of multiple responses by individuals who feel strongly about the topic
  • May make it difficult to draw inferences about the population

Confidential surveys

  • Contain identifying information about the participants, making it possible to identify participants and link specific responses to specific individuals. This identifying information is not shared when reporting survey results; results are reported in aggregate form, not on an individual basis.
  • Can be matched with demographic information from other sources, so that information does not need to be requested on the survey
  • Make it possible to send survey reminders to nonrespondents
  • Can prevent an individual from retaking/submitting the survey multiple times
  • Make it easier to draw inferences about the population

If a survey asks for identifying information or contains results that can be linked to a specific individual, and that information is expected to be shared, the survey is neither anonymous nor confidential. Typically, there are very few reasons to conduct this type of survey.

Most surveys conducted at Ithaca College are confidential surveys.