Survey Tool FAQs

The UBC Survey Tool is the Research Core platform provided by the vendor, Qualtrics. Qualtrics provides a top tier, cloud-based survey tool platform, developed by researchers, that is intuitive and easy to use. It has been rated as one of the top tier enterprise research platforms in the world with over 8,500 enterprise customers and 99 of the top 100 business schools using Qualtrics to make the most critical decisions. The platform offers a wide range of desirable features including central account management, flexible sharing permissions, CWL login, experimental design capabilities, multi-channel distribution, and excellent analytics/graphics.

The UBC Survey Tool is available to all active faculty, staff, and students at UBC. As part of the academic license arrangement the survey platform can be used for all academic and research purposes and for only for non-commercial use. 

*Note: If you do not have an active UBC-issued ID, you will not be able to access the application. If you recieve an error upon logging in with your CWL credentials, it indicates that you have a CWL Basic account. If this is the case, please ask a colleague with an active UBC ID to sponsor you for a Guest account.

To ensure the use of a FIPPA compliant tool, UBC Survey Tool is available to all end users (staff, faculty and students) at no charge.

UBC Survey Tool is a Canadian-hosted solution that meets strict BC privacy legislations and the functional requirements of the UBC community. UBC IT has been searching for a solution that allows the University to continue to support world class research and the needs of the community. The vendor, Qualtrics Research Core came on top as the product that meets the university’s requirements and need as part of the RFP (Request for Proposals) process. This solution is offered at the enterprise level to all active staff, faculty and students at no charge and will have features that include:

• Building powerful surveys, forms, questionnaires and polls
• Friendly drag and drop interface
• Sharing and collaboration between accounts
• All in one solution to collect data online, offline, and via mobile
• Report generation and analytics
• Administrative control

View the complete list of features.

If we move to a different survey tool in the future, users will need to migrate their surveys to the new tool. We will inform users with ample time and insturctions on how to transfer their surveys prior to the migration.

The UBC Survey Tool is offered and administered by UBC IT. The Brand Administrator the term used by Qualtrics to identify the central UBC administrator(s) who can assist with questions about licensing and handle requests for changes in your account permissions. In certain faculties, a division administrator may also be assigned to help with this local administration function. The UBC administrator(s) have full control over the UBC survey platform and may log in to any user account to help administer account, to help troubleshoot or to migrate survey information between instances. UBC Administrator(s) will perform these functions upon request and permission by the user. To contact your Brand Administrator(s), please submit a ticket here.

For staff and faculty, there is no limit set to the number of survey projects that can be created or the number of respondents for distribution. Please contact the UBC Brand Administrator if you have particular requirements or concerns for your project.

There is no limit to the number of questions you can have in a survey.

Due to restrictions from the UBC Cybersecurity Team, we are no longer supporting custom From domains for Qualtrics and all existing @___.ubc.ca domains will eventually be deprecated; Cybersecurity's recommendation is to only use one From address: noreply@survey.svc.ubc.ca

Yes, all users are allowed to send 25,000 emails per week and the unused amount does not roll over. If you require a higher amount for special projects please provide responses for the list below and include them when you a submit a request:

1. The number of emails being sent out (NOTE: Email distributions, reminder emails, thank you emails, email triggers, and all other emails sent from within the account are counted towards the email limit).
2. A description of the project.
3. A general description of who is being surveyed and whether they have consented to participate (NOTE: The email limit will not be increased if the contacts haven't explicitly opted in to participate in some way).
4. How long the limit needs to be in place (can also select to have it raised multiple times a year).

Note: A lead time of two weeks is generally required when submitting the request for an increase as it must go through an internal approval process with Qualtrics

Please view the Survey Governance section on our Terms of Use page for more information. If you plan on running a survey a campus-wide survey please refer to the UBC PAIR site for guidance.

In order to ensure you are completely logged out, please finish your Qualtrics session by logging out and then emptying your browser cache of any current website data and cookies. 

No sign-ups are necessary to access the survey tool. To start using the tool, user can login with their Campus-Wide Login information on this page: https://ubc.qualtrics.com. For information about the tool, please visit https://it.ubc.ca/surveys.

The tool can only be accessed at https://ubc.qualtrics.com with an active CWL account.

If you do not have a UBC issued ID number, you have a Basic CWL account. You must be sponsored for a Guest CWL account by your supervisor or colleague in order to access Qualtrics. If you do have a UBC issued ID number, the association between your HR record and your CWL account may not have been verified. Please log in to myAccount and add it as an affiliation. Doing so will require your ID number, along with a PIN that you must obtain from your department's HR administrator. If you recieve this error message but you are certain that your credentials are in order, please contact IT HelpDesk.

Accounts acquired from Qualtrics.com (trial or purchased) are setup in a different environment that is not hosted in Canada. To ensure you are accessing the UBC Survey Tool, please use https://ubc.qualtrics.com to access Qualtrics. Other groups at UBC may also have prior arrangements with Qualtrics and have their own separate instances. These groups can have their accounts merged with the UBC Survey Tool and have their surveys migrated.

If you have an existing Qualtrics account that was created directly from https://qualtrics.com or if you had a Qualtrics Account from another institution, Qualtrics Support can sync the two accounts, making your surveys and data from the old/existing account available to you through your UBC Qualtrics Account. Please contact them to begin this process. For more information, please visit the User Moves page on the Qualtrics website.

You must log in to ubc.qualtrics.com using your CWL credentials. You will be unable to log in with email.

The time zone of your Qualtrics account is set to Mountain Time by default. To switch to Pacific Time, navigate to Account Settings by clicking on the icon on the top right corner for your screen. Select the desired time zone under Change Time Zone. The new setting will be saved automatically, and will remain unless manually updated.

Yes, UBC users can access the offline application. For instructions on how to do this, please visit the Qualtrics support page. 

API access is enabled by default for all user types except undergraduate student or CWL Guest accounts; in these cases your instructor or supervisor will need to make a formal request on your behalf for API access. Requests can be submitted by your instructor or supervisor via our webform:
https://web.it.ubc.ca/forms/isf/.

Below is a list of applications that can be integrated with Qualtrics:

• Salesforce
• API
• Stats IQ
• Tableau
• Marketo
• Advanced Text Analytics
• File Upload
• SMS Distributions
• Tango Card

The vendor for the UBC Survey Tool has comprehensive support resources in their Support Centre such as phone, email or chat in addition to self-help documentation. Please review the steps below to access the Support Centre. You can also find Qualtrics Support information within the Qualtrics platform by clicking on the Help menu item (top right hand corner). To access the Support Centre:

1. Go this page https://www.qualtrics.com/support-center/?Product=survey-platform
2. Click on the link – "Sign in with SSO"
3. Type "ubc" in the Organization ID field and click Continue.
4. Input your Campus Wide Login username and password and click the Login button

On-demand and live webinars are available for all users.

The time zone of your Qualtrics account is set to Mountain Time by default. To switch to Pacific Time, navigate to Account Settings by clicking on the icon in the top right corner of your screen. Select the desired time zone under Change Time Zone.

The new setting will be saved automatically, and will remain unless manually updated.

Individual surveys can be shared with other Qualtrics users, inside or outside of UBC.
To share a survey, navigate to the Projects page, open the dropdown menu on the right of the desired survey, and select Collaborate*.
When collaborating, the UBC Survey Owner can specify which permissions Collaborators are granted. A survey can also be shared with multiple individuals by creating and sharing into groups. If a group is required, contact the IT Service Centre to begin the process.

*Note: Collaboration within the UBC Qualtrics instance is enabled by default for all user types except CWL Guest accounts; in these cases your sponsor will need to make a formal request on your behalf for internal collaboration. Requests can be submitted by your sponsor via our webform:
https://web.it.ubc.ca/forms/isf/.

In Qualtrics, group creation and administration can only be done by a UBC Brand Administrator. If you are collaborating on multiple surveys and with several users, and want to share contact lists, graphics and other files, you can contact a Brand Administrator to discuss setting up a User Group for you. When you are in a group, you must Share a Project to collaborate with other Qualtrics account holders. *Note: Undergraduate student can be added to groups and can access surveys shared to that group but for privacy and security reasons they will not be able share surveys to that group.

A User Group can allow two or more users to share projects, graphics, files, and messages in Libraries. Users within Groups can also share contact lists in their Contacts page. Groups can be created within the UBC instance for collaborative processes and may be designated as the owner of a survey. Members of Groups are granted privileges to view data associated with it. If you require a group, please contact a UBC Brand Administrator to begin the process.

Yes, Contacts and Libraries can be shared through User Groups. Learn more about sharing content to a User Group by visiting Qualtrics' User Groups webpage.

Although full permission can be shared for a given survey project to another user, there can only be one true owner of the survey project.
The survey project owner is also the only one who can delete the project.

To transfer ownership of your survey project to another active user at UBC, please contact a Brand Administrator.

In cases where the user is no longer associated with UBC, ownership of the account may be transferred to a new UBC Survey Owner by having the person's previous supervisor respond to the Service Now ticket in an email with their approval. Alternatively, the requestor can complete this form to initiate a request.

If access is required for business purposes and it is not feasible to secure direct consent, access without consent may be provided to the account by the Office of the University Counsel, and the Administrative Head of Unit pursuant to UBC Information Systems Policy (SC14).

In cases where the user is no longer associated with UBC, ownership of the account may be transferred to a new UBC Survey Owner by having the person's previous supervisor respond to the Service Now ticket in an email with their approval. Alternatively, the requestor can complete this form to initiate a request.

If access is required for business purposes and it is not feasible to secure direct consent, access without consent may be provided to the account by the Office of the University Counsel, and the Administrative Head of Unit pursuant to UBC Information Systems Policy (SC14).

Sharing functionality for both internal and external collaborators has been disabled for UBC Guest accounts. If you require sharing functionality to collaborate with a UBC Employee or UBC Graduate Student, or Students, your CWL sponsor/supervisor will need to make a formal request on your behalf for internal collaboration to be enabled. Requests can be submitted by your sponsor/supervisor via our webform:
https://web.it.ubc.ca/forms/isf/.

Our license with Qualtrics includes three templates, two of which are UBC branded and approved by UBC Communications and Marketing and one which is a generic blank template. The templates are available to all staff and faculty through the Look and Feel option of your survey project. You can further customize your survey by adding your own graphics and/or text to the survey header, using the Advanced Look and Feel settings. 

Note: The three templates available are not compatible with custom footers.

Change the colour of the UBC template banner strip by going to Look & Feel &gt Advanced &gt Add Custom CSS and adding the following CSS code: .Skin .SkinInner { border-top: 0px !important; } .Skin #HeaderContainer { border-bottom: 10px solid #(YourDepartmentColour); } If you would like to reuse these settings but do not want to follow these steps each time, it is recommended that you save one survey with the desired Look & Feel settings to act as a template. For future surveys, simply duplicate the template survey you have created.

The Survey Tool is a cloud-based service provisioned by Qualtrics, a service provider contracted by UBC. The survey information collected using this tool is stored in Toronto, Ontario and backed up in Montreal, Quebec.

The Survey Tool has completed UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process, which assesses the privacy and security of UBC systems. Information collected using the Survey Tool is kept secure using measures including data encryption. If you have questions or concerns about Qualtrics privacy and security review, please contact ubcit.communications@ubc.ca.

The UBC survey owner is the person who creates the survey, owns the survey data and has full responsibility of their survey information. Qualtrics is not responsible for any data lost or stolen through hacking or negligence by the survey owner. Ownership of a survey can be transferred by the UBC Administrator by user request.

The Support Centre and Qualtrics Support will never access your data unless it is expressly permitted by you the owner.

When the user account is deleted, any surveys created by that account will be permanently deleted and unrecoverable

Your data will remain on the Qualtrics servers for as long as your account remains in the system, but we do not recommend using this application as a storage medium. To properly store your data we recommend a UBC-approved service such as Microsoft OneDrive. After a user deletes a survey it can undeleted within 30 days by a UBC Brand Admin but after that it can only be recovered w/ the help of the Qualtrics Engineering team. After 90 days from the day of deletion by the user, the survey is permanently deleted and cannot be restored.

Yes, there are two ways to accomplish this:

Option 1
Distribute your survey project with an anonymous link. The anonymous link is a generic link that can be sent via your own email and can be forwarded to anyone or posted to a website. There is no way to tell who completed your survey or if they completed it multiple times - however, the survey respondent’s IP address will be collected unless the anonymous option is enabled in the Survey Options area.

Option 2
If you want to send your survey to a specific group of contacts, yet still require it to be completely anonymous, use the Qualtrics Emailer to send your survey. This will allow you to track responses, and send selective reminders. However, as the default for this option is that user names and emails will be stored with your results, you must turn this off in Survey Options to ensure the responses are anonymous. You can find this option under Survey Termination/Anonymize Responses. No personal data or IP addresses will be recorded under this option.

It is important to understand your data set and what is collected for your survey. For Non-anonymous surveys, the following type of data can be collected such as the user email, IP address, Location Latitude and Longitude and any other data that is stored in the contact list through which that survey is distributed For more information, visit Qualtrics Understanding Your Dataset.

The Meta Info question is a hidden question that will track and report basic information about your respondents, such as their operating system and browser. This question is often used for troubleshooting or for understanding the technical setup of your respondents. Visit Qualtrics Meta Info Question for more information.

To facilitate survey collaboration, all users, except undergraduate students, can view and select other users in the UBC Qualtrics instance by viewing their name in the search lookup.

Interactive text messaging (SMS) use within Qualtrics surveys has been reviewed as part of the PIA process and has not been endorsed for use at UBC. The SMS text survey process is deemed non-compliant with FIPPA. While the UBC instance of Qualtrics is hosted within Canada, the SMS functionality uses a third party service hosted outside of Canada for delivery / exchange the text messages. Collection and processing of SMS responses is performed on Qualtrics own servers hosted outside of Canada. Qualtrics currently cannot be configured to perform all these functions within Canada. The SMS feature also doesn’t allow for data anonymization within surveys or disabling of location tracking, which are required to protect privacy and security of personal information. The project team will monitor the evolution of Qualtrics’ SMS capabilities and advise the PIA team of any opportunities to bring this service into compliance with FIPPA.

Qualtrics’ services has customers’ data that are segregated into different virtual areas within the databases. All data are encoded so that only the correct data will be sent to the requesting user. Access to data requires direct ownership (the user who created the survey) or indirectly with rights to the survey (e.g. UBC Administrator).

Qualtrics is not PCI certified, and they do not process financial transactions and recommend that users do not use the platform to collect credit card information.

It is possible to restrict access to surveys by having users login with their CWL account. Instructions can be found here:
https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-flow/advanced-elements/authenticator/sso-authenticator/#Shibboleth 
 

The UBC instance of Qualtrics relies on CWL accounts for access and it is against UBC policy to share CWL accounts. Each member of your team will need to access the tool via their own CWL account. To share a survey with other Survey Tool users, navigate to the Projects page, open the dropdown menu on the right of the desired survey, and select Collaborate. To expedite sharing, we can create and populate a group in the UBC Survey Tool with your team members to allow sharing of contacts and library files with everyone in your group.

To share a survey, navigate to the Projects page, open the dropdown menu on the right of the desired survey, select Collaborate, and add the users you would like to share with. Each user can then access the shared survey via their own UBC Survey Tool account. A survey can also be shared with multiple individuals by creating and sharing into groups. If a group is required, contact the IT Service Centre to begin the process.

Yes, but it is a manual process. It will require you to export them from your old account and import them into to your new account.

Migration of your account when you have active surveys will generate a new URL and remove any current URLs. This will disrupt all ongoing surveys. Hence, we recommend you to request for an account migration when you are ready to fully switch over to using the new Survey Tool.

Your subscription to Qualtrics does not get canceled after your current Qualtrics account has been migrated to the new UBC Survey Tool. Your contractual terms and agreement with Qualtrics will remain intact until you have cancelled your subscription with Qualtrics or it has expired. Any remaining unpaid balances will need to be paid based on your agreement with Qualtrics.  Please review your package and ensure you have not signed up for automatic subscription renewal.

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer refunds to users that have signed up for a paid survey package. Please review your package and ensure you have not signed up for automatic subscription renewal.