Survey Procedure

Ref. No.	Executive sponsor	Policy steward	Approval authority	First approved	Last reviewed	Effective date	Next review
66.02

Term	Definition
Administration period	Timeframe between launch and close of survey.
Audience	Group of people who will be sent the survey link.
Business owner	Individual or department requesting the survey.
EMPLID	ID number provided to NSCC students and employees. Not applicable for external audiences.
Incentives	Guaranteed prize or an entry into a random prize draw that motivates or encourages audience to complete a survey.
Private survey	Background biographical/demographical data of audience pre-loaded to avoid asking for specific information that is already available (e.g. student data in PeopleSoft); email invitations and reminders sent from the survey software.
Public survey	No background data of audience pre-loaded; generic link must be shared by business owner as it is not sent from the survey software.
Skip patterns	Survey question asked only when a specific response has been given to a previous question.

	Action	Responsibility
a.	Confirm the survey is in scope of the Survey Policy. In cases of uncertainty, contact Institutional Research	Business owner
b.	Get approval for the survey from department head, if applicable	Business owner
c.	Submit Survey Request to Institutional Research four weeks prior to the beginning of the preferred administration period. Exceptions to this timeframe may be considered. Request form includes: purpose, draft of questions, proposed audience desired administration period, and intended use of results.	Business owner
d.	IR reviews request and works with business owner to develop final survey questions.	IR/ Business owner
e.	Build survey in software.	IR
f.	Test survey to confirm questions are clear and in logical order, skip patterns function, and determine approximate time to complete survey.	IR/ Business owner/ Others as required
g.	Approval of survey at least five days prior to launch.	Business owner
h.	Draft email message to accompany survey link and send to IR at least five days prior to launch.* *If using a Vice President’s name or email address to send the survey, approval to use it must be sent to IR from the Vice President or Marketing & Communications at least 5 days prior to launch.	Business owner
i.	Confirm any prize incentives by submitting Survey Incentive form to Institutional Research at least five days prior to launch, including: prize incentives being offered, number and monetary value of incentives, department responsible for cost, and person responsible for distributing prizes	Business owner
j.	For Private surveys, send Excel file of survey audience to IR with minimum of four columns containing first name, surname, EMPLID, and email address at least three days prior to launch.	Business owner
k.	Finalize dates for survey. IR will make recommendations based on a coordinated approach with other scheduled surveys.	IR/ Business owner
l.	Launch survey and monitor responses.	IR
m.	Close survey and provide report(s) to business owner. IR will be available to answer questions.	IR