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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 Institutional Review Board (IRB) to review research protocols involving human participants to ensure their rights are protected, they are not subjected to unreasonable harm (physical or emotional), and their information is kept confidential. Effective October 6, 2023, survey administrators will no longer be required to submit an IRB application for non-research-based internal surveys.

Survey Tool

Survey Platform Transition Notice

Effective August 1, 2025, Anthology Baseline will no longer serve as the University’s primary survey platform. A new University Survey Platform is currently in development and is expected to be operational by January 2026.

In the interim, the University will utilize SurveyMonkey, though access is limited due to a restricted number of licenses. To request survey support, please contact Michellene Griffin-Ballard at oie [at] desu.edu.

All survey projects previously administered through Baseline that include collected responses have been archived and securely stored. Access to these files is available upon request.

We will continue to provide updates as this transition progresses. For questions or assistance with internal survey needs, please contact the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at oie [at] desu.edu.

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 11 – December 05, 2024

Spring semester: April 07 – May 02, 2025