Survey Procedure

Approver:: Academic Coordinating Committee
Policy Owner:: Associate Vice-President, Analysis & Quality
Policy Lead(s):: Director, Institutional Research and Planning
Defining policy:: Survey Policy
Effective date:: 2018-05-08

Procedure Statement

The purpose of this document is to assist Conestoga employees in conducting surveys in an economical and efficient manner and with a minimum of disruption to College employees, students, and external stakeholders (specifically including, but not limited to applicants, students, alumni, donors, employees and employers).

Exclusions:

individual faculty research that does not involve any of the above mentioned target audiences;
surveys that involve small, specific sampling that do not occur outside of/beyond the School level;
surveys that are part of assigned work of a course or academic program requirements;
evaluation of an event by participants or feedback from clients at the point of service.

All surveys (excluding those undertaken by external providers) are expected to utilize Conestoga’s college-wide survey software unless the researcher(s) and the Office of Institutional Research and Planning agree that special circumstances warrant use of another system.

Definitions

Conestoga College maintains a glossary of terms specific to the institution. The terms in use for this document are defined below.

Annual Student Feedback Survey (ASFS): A multi-purpose online student feedback survey administered to all students registered in a full time program typically during the last week of February and first week of March.
Conestoga Community: refers to all registered students, both full-time and part-time; all paid employees, full-time, part-time and casual; all others associated with Conestoga including board members, retirees, alumni or volunteers, and visitors who are granted temporary permission to use Conestoga’s Information Technology resources.
Conestoga Employee: means any employee of Conestoga, whether employed full-time, part-time, or on contract basis, and includes, but is not limited to, faculty, researchers, support staff and administrators.
Conestoga Students: refers to all students working with or without monetary compensation on any project under the direction and control of Conestoga.
KPI – Employer Satisfaction Survey: Ministry mandated telephone survey completed with the employers of graduates who consented to their employers being interviewed.
KPI – Graduate Outcomes and Satisfaction Survey: Ministry mandated telephone survey completed with all graduates of full-time funded programs six months and two years after graduation.
KPI – Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey: Ministry mandated paper survey completed in-class with every full-time and apprenticeship student in each year/level of study. Three survey periods/year are held during the first full week of February, June and November.
Student Appraisal of Teaching (SAT): Internal online and/or paper college survey completed by all students associated with a faculty/course combination that has been selected for a SAT by the program Chair. SATs occur in the last quarter of a course -typically during the months of November, March and July. SAT is a survey process used for obtaining feedback from students to enhance the performance of teaching at Conestoga.

Responsibilities

Vice President, Academic (VPA)

Delegate operational and administrative responsibilities, as specified below, to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning (IRP).
Support dispute resolution when survey scheduling or other fieldwork issues cannot be resolved through discussion between IRP and the Survey Lead.

The Office of Institutional Research and Planning (IRP)

Oversight of college-wide survey system and survey approval process to ensure compliance with policy and procedure.
Provide support to the Survey Lead (when necessary) including survey and sampling design, fieldwork scheduling, survey programming and execution, information on best practices in response rate improvement, and periodic survey-to-central system data linkage.
Sole authority to generate samples (contact list of selected students) for student surveys where such samples are obtained from the Student Information System.
Maintain two-way communication with Research Ethics Board (REB) and the Advancement Office as it relates to survey scheduling and implementation that require a coordination of efforts.
Develop and maintain an up-to-date multi-year master schedule of surveys available online.

Advancement Office

Sole authority to generate samples (contact list of selected alumni or donors) for alumni or donor surveys.
Sole responsibility for sending out survey invitations to alumni or donors in order to maintain compliance with communication preferences (such as do not call requests) and legislative requirements regarding electronic communications.

Survey Lead

An employee who is responsible for conducting an internal survey and/or responsible for managing an external survey.
Ensure survey is conducted in an ethical manner and survey responses are used in the manner agreed to by respondents when agreeing to/providing consent to participate (e.g., confidentiality of data is maintained by removal of personal identifiers from any raw data file).

Information Management Services

Provide installation and integration support for the college-wide survey system.
The IT Training Specialist will provide training and support to Survey Leads and/or designate(s) for the college-wide survey system.

Procedure

Check the Applied Research Policy to see if a Research Ethics Board (REB) Application to Involve Human Participants in Research is required. Research studies for which the main purpose is program evaluation or quality improvement are considered institutional research and do not typically require REB approval.
- For studies requiring REB consent, the REB coordinator will complete the Institutional Research and Planning Survey Approval form (step 2 below) as a means of informing IRP.
If REB not required, submit the Institutional Research and Planning Survey Approval Form.
- IRP will review and approve the survey considering criteria such as:
  - Is there other data available that will allow the survey to be avoided;
  - Can the data needs be combined with other surveys planned;
  - What is the optimal timing to ensure it does not interfere with other college surveys? The following surveys take precedence over other survey research:
    - KPI Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey
    - Student Appraisal of Teaching
    - Annual Student Feedback Survey
    - KPI Graduate Outcomes and Satisfaction Survey
    - KPI Employer Satisfaction Survey
    - On occasion, the Ministry may mandate additional college-wide surveys, the timing of which will also take precedence.
- If required, request support from IRP with survey and sampling design, fieldwork scheduling, survey programming and execution, or information on best practices in response rate improvement.
- IRP will coordinate with the Research Ethics Board (REB) and the Advancement Office, as necessary.
Survey Targets
- Applicant/Student Surveys
  - IRP will generate samples for student surveys where such samples are obtained from the Student Information System (SIS).
  - Using the Survey Lead’s individual access to the college-wide survey system, the Survey Lead will program and administer the survey as per the IRP Approval. IRP can assist with survey programming and administration as requested.
- Alumni/Donor Surveys
  - The Advancement office will generate samples for alumni or donor surveys.
  - Using the Survey Lead’s individual access to the college-wide survey system, the Survey Lead will program the survey as per the IRP Approval and submit link to the Advancement office. Advancement can assist with survey programming as requested.
  - The Advancement office will have sole responsibility for sending out email survey invitations to alumni/donors. Upon discussion with the Survey Lead, the Advancement office may agree that special circumstances warrant the use of another email communication system.
- Other Surveys (such as employee, employer, PACs, etc.)
  - Sample generation and survey administration will be coordinated with IRP and the Survey Lead on a case-by-case basis.
Upon completion of the data collection, results will be available to the Survey Lead through the college-wide survey system. Confidentiality of identifiable raw survey data is the responsibility of the Survey Lead. An effort should be made to share summary results with survey participants. Requests for IRP support with analysis and reporting will be given reasonable consideration.

Relevant Legislation and Related Documents

Revision Log

Date	Details
2018-04-25	Policy and Procedure Committee
2018-05-09	Academic Coordinating Committee