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Survey Guidelines

Purpose

To create a more informed and collaborative survey environment across the institution. The following information and guidelines are provided to assist Delaware State University students, faculty and staff who are administering or participating in internal or external surveys. 

Role of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE)

OIE is available to provide support for your survey project. Support includes help with:

  • Survey parameters (i.e., sample considerations, survey communication and administration, and survey timeline)
  • Creation and troubleshooting of online surveys
  • Online administration/distribution of surveys
  • Reminder emails
  • Building reports and analyzing results

Planning is an important component for the success of a survey project or survey research. We strongly recommend that you submit your survey by September 1 for the Fall semester, and January 31 for Spring and Summer semesters for priority calendaring. The recommendation is to contact OIE early in the planning process so that guidance and resources may be provided regarding approvals required, survey timeline and best practices in survey design and administration.

Role of the Institutional Review Board (IRB)

It is the responsibility of the IRB to review research protocols involving human participants to ensure that the rights of the participants are protected, that they are not subject to unreasonable harm (physical and emotional), and that information about them is kept confidential. All survey administrators must obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval prior to administering or requesting ALL surveys (or survey projects). All research involving human subjects must be reviewed by the Institutional Review Board - Human Subjects Protection Committee. If you are doing a study of any kind that involves humans, please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) for guidance on the process for your study. For more information, please visit the Sponsored Programs Forms Library or contact Ms. Chanel Haman in the Office of Sponsored Programs at 302.857.6834 or chaman [at] desu.edu. The IRB review process can take up to 7 business days. Additional Approvals may be needed depending upon the survey topic and the content.

Survey Tool

It is required that all survey administrators utilize official University survey tools such as Anthology Baseline and Survey Monkey. Anthology Baseline is free for all faculty, staff, and students with a DSU email account. A user login can be requested by sending an email to mgriffin [at] desu.edu. Please allow 24-48 business hours for access to be granted. While Baseline is the preferred University survey tool, it does not currently offer all the capabilities and features of Survey Monkey. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) has free Enterprise licenses available to use for more complex surveys. If you have a more complex survey that will need to be administered via Survey Monkey, please send an email to oie [at] desu.edu Please allow 24-48 business hours for a response to your request. If another system is used, the researcher assumes the full responsibility for the security and privacy of the data.

Contacts

Office of Institutional Effectiveness, oie [at] desu.edu, 302.857.7362

Assessment Office, mgriffin [at] desu.edu, 302.857.6649

IRB Representative, chaman [at] desu.edu, 302.857.6834

Definitions

Institutional Review Board (IRB): An IRB is a board, committee, or other group formally designated by an institution to review research involving humans as subjects.

Population: total membership of a defined class of people, objects, or events.

Research: is a systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Research Survey: Survey used to collect data for research purposes only. These surveys are not intended to inform policy or decision making.

Sample: the subset from a population through which statistical inferences for the whole population are made.

Survey: method of gathering information from a sample of people, traditionally with the intention of generalizing the results to a larger population. A survey may be conducted for institutional and/or research purposes.

Survey Blackout Period 

Delaware State University (DSU) has survey blackout dates coinciding with the timing for the Student Course Evaluations feedback. During this time, refrain from sending any message soliciting participation for surveys without contacting the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) in advance. This includes invitations, reminders, e.g., that solicit participation in survey research studies to respondents and/or potential respondents. We also reserve the right to advise against administering surveys at other times for various reasons (i.e., university wide surveys, preventing survey fatigue, etc.) If you have questions, please email oie [at] desu.edu.

Survey Blackout Dates for the 2023-24 academic year

Fall semester: November 20 – December 07, 2023

Spring semester: April 08 – April 24, 2024