Surveys and Focus Groups

The administration of surveys and focus groups at Hope College has increased significantly in recent years. In response to this growth we centrally coordinate surveys and focus groups to improve the volume, flow, frequency, quality and validity of these important data collection methods. This benefits the Hope College community while fostering research and protecting participants.

College-wide surveys of constituency groups (students, staff, faculty, alumni) should be planned well in advance. Research involving human subjects requires HSRB approval and requests also need to be reviewed by the Assessment Committee in conjunction with our current large-scale survey schedule. We typically conduct three such surveys each semester (such as NSSE).

Some surveys and focus groups fall outside of Frost Center’s coordination efforts, including:

• Course evaluations
• Administrative record collection
• Workshop, event or customer service evaluations or feedback
• Elections such as faculty elections, homecoming court, etc.
• Meeting scheduling polls such as Wizard, Doodle, etc.
• Office, committee, student organization or faculty department internal surveys
• Student developed surveys using a convenience sample and used as part of a class
• Academic assessment and departmental review activities

If you are interested in administering a survey or conducting a focus group for an on-campus constituency group (students, faculty, or staff), please fill out an application. We will be in contact to discuss your plans and how they may fit within our current survey schedule. Frost Center team members are happy to answer any questions and provide support as you develop your survey or focus group questions.

Develop a clearly articulated research question

The professional research staff at Frost Center is available to help or you can review these tips for writing research questions.

Does the information you need already exist?

Institutional Research makes available large sets of Hope College data, including:

• Common Data Set
• Hope Profiles and Rankings
• Surveys (National Survey of Student Engagement-NSSE, CIRP, etc.)

Consult with the Frost Center for Data and Research about additional data sets not listed.

Providing incentives for Hope College survey participation

At times an incentive is offered to increase participation in a survey or focus group. This is usually an opportunity to be entered into a random drawing for an item or gift card. While investigators must use caution so that incentives are not coercive or unduly influence participation, this is a very common practice in survey research.

Hope College surveys and focus groups of students, faculty or staff, coordinated by Institutional Research and the Frost Center, will use Hope College Bookstore gift cards as incentives.

Hope College Survey & Focus Group Policy

Rationale

The administration of surveys and focus groups at Hope College has increased significantly in recent years. In response to this growth, the IR Department is implementing a Survey and Focus Group management policy to improve the volume, flow, frequency, quality and validity of this important process. The goal is to improve the coordination of inquiries, which will benefit the entire Hope College community while fostering research and protecting participants.

Due to the demand for information and the increased use of online surveys, survey responses are declining. The number of surveys as well as the survey administration cycle must be monitored in order to prevent survey fatigue.

Survey & Focus Group Requests

The Frost Research Center and the Institutional Research Department are charged with managing all college-wide surveys. We typically conduct three such surveys each semester (such as NSSE) and the data collected is vital for compliance and accreditation efforts. If you would like us to conduct a survey or focus group for your department, or if you would like to conduct one yourself, please submit an application to the Human Subject Review Board. Once approval or exemption is obtained, please complete the Survey/Focus Group Application Form.

Exemptions from this process include:

• Course evaluations
• Faculty evaluations by students (SIR)
• Administrative record collection
• Workshop, event or customer service evaluations or feedback
• Elections such as faculty elections, homecoming court, etc.
• Meeting scheduling polls such as Wizard, Doodle, etc.
• Office, committee, student organization or faculty department internal surveys
• Academic assessment and departmental review activities relating to majors and minors

Policy endorsed by Hope College Administrative Council October 22, 2019