Survey Support

Welcome to Survey Support at UWS.

Important information if you intend to carry out a survey

The University is committed to fostering responsible research, thereby maintaining the reputation of the University and its researchers.

All research projects conducted by UWS staff or students that involve human participation, are required to seek ethics clearance before the project commences. This applies whether the research is funded or unfunded. For 'how to' and contact details see the UWS Human Ethics pages.

A survey will generate data
UWS has set out how research data will be managed in the UWS Research Code of Practice. Data management must comply with relevant privacy law, policy and protocols for the collection, storage, retention and disposal of data and records. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998
• NSW Health Records and Information Act 2002
• NSW State Records Act 1998
• UWS Privacy Policy
• UWS Records Management Policy.

Survey Applications and Tools

If you are planning to issue a survey there are several system alternatives available, depending on your needs.

• UWS has limited licensing for a corporate application called TeleForm which can provide both paper based and online content capture. This application is used and managed by the UWS Office of Planning and Quality (OPQ).
• UWS has licensing available for SurveyMonkey, an externally hosted online survey tool. This application is used and managed by the UWS Web Management Unit.
• UWS has unlimited licensing (staff) for an application called SurveyView which is hosted by UWS. Licenses are issued by UWS Information Technology Directorate (ITD).
• Survey hosting external to UWS is available, where the user pays for the hosting.

Which application do I need?

If your answer is YES, you should contact OPQ to see if TeleForm would be available for you.

If your answer is YES, you should contact:

• OPQ to see if TeleForm would be available to you
• Web Management Unit to see if SurveyMonkey would be available to you
• ITD and discuss SurveyView.

If your answer is YES, then either TeleForm or SurveyView might suit. Remember however, that Teleform licensing is restricted and may not be available. Check with OPQ and ITD for the best solution.

Contact an external survey hosting organisation about hosting your survey and arrange the required funding.

Getting Started with SurveyView

While ITD hosts surveys developed using SurveyView, ITD's Business Information Systems (BIS) do not have knowledge of the SurveyView software and do not support UWS personnel in the usage of the software. There is a video tutorial included with the software and on the SurveyView Survey Software website to help get you started.

• You need to contact the ITD Help Desk and request hosting for your survey. Your request will be forwarded to a BIS team member who will contact you to get you started.
• You will need to obtain the UWS corporate licence number; if you do not provide the licence number at software installation time, then you will be restricted to 25 responses to your survey.
• BIS will create a working area for you on the corporate server dedicated to the development of your survey.
  Note: This survey is not accessible via the web to anyone outside of the UWS network.
• You will need to develop your survey and test all aspects of the survey life-cycle prior to the publication of the survey form. Please ensure your testing includes verification that the test responses to the survey can be analysed in the way that you want. Only you can ascertain that the survey response is appropriate to your needs.
• When your survey is ready for either a pilot or production implementation, please contact BIS and they will migrate the survey to a dedicated web site, if the survey is online, and repository on the production corporate server.
• You need to tell BIS when the survey is expected to complete, and whether survey results are required to be sent to you on a periodic basis throughout the survey period.
• BIS will send you the final results of your survey by e-mail and CD-ROM.
• Once you have received your results, please confirm to BIS that you can read and access the results data. Your survey will then be removed from the corporate servers.
  Note: BIS is not able to assist you in the analysis of your data.