Qualtrics

Qualtrics is web-based software available to UofG students and staff, that allows you to draft and publish surveys and generate reports without having any previous programming knowledge.

Use Qualtrics to create surveys, feedback and polls using a variety of distribution means. Results can be viewed in reports and can be downloaded as spreadsheets. Share surveys and results as well as collaborate with other users.

For research requiring ethical approval, please read this information before using Qualtrics

Ensure all mandatory training has been completed:

For all research projects, please review whether you require:

A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), reviewed by the Data Protection & Freedom of Information Office for high-risk processing.

For research projects that will collect identifiable personal data:

You must include a Privacy Notice. This document is the responsibility of each research project owner using Qualtrics, and it should be tailored to that specific project or use.

Where surveys are fully anonymous (including no collection of IP addresses), no Privacy Notices are required.

Log in:

All UofG students and staff have access to Qualtrics and a license is not required.

Use your UofG email and password to log in via single-sign on (SSO).

 

 

Guidance

XM Basecamp

An on-demand training environment where you can undertake courses, sign up for live webinar courses and gain certification.

XM Community

A forum where you can raise a query or question or conversation topic

Training:

Data protection and information security

Use of Special Category Data

To use Qualtrics with Special Category Data, please contact the Data Protection team with details of the special category data you wish to collect. 

Find out more:

Please retain data only for the time specified/required. Data removal should be priority when it is no longer necessary. You are responsible for the data you collect and hold.

Ensure anonymised responses

By default, Qualtrics surveys automatically gathers data related to respondents IP address and geolocation data.

Ensure anonymity of participants

To ensure anonymity of your research participants, you should turn this feature off by anonymising responses before distributing your survey. However, if you do leave this feature on, then you must tell participants that you are collecting their data prior to participants completing the survey.

To do this, please read about Security Survey Options on the Qualtrics website and follow the guidance on anonymizing responses.

You must ensure that you have research ethics approval for your research project which will likely include carrying out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA).

Research and ethics approval

Qualtrics is the University-recommended tool for research projects due to its diverse functionality for survey creation, distribution and data analysis of results. All UofG students and staff have access to Qualtrics via single sign-on (SSO) that allows users to be on-boarded into the service with ease. Where you plan to use Qualtrics for research purposes, ethics approval will likely be required.

Research that requires ethics approval

All research (including pilot studies) by UofG students and staff involving human participants or the collections and/or use of their data requires ethical approval unless it is deemed exempt. Please consult the University policies on good research practice for further information.

Research that does not require ethics approval

You do not need to apply for ethical approval if your work does not constitute ‘research’, such as teaching and service evaluations or audit projects that do not involve collecting sensitive or private data.

Further information

Please refer to the guidelines for your College:

Accessibility within Qualtrics

It is legally required that surveys are accessible to everyone. People with visual impairments who use screen reading assistive technology may not be able to use some question types where questions have not been checked for accessibility.

Qualtrics includes a Check Survey Accessibility feature that reviews your survey, indicating which questions are inaccessible and provides recommendations for increased accessibility. 

  • Choose accessible survey questions as not all survey question types are accessible
  • Add alt text to all images by adding a few short words to describe images
  • Make sure your survey follows an accessible theme
  • Check the contrast, colour scheme and font size to make sure that it is easily readable and can be interpreted by people with colour blindness and other visual impairments

More information

Support

For queries on using Qualtrics to its full potential, please visit the Qualtrics Customer Success Hub to assist with:

  • Technical support: raise a support ticket for technical issues relating to the functionality of your surveys
  • AI-powered assistance: receive step-by-step instructions for various tasks
  • My Skills: survey development guidance on how to design and structure your survey

For the following queries, please contact the UofG Helpdesk for assistance:

  • Brand admin support: changes to accounts and managing user access
  • Group management: setting up groups, managing permissions and organising users within the platform
  • Access issues: troubleshooting login problem or resolving access restrictions and survey ownership