Contact Joanne Olson who will assign you to a member of the Institutional Research staff who will assist you with your survey.

The department can help you write your questions.

The reasons for using an on-line survey include:
(a) You have access to the email addresses of the people you will be surveying.
(b) The people you are surveying will not be together for you to administer a hard copy survey

The reasons for using a hard copy survey include:
(c) The people you are surveying will be together for you to administer a hard copy survey
(a) You do not have the email addresses for the people being surveyed.

Yes, although the Institutional Research staff appreciates your doing as much editing as possible before forwarding the document for placement on the software.

Send the survey as a Word document to your assigned staff member or to Joanne Olson.

Once you have approved the final survey, Institutional Research will
send your hard copy survey to the Print Shop electronically. You are responsible for making arrangements with the Print Shop for printing and payment.

IR will send you the link to your survey to be included in your cover letter/email.

If you think that your survey might need IRB approval contact Nancy Olson, Director, UMMC IRB.
If you believe that your survey may be violating FERPA regulations, contact Barbara Westerfield, Director, Student Services and Records.

The sample cover letter /email below contains all the necessary information. Each survey director should edit this document to fit the particular survey.

The (group name) is surveying all (group to be surveyed) regarding (topic of survey). The results of the five minute survey will be used to ( brief description of use of results.)

To access the survey, visit the following site (web site from Insitutional Research's email).

All responses will be confidential. Only summary data will be released.

For more information about the survey, send an e mail to (name and identifying information of person who will deal with questions regarding survey topic.)

If you cannot access the survey, try cutting and pasting the link into the address bar of your web browser. If you continue to be unable to access the survey or have other technical questions, send an e mail to (Institutional Researcher) at University of Mississippi Medical Center (researchers email name@acadaff.umsmed.edu).

Thank you for taking the time to answer this survey.

The cover letter/email should be sent by someone whom the person who is receiving the survey knows. Very few people will answer surveys from individuals that they do not know.

If sending the letter/email and survey from a known person is not possible/advisable, a pre-letter/email should be sent by someone whose name the recipient will recognize. A sample pre-survey letter/email:

On (day), (date), you will receive an email from (person whose name will be in the from box of the email with the questionnaire address). This is an important email. It will ask you to complete a brief survey regarding (topic of survey). This survey is important for you because (what results of survey will be used for; how it benefits the person who completes the questionnaire).

Please be watching for an email from (name) on (day), (date), and fill out the survey as directed.

Thank you for your help.

The advantage of sending a survey in a password protected format is that you are able to send follow-up emails to non-responders.

The disadvantages to sending a password protected survey include:
(a) Participants are less likely to respond because they feel that their responses can be traced
(b) The process of sending the surveys is more complicated and will take longer.

Usually most people who are going to respond to a survey do so in the first 72 hours. Therefore, following up on a weekly basis until no further responses are received is realistic.

A copy of your results will be emailed to you within 72 hours of your leaving the hard-copy surveys at the Department (U170 across the wide hall from the entrance to Rowland Medical Library.)

A link with the report function will be emailed to you. This link will allow you to see your results. If you want help in interpreting the results or want your results in a different format, e.g. Excel, ask the IR person who has been helping with the survey.

Yes. IR assists with surveys of all sizes.

Call Joanne Olson at ext. 41203