NSSENSSENSSE
Institutions are required to provide a list of instructional staff (faculty, instructors, graduate students who teach, etc.) to be surveyed. All instructional staff from the list will be invited to participate. Billing will be based on the number of instructional staff in your final population file; the price provided at registration was an estimate.
Institutions have the option to choose which instructional staff they would like to survey. Institutions should select faculty, instructors, and/or graduate students who have taught or are planning to teach at least one undergraduate course during the current academic year. See below for information on how your population file determines instructional staff salutations in FSSE recruitment messages. See our Preparing for Message Delivery for more details about recruitment messages.
Population files require first names or prefixes, last names, and email addresses of your instructional staff. Population file information should be uploaded in an Excel CSV template, which is provided during the survey customization process. An optional grouping variable is explained below.
Using one worksheet, format your population file as an Excel spreadsheet using the column headers and naming conventions as explained below and saving in CSV file format.
Population files are submitted using FSSE's Interface. Do not email files containing student records to FSSE staff; any files sent by email will be immediately deleted.
January 19 is the final deadline to submit a FSSE population file.
*Please note that we do not make population file changes once an administration is underway, except in extreme administration-affecting situations. In those circumstances, changes to population files will result in additional fees and a potential delay of administration.
The following table provides additional details about the FSSE Population File Template data fields.
| Field Name | Field Information |
|---|---|
First name or prefix (e.g., Dr., Ms., Fr., etc.)
|
|
| Last name |
|
| Instructional Staff Email Address |
|
| Grouping Variable (Optional) | You may include a single grouping variable in your population file (template column “group”). In order to protect respondent anonymity, we check to determine if the grouping variable can be used to identify individual instructional staff. If this is the case, the proposed grouping variable will not be delivered back to your institution.
Things NOT to include in your grouping variable:
Examples of grouping variables that may work well:
See our Grouping Variable FAQs for more common questions about the FSSE grouping variable. |
The way in which your instructional staff are addressed in FSSE recruitment messages is based on the information you submit in your population file. FSSE recommends one of two options for your salutation:
If you choose to include Prefixes in your population file, we will address your faculty using the first salutation option above.
Why is this important?
FSSE encourages you to be thoughtful about the names and prefixes included in your population file. For example, have you considered how to include preferred names rather than given names? Are you certain that the prefix information you have is accurate for your instructional staff population? If you have concerns about addressing your instructional staff based on the data you have available, please email us at fsse@indiana.edu to discuss your options.
To submit your population file, access the FSSE Interface. Once logged in to your account, use the provided link to make changes to your customization choices. If there are missing values or inconsistencies in formatting, you will be notified by FSSE staff.
To ensure population files are complete and accurate, please check the following before you submit them:
File Format
Do the columns in the Excel file use the same column names (firstname or prefix, lastname, email, group [optional]) as the template we provided? Are you including all the records in one Excel worksheet? Have you removed any hidden worksheets on the Excel document? Have you saved in CSV format?
Data Fields
Are all required data fields included? At a minimum, we need the following:
Grouping variable
If you included a group variable, did you check to see that a minimum of three faculty are represented per category, including blanks?
Q. What are the common reasons a file would be rejected?
Your file must have three separate columns for instructional staff first names or prefixes, last names, and valid email addresses. A column for a grouping variable is optional. Note: Instructional staff SSN or unique identifiers will not be accepted.
Q. My institution has multiple campuses under the same IPEDS number. Can I include all instructional staff in the same file?
Yes, you can include all instructional staff in the same population file if the multiple campuses have the same IPEDS number. All campuses sharing the IPEDS number should participate in FSSE as a single campus. If you would like to disaggregate instructional staff by campus, the optional group variable may be used to identify instructional staff campus affiliation.