Collect Data With a Survey: Using Qualtrics

• The Qualtrics servers are protected by high-end firewall systems.
• Scans are performed regularly to ensure vulnerabilities are found and patched.
• All communications to and from the Qualtrics servers are encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS). Data at rest is also encrypted.
• For additional security, surveys may be password protected.
• For more information, read the Qualtrics Security Statement.

• It is your responsibility to ensure the anonymity of participants.
• The data collected by Qualtrics is determined by the parameters you set up. You have the option to exclude or include identifiable information, such as email addresses and IP addresses.
• Survey information is only available to the survey author and those who are granted access by the author. However, U of G staff who support Qualtrics, and Qualtrics support staff are also able to access survey data. Any such access is tracked and logged by the system.
• By default, Qualtrics surveys are NOT set to be anonymous. Researchers must set Qualtrics settings for anonymous surveys.
• If you are using a list of email addresses (called a "contact list" or "panel" in Qualtrics) to send out your survey, you can anonymize responses in Survey Flow or Survey Options.
• If you are sending a link to the survey, you can use an anonymous link to scrub identifying details such as IP address.

• You determine who you share your account or your survey results with. However, U of G staff who support Qualtrics, and Qualtrics support staff are also able to access survey data. Any such access is tracked and logged by the system.

• For researchers at Canadian institutions, Qualtrics stores their data in the EU and is not subject to the US Patriot Act.
• Once the data is downloaded from Qualtrics, the researcher must identify where it is stored at the University of Guelph.
• Qualtrics should not be used for long-term data storage. Administrators and researchers should have a workflow to regularly save survey response data off Qualtrics to local archive locations.
• Planning for your data management through the lifetime of your project will assist in identifying how you want to store your data outside Qualtrics.

• After creating your survey, use the Publish tool to create an anonymous link to the survey which you can distribute to participants. This tool collects IP addresses of participants unless you turn off that setting.
• If you have a list of email addresses you want to send your survey to, you can use a spreadsheet of the email addresses to build a contact list to distribute your survey.
• You can send email from within the system to distribute your survey to large groups of people.
  • You can set the reply-to address to noreply@uoguelph.ca to help avoid having your survey distribution email identified as spam.

• Including any kind of incentive greatly increases the bot activity on a survey and the number of spam responses in the data.
• If you have determined to offer an incentive, have a robust plan for how you will manage survey security.
• Plan ahead for how you will sort legitimate responses from spam in your response data.
• Turn on all offered security settings in the Security Survey Options. However, as AI progresses quickly, be aware that this WILL NOT catch all bot activity.
• Incentive draws are managed by creating two Qualtrics surveys – the original research survey (which can be anonymous) and a 2nd survey to manage the incentive draw. Both must be set up correctly.
• Qualtrics has a Anonymized Raffle Guide to properly set up and manage the distribution of incentives.
• The option to automate the distribution of incentives through Qualtrics, called Tango, is not available in Canada.
• Collect entries to the draw and identify a winner.
• Submission date and time are recorded with each survey, so it is possible for a researcher to use the submission date and time to connect a response in the research survey to the incentive draw survey. You should acknowledge this in any promises of anonymity and clarify for the respondents how this will be handled.

• The Prevent Multiple Submissions option places a cookie in the participant’s browser which prevents a user from filling out the survey multiple times from the same browser. This can be circumvented by a savvy user.
• Use Qualtrics Mailer or an Authenticator (which checks the user against your panel of participants) to provide greater security.

• Build a Consent Form in a multiple-choice question and use branch logic survey flow to determine whether the participant moves on to the survey based on their consent response. If they do not consent, they will exit the survey.
• To add a print button to your consent form you will need to add html code to your consent question that creates the print button.
• Click in the question box as if you were going to edit your question.
• Select HTML View in the upper right corner.
• At the bottom of the consent question text add the following code: <br><div style="text-align: right;"> <input type="button" onClick="window.print()" value= "Print"/> </div><br><br>.

Qualtrics has a guide on anonymous vs confidential surveys.

These phrases can help you get started:

• Because data collection occurs via the internet, complete confidentiality of the data cannot be guaranteed.
• This survey is anonymous, meaning at no time will the researcher use any identifier to associate your identity with the data you provide.
• Your identity will remain confidential when you fill in this survey. The research team will not release any information which identifies you when disseminating the final results.
• If you use public computers to fill out a survey: erase the history, empty the cache, and close the browser.

• If using a public computer, complete the survey, then erase the history, empty the cache, and close the browser.
• There is a risk from keyloggers – malicious software that can be installed on a computer – to log all keystrokes to a file. There is no complete protection against this. Some computers, such as the library public computers, have software that wipes and reinstalls the operating system on reboot. Some virus scanners will let you know if a keylogger is installed.

• You are responsible for ensuring your survey complies with applicable accessibility requirements and legislation. Some Qualtrics question types do not meet common accessibility requirements.
• To increase accessibility, turn on the question numbers in Survey Options so respondents see the question number for each question.
• Setting the “Next” button to say “Submit Survey” on your last survey page increases clarity for all survey takers, making it clear that clicking the button will submit their results and end the survey. Edit the next/previous button text in Edit Block. Only do this on a block with no page breaks, or each page in the block will say “Submit Survey”.
• Some question types cannot be managed by a screen reader and are therefore never accessible. It is possible to use alternatives for these question types. See the University of Colorado Boulder's Qualtrics Accessibility guide for a detailed analysis and suggested alternatives.
• Use the Qualtrics Accessibility Checker to check for accessibility before launching your survey.
• Note that some manual checks are required as the Qualtrics Accessibility Checker will not be able to see if you've properly captioned your videos or supplied a transcript. It also doesn't check for alt tags on your images.

• The University of Guelph requires that ethical clearance be obtained for research involving human participants. Information and applications are available from the Research Ethics Board.

Yes! You can put an authenticator on your survey that requires a U of G login to answer the survey.

• A survey authenticator by default does not record any respondent information. It is just a pass/fail to allow the respondent into the survey or not, so it is compatible with anonymous surveys.
• Authenticators are set up in the Survey Flow.
• All other survey Blocks and Flow must be below and within the authenticator in the survey flow. Anything that is not to the below and to the right of the Authenticator will be accessible without a login.
• Use the SSO authenticator for Shibboleth.
• It is possible to set up an Authenticator to record data from the login for non-anonymous surveys by selecting Capture Identifying Information. Please contact your Brand Administrator for details on what data codes to use to save respondent information to the survey data.
• You can combine an SSO authenticator (U of G login) with a participant list to only allow specific U of G members to access your survey (e.g., only grad students in your department or only voting faculty). This will require respondents to log in, but then also check against the provided list before allowing respondents to access the survey. Use Associate Respondent with Panel to set this up.

Yes, Qualtrics may be used for administrative or department surveys.

• Strongly recommend that all admin surveys be created in a U of G Organizational Account.
• Ensures surveys are not lost with staff turnover, and ownership remains with the team or department.
• Allows surveys to be edited and updated for re-use as needed.
• Surveys can still be collaborated from the organizational account out to team members to edit/manage from their own Qualtrics accounts.
• Surveys can be moved into an organizational account from personal accounts by request to U of G Brand Administrators.
• Organizational accounts are available by request from Computing and Communication Services.