Use an Online Survey

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Last updated: Feb 02, 2018
2 min read

IT has a paid account with Survey Monkey to allow us to build surveys with advanced features (compared to the features available with a free account). An online survey can be used to conduct research, whether academic in nature or a customer satisfaction survey. To see the options we have, go to this webpage and look at the "Gold" column: https://www.surveymonkey.com/pricing/upgrade/quickview/

IRB Approval

You may need approval from the campus Institutional Research Board (IRB). Make sure to allow plenty of time for this process.

Step-by-step guide

  1. After receiving IRB approval, submit an ITicket through the Help Desk and state that you would like a Survey Monkey survey for your project (class project, field research, etc).
  2. You (the requester) are responsible for the following:
    1. Developing survey questions and providing them to IT staff.
    2. Indicating the method(s) for distribution, and providing respondent contact information (i.e. email addresses) as appropriate.
    3. Analyzing collected data.
  3. IT staff will be responsible for the following:
    1. Building the survey in Survey Monkey.
    2. Inquiring about your preferences for settings within the survey.
    3. Providing you with links or email functionality to distribute the survey.

This webpage has tips on survey design and setup: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/survey-guidelines/

IMC Help

If you are hoping to distribute your survey to a large group of people, make sure to contact IMC and request their assistance with using the Emma mass-mailing system. IT is not authorized to use our access for campus-wide distribution of surveys.

Need an email address for your project?

Because Valpo uses Gmail as our email provider, we can provide you with additional email addresses beyond the automatic one you receive as a student or employee of the university. These can be permanent or temporary depending on your needs. We can setup either full user accounts *or* Google Groups; there are pros and cons to each. For example, you may want a temporary email address to use when conducting a survey so that your personal account isn't bombarded with messages. It's important to consider the potential implications after the project is done (such as brand management), so consider whether it's better to use the an official email address to handle questions versus a temporary address.

When submitting your ITicket, state that you'd like either an email account or a Google group setup, and include the email address you would like it to have. If you're not sure which to use, this IT webpage gives some explanation of each: http://www.valpo.edu/it/services/google-apps/google-tools-for-groups/

Gmail Message Limits

Google places limits on the number of messages a given Gmail account can send in a day. IT is not able to override these limits. If you need to send your survey to a large number of people, it's best to investigate mass mailing capabilities through IMC in order to avoid having a Gmail account frozen by Google due to exceeding daily sent message limits.


Still need help?

For additional assistance, contact the IT Help Desk.