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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. The preferred University survey tool is Anthology Baseline. To request a Baseline user account, click here. Access will be granted within 24-48 business hours. For assistance with internal web-based surveys, including Baseline surveys, click here.

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 11 – December 05, 2024

Spring semester: April 07 – May 02, 2025