VCOM Institutional Policy and Procedure Manual

VCOM Policy and Procedure

Policy #U023

institution, VCOM protects the privacy, as well as the valuable time of employees and students by prohibiting the unbridled use of surveys on campus. Those internal or external entities or individuals wishing to survey members or prospective members of the VCOM community must first seek approval. Approval must be granted by the President and Provost and the Dean of the campus. If the survey will solicit information from more than one VCOM campus, approval must be obtained from each Campus Dean. In the case of surveys developed for the purposes of research, if both the President and Provost and Campus Dean approve, the survey must then be approved by the Institutional Review Board. Certain annual surveys have been pre-approved by the President and Provost and Campus Deans and do not require repeated approval unless the surveys are modified in any manner from the version that was originally approved. Such surveys include solicitation of information from faculty and staff for the standing committees of the institution for the purpose of achieving the work of the committee. Examples of such surveys include those conducted by information technology, the library, facilities, and faculty/staff development to assess the needs of the faculty, staff, and students. Surveys from state licensing bodies, national accrediting bodies, AACOM, the Department of Education, or other external organizations may be required to be completed and submitted, the data offered for submission must be completed and submitted by the Vice Provost for Academic Planning, Institutional Effectiveness, and Accreditation (APIEA). The Vice Provost will seek final approval of the proposed submission from the President and Provost and Campus Dean(s). Approval is not required for (a) the current course evaluation process used for continuous quality improvement or teaching evaluation forms (end-of-course or end-of-rotation surveys), (b) evaluation of a pre-approved event by administration, or (c) polls to coordinate meeting times. Approval is not required for IRB approved educational research where all participants are volunteer and the survey is an evaluation tool of an educational event. Such surveys should never involve a large number of students, the entire class, or the faculty at large. All surveys must adhere to guidelines set forth by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the VCOM Institutional Review Board (IRB), and any other relevant College, state or federal guidelines/regulations. If a survey contains any portion that has been copyrighted or is the intellectual property of another party, the survey may be subject to approval by said party. In such instances, documentation showing copyright approval must be obtained and submitted with the Survey Request Form. 2.2.1 Privacy Acceptance of authorization to administer a survey establishes an obligation on the part of the survey administrator to use these data responsibly, including not distributing the data to others in or outside the College. Respondents should be informed if the data or survey results will be published or distributed, including whether individual responses will appear in the published results. Survey administrators must state clearly in the invitation message or introduction to the survey whether the survey is confidential or anonymous (defined below).

VCOM Policy on Solicitations, Surveys, and the Use of College Outcomes

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