Qualtrics Use at Macalester
Macalester maintains a campus site license for Qualtrics, an online survey tool. Access to Qualtrics will be made available by the Survey Coordinating Committee (SCC) Chair for eligible offices, departments, organizations, labs and individuals (faculty, staff, and students) at no cost to users. Macalester users are free to collaborate with off-campus partners using Qualtrics’ “Collaborate Outside of Organization” feature. Macalester’s license prohibits users from using Qualtrics for commercial purposes.
Requesting a New Qualtrics Account
New Qualtrics accounts are created by the Chair of the Survey Coordinating Committee (SCC). This layer of oversight attempts to ensure that campus surveys do not proliferate unchecked.
In most cases, the SCC requests that you seek one account for each office, department, or organization. However, all faculty are entitled to an individual or lab account for research use.
Email SCC Chair Adam Johnson ([email protected]) to request an account. Please include a brief description of the account’s intended use.
Qualtrics Accounts for Student Class Projects
Faculty may request accounts for their students’ class projects, capstone research, honors projects, or other independent research by submitting the Notification of Surveys for Student Class Projects form to the SCC within the first 2 weeks of a semester. On this form, faculty can estimate the number of survey projects and Qualtrics accounts that will be needed; the final number of projects/groups can be determined later in the semester. Unless otherwise requested, these accounts will be set to expire 2 weeks after the end of the term for which they were created.
Existing Qualtrics account through a former institution
If you are coming to Mac with an existing Qualtrics account, contact the SCC Chair (Adam Johnson; [email protected]) to initiate the process of migrating your existing surveys and data under Macalester’s license.
What if our office already uses a different survey software?
The campus-wide Qualtrics license makes pragmatic and financial sense for the college, but only if used to the exclusion of other fee-based survey products. Thus, the Provost’s Office asks that you discontinue use of other fee-based survey products, such as Survey Monkey.
To discuss the best way to switch from a different software program to your Qualtrics account, contact SCC Chair Adam Johnson ([email protected]; 651.696.6411).
Appropriate Qualtrics use
While our Qualtrics license allows for use across campus, the SCC is responsible for making sure this access is used appropriately. Our community’s time and attention are limited and shared resources and must be protected as such. Thus:
- All use must comply with Macalester’s Survey Policies for exempt and non-exempt survey research.
- Even if one already has a Qualtrics account, ALL new non-exempt survey projects must go through the SCC review process. The Qualtrics account itself will remain active and open across multiple survey projects, but each new survey project must get separate approval from the SCC via the application process.
- Accounts created for class projects or student projects will be granted a limited lifespan and will typically close 2 weeks after the class or project ends. Faculty will be notified in advance to download any data you wish to keep, and faculty can request an extension of the account at this time as well.
- Using a Macalester Qualtrics account for commercial purposes (such as consulting for outside clients) violates our terms of use with Qualtrics and will result in immediate suspension of privileges.
Use of your Qualtrics account can and will be monitored. Any use outside of approved purposes will be reviewed by the SCC and may result in suspension of your privileges.
Who should I contact if I have questions?
For questions about opening, closing, accessing, or using your account, contact SCC Chair Adam Johnson in Institutional Research ([email protected]; 651.696.6411).
For all other technical questions about the software and survey tools themselves, please refer to the support services offered at Qualtrics University. The Qualtrics tutorials and support services are excellent, and all users have full access to them under our license agreement.