Online Surveys

Creating surveys online
computer keyboard
The Jisc Online Surveys tool is designed for Academic Research, Education and Public Sector organisations. It’s a powerful, easy to use tool for creating online surveys and is used by over 300 different organisations in the UK and internationally. It allows you to develop, deploy, and analyse surveys via the web.
If you’ve chosen to undertake a survey as part of your research project, the University of Plymouth preferred option is to use Jisc Online Surveys for which we hold an organisation license. The service operates in the UK, is governed by UK law, is GDPR compliant and meets the ISO/IEC 270001 information security standard.

Online Surveys v3

The new iteration of Online Surveys follows the same concept as the previous version, with a modern and user-friendly interface designed to be more intuitive.
It features passwordless login for a more secure way to authenticate. Once your account has been registered, you simply enter your registered email address and receive a verification code by email.
For updates on Online Surveys v3 see Jisc's fortnightly bulletin and the Jisc releases page.
Jisc is the University of Plymouth’s preferred Online Surveys provider.
 

Requesting access to online surveys

  • Members of staff or PGR can raise a request via the TIS helpdesk.
  • Undergraduate or postgraduate taught students should raise a request via the Customer Experience Team within the library.
  • For bulk accounts (e.g. programmes of undergraduate students), please raise this via the TIS helpdesk.
Online Surveys accounts can only be provided to individuals’ University of Plymouth accounts. Generic or non-UoP email addresses will not be provided on GDPR grounds. You must not amend your Jisc Online Surveys account email from the one you were set up with by TIS or the Customer Experience Team.
All users of online surveys must have completed the University's GDPR training.
If you’ve chosen to undertake a survey as part of your research project, you will need to provide the following information before you begin collecting data, or within three months of being given access to JISC online surveys:
  • Faculty ethical approval for your study. For undergraduate students, your supervisor may have overarching ethical approval.
  • Confirmation of completion of the University's GDPR training.
  • Research Data Management Plan. For undergraduate students, you are not expected to provide us with a research data management plan, but if you have one, please do share that with us.
When making your request, if you have completed an ethics application within the Plymouth Ethics Online System, please quote your project ID number to negate the need for you to send all your information by email. If you plan to do any further surveys related to new studies (not related to the original request), then you are required to send your ethical approval confirmation and research data management plan to onlinesurveys@plymouth.ac.uk for each new study.

Help and support for Online Surveys

Help and support for Online Surveys is provided direct by Jisc. Please refer to their comprehensive help and support page containing everything you need to get started.
You can find out more about new and upcoming features and release dates in their fortnightly bulletin.
You can also tell Jisc about the features or improvements you'd like to see by completing their Online Surveys user feedback form.

Further information

Storing your data
Jisc Online Surveys is not intended to be used for data storage. Within the service, the survey owner can archive/export data if needed. It is the survey owners responsibility to ensure they have data backups and to remember to remove data from Jisc Online Surveys on to the University of Plymouth’s secure One Drive system (which will be stored for a maximum of 10 years) once they no longer require access to the data on Jisc Online Surveys.
Information Assets
If your survey is not for a research study/project, you may need to register your survey as an information asset within your faculty information asset register (IAR). Information can be found on the Information Asset Register portal. Each faculty has an IAR lead; the list of those can be found on the portal.
Links

Other online survey providers

Following a review of Online Surveys, Jisc will remain to be the University of Plymouth’s preferred Online Survey provider. We hold an organisation licence, the service operates in the UK, is governed by UK law, is GDPR compliant and meets the ISO/IEC 270001 information security standard. Data is stored in ROI. Microsoft forms also meets GDPR, security and data standards and will be supported technically if utilised.
Other service providers available that are GDPR compliant, meet the ISO/IEC 270001 information security standard and data stored in the UK/EU are Qualtrics and SNAP Surveys. However, these will not be supported financially or technically by the University. If you wish to use these service providers, you will need to make your own arrangements.
Other online surveys tools other than those listed (such as Google forms or Survey Monkey) must not be used as they are not deemed compliant with University standards.
 

Online Surveys v2

Please note that Online Surveys v2 is no longer available.