Pre-survey Announcement (Optional But Strongly Encouraged)
The Pre-survey Announcement is an optional contact that you may elect to use in your FSSE administration. It precedes the Invitation, its purpose being to alert instructional staff of the upcoming survey administration. Research on survey methodology indicates response rates are generally higher when mixed modes of contact are used for recruitment. Consider posting announcements on course management systems, social media, and other places faculty receive institutional information. Unlike all other contacts, the Announcement is sent directly to instructional staff by you. Sending an Announcement to instructional staff will NOT reduce the number of times FSSE contacts them.
Invitation
The Invitation is the first contact directly from FSSE to instructional staff. It introduces the survey’s purpose and provides a rationale for instructional staff to complete it. Invitations should be created directly on the Institution Interface. The option to customize the Invitation provides an opportunity to tailor the message to your campus using your school’s nickname and indicate a signatory whom instructional staff may easily identify.
Preparing for Message Delivery (Protect Against Spam Filtering)
The sending e-mail address for messages is FSSE Survey <noreply@qualtrics-survey.com>. You should not assume that your system will let FSSE messages through! Each year, several institutions’ systems treat our e-mails as spam, which prevents them from reaching their instructional staff. A resource called Preparing for Message Delivery contains information regarding how to prepare your campus email system to receive FSSE messages. Please share that resource with the appropriate information technology staff at your institution to help ensure that FSSE e-mail messages are delivered to your instructional staff.
Population File
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. To identify the faculty members to be surveyed, institutions will provide a list containing the prefix or first names, last names, and email addresses of these members.
Additionally, institutions may include a single grouping variable within their population file submission. The inclusion of a grouping variable allows institutions to conduct analyses specific to their institution. For example, some schools have opted to use their grouping variable to disaggregate instructional staff responses from multiple campuses. Institutions that submit a grouping variable should pick one that will help them produce results valuable to the institution, but will not identify individual faculty. If your grouping variable does not protect instructional staff anonymity, the FSSE Project Services Team will contact you to discuss options for adjusting your grouping variable.