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Qualtrics rules of use, best practices, and limitations

Accurately reflect your affiliation when sending surveys.

When sending surveys, make sure that your affiliation is clear.
Individuals or groups should not claim to officially represent the Institute itself in an official capacity.

Inappropriate:

“This survey is being sent on behalf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology asks that you provide the following information.”

Appropriate:

“This survey is sent on behalf of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.”
“This survey is sent by Jane Smith, an undergraduate student at MIT, as part of a class assignment.”
“This survey is sent on behalf of the MIT Folk Dance Club.”

(These example assume that you are an authorized representative of, or have permission from, the group you say is sponsoring the survey.)

Do not request confidential or regulated information in a survey.

Qualtrics may not be used to request confidential or regulated information.
For more information, please consult the following resources.

Data sensitivity:

https://infoprotect.mit.edu/

Regulated information and MIT policy:

https://policies-procedures.mit.edu/information-policies/policy-use-information-technology-resources

If you have a legitimate administrative, academic, or research need to collect such information, please contact the Institutional Research group in the Office of the Provost for guidance at ir-surveys@mit.edu.

Identifying information may not be collected secretly

If identifying information is needed, it must be explicitly requested as an item on the survey, so as to not give the impression that the survey is anonymous.

Some identifying information other than your questions may be collected by Qualtrics automatically. For privacy reasons, this information is not accessible to survey creators by default. Requests for this information will be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the sensitivity of the data, and may require approval from other offices at MIT. Send inquiries to the Institutional Research group in the Office of the Provost at ir-surveys@mit.edu.

API Usage

Users have access to API/tokens and can be found here:

https://api.qualtrics.com/docs/authentication

Usage limits

To promote appropriate use of the system, the following usage limits are in effect by default:

Faculty and Staff:

  • 10,000 outgoing emails total
  • 1,000 outgoing emails per week

Students:

  • 5 active surveys at a time
  • 5,000 outgoing emails total
  • 500 outgoing emails per week

If you need to exceed those limits for administrative, academic, research, or student life purposes, or if your status at MIT changes, please contact qualtrics-support@mit.edu.

Note: Limits for affiliates will be set on a per-user basis. Affiliates must be sponsored for Qualtrics access by a faculty or staff member.

Note: Some DLCs administer their own Qualtrics "brands" independently. The limits above only apply to the main MIT brand.

Accessibility

When creating surveys, make sure that your information is available to the widest possible audience.

  • There are several question types that are not accessible (https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-tools/general-tools/check-survey-accessibility/). We suggest using only the accessible types of questions
  • If you can help it, don’t use radio buttons as a way for participants to select an answer, use a list instead.  A list works better for screen reader users
  • Make sure questions are numbered (the auto-number option is handy for this)
  • Change the default next and back icons (>> and <<) to the words “back” and “next”
  • Run the accessibility check available in under Tools. This check will allow you to make changes and recheck the survey

If you have questions about making your survey accessible, contact the Accessibility and Usability group at accessibility@mit.edu

Comply with all other applicable policies and procedures

Use of Qualtrics is subject to all other MIT and IS&T policies and procedures.
This includes, but is not limited to:

The MIT Policies and Procedures

Most notably sections 11 and 13:

http://web.mit.edu/policies/11/index.html (Privacy and Disclosure of Personal Information)
http://web.mit.edu/policies/13/index.html (Information policies)

The MITnet Rules of Use

http://ist.mit.edu/network/rules

Most notably:

“Any use that might contribute to the creation of a hostile academic or work environment is prohibited,

Any commercial use not required for coursework, research or the conduct of MIT business is prohibited,

Any non-incidental personal use such as advertisements, solicitations or promotions is prohibited
(Note: some services exist on campus that have been designed for buying, selling and exchanging items within the MIT community, and those are allowed).”

Additional guidelines and resources:

Survey Guidelines

From Office of the Provost, Institutional Research:
http://web.mit.edu/ir/surveys/pdf/survey-guidelines.pdf

Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES):

http://web.mit.edu/ir/datausage/guidelines.html#sensitive
https://couhes.mit.edu/investigator-quick-guide

Tips on Survey Administration: Presentations by Jag Patel, Office of the Provost, Institutional Research

http://web.mit.edu/ir/surveys/qtips/

See Also:

Qualtrics FAQ

IS&T Contributions

Documentation and information provided by IS&T staff members


Last Modified:

April 22, 2019

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