Survey Administration: Authority and Authorization to unlock identity of individual respondents to survey responses

 

Policy Number

OPER_0091

Policy Statement

The College supports the anonymity of survey response data, but in certain limited instances, when the request does not violate the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or the intent of this policy, the Vice President for Administrative Services may grant permission to authorized Superusers to access identifying information of survey respondents according to the process defined below.

Definitions

Evaluation Kit: The name of the software leased to the college by EvaluationKit, LLC

EvaluationKit is a survey software designed to administer surveys either directly by an e-mail link or Canvas integration. By default, all surveys provided by EvaluationKit are designed to be anonymous.

Superuser:

The term assigned by EvaluationKit that describes authorized users’ access to create, modify and delete surveys (the questions) and projects (executable portion of the software that runs a specified survey)

GCCC Authorized Superusers as of May 1^st, 2020:

• Director of Information Technology
• Director of Institutional Research
• EvaluationKit Survey Administrator
• Assessment Coordinator

Background:

The EvaluationKit software is designed to protect the anonymity of survey participants. By default, customers do not have the ability to run/extract data that pairs the identity of a specific survey participant to their responses.

Additionally, FERPA has specific regulations defining who has access to student records and information. Some of this protected information may be found in survey responses.

In accordance with FERPA regulations and EvaluationKit design limitations, the College supports the anonymity and confidentiality of EvaluationKit survey data.

In certain limited instances, however, the EvaluationKit software can be a valuable tool for collecting additional demographic data necessary for various purposes— including, but not limited to, external reporting purposes.

In these limited instances only, this policy authorizes Superusers, with the approval of the Vice President for Administrative Services, to contact EvaluationKit and request 24-hour access to identifying information of survey participants.

This policy specifically does not allow any access, by Superusers or any other college  employee, to specific surveys including:

• Student course evaluations
• Campus Wide Assessment of Services (CWAS)
• Student Assessment of Services (SAS)
• Upward Evaluations

When required for reporting to external agencies, such as Kansas Board of Regents, Perkins, or accrediting agencies, the Vice President for Administrative Services may authorize access to identifying information. Surveys that may be authorized will contain a disclaimer so participants are aware that their answers may not be fully anonymous

Procedures:

1. Identify the need for reported survey results that pair survey participants with their responses.
   1. Identify whether this violates FERPA or College policy
   2. Identify the superuser who will contact EvaluationKit for access and extract data (must be the same person)
2. Prepare an authorization request —the form is attached to this
   1. Describe the specific project for which the access is necessary
   2. Describe the necessity for access to paired data
   3. Identify the superuser that will request EvaluationKit access and extract the data
   4. Identify the 24-hour period during which access to paired data will be open/available
3. Forward the request to the Vice President for Administrative Services
4. The Vice President for Administrative Services grants/denies access
   1. If the authorization request is approved, it will be returned to the requestor for coordination with the Superuser.
   2. If the authorization is denied, the request will be returned to the requestor and the process ends
   3. A copy of the granted or denied authorization request will be retained by the office of Administrative Services
5. If approved, the requesting Superuser contacts EvaluationKit at (800) 311-5656 to unlock the ability to extract the participant and participant response
6. The Superuser runs the report(s) or extracts the data from the project as necessary within one business day of contacting EvaluationKit in the step
7. When data extraction is complete, the Superuser contacts EvaluationKit at (800) 311-5656 to re-lock the ability to extract the participant and participant response pairing.

Contacts:

Vice President for Administrative Services; Director of Human Resources

Policy History:

July 8, 2026: Revised for accessibility

December 16, 2020: Approved