Frequently Asked Questions for institutions taking part in the CCWS for students

Thank you for your interest in the Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey. We have compiled frequently asked questions from post-secondary institutions below. Please contact us if you have any additional questions.

Post-secondary institution FAQs

How do I participate? Thank you for your interest! Please see our Preparing for Deployment - Student Survey page for next steps and key deadlines for upcoming deployments windows.

Will the CCWS be offered beyond a 2020 deployment? Yes. The CCWS has been developed to be an ongoing survey on a cost-recovery model. The costs for survey participation are based on your institution's total enrollment (head count) and can be found on page 9 of our Information Package on our website. Please contact us if your institution is interested in deploying for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Who should sign the Service Agreement at my institution? Each institution has their own rules around signing authority. It usually depends on the amount of risk involved in the agreement/partnership. We advise you to consult with your legal department or risk management department if you do not know who has the appropriate level of signing authority.

What is the Tableau Dashboard? Participating post-secondary institutions will receive a customized dataset for their own institution, as well as access to an interactive reporting tool (i.e. Tableau dashboard) to allow for comparisons between data for non-identified institutions, allowing for knowledge and resource sharing. They will be able to examine health and wellbeing issues affecting the broader post-secondary population, explore differences between geographical areas, and share policies and practices that can help create healthier campus communities. There is a video outlining some of the features of the Tableau Dashboard on the Why participate? section of our website.

Does my institution need research ethics approval to administer the CCWS? You should contact your institutional REB (or equivalent) to determine if they require a review of your participation. If required, we have provided a Research Ethics Template to assist with this process on our website.

Who is the Principle Investigator (PI) for my ethics application? The PI is the person at your institution who is deemed responsible for ensuring that the survey is carried out ethically. This may be an institutional research staff member or a member of your institution’s wellness portfolio.

Can my institution participate any time, or should we coordinate deployment with other institutions? Yes, your institution can participate in any deployment that suits your preference. We would recommend deploying on a two- or three-year cycle.  Our ultimate goal is to have established consortia (who wish to be compared to each other) deploy together – this could be assembled in a variety of ways such as provincially, U15 institutions, colleges, universities, eastern/western Canada, or francophone institutions. Institutions can participate individually or as part of a consortium.

Can my institution add questions to the core survey? Yes. Up to five additional questions can be programmed into the institution’s version of the CCWS at no additional cost. However, alterations to the core CCWS wording will not be permitted (see below); this is to ensure a common surveillance tool that allows comparisons to national norms/similar institutions, informed by priorities of post-secondary institutions. Extra modules will be developed in the future that institutions can elect to add to the CCWS core survey.

Can changes in wording be made to the survey? No. We understand that due to the sensitive nature of some of the questions, there may be suggestions for wording changes. The CCWS research team has taken great care with the sensitive demographic questions and have relied on the UBC Office of Equity and Inclusion to inform us how best to ask these questions based on current ‘best’ practice – that is rapidly evolving.

Will future versions of the CCWS be offered in different languages? We recognize that there is a high percentage of ESL/EAL speakers and international students at institutions and that having the CCWS available in some of the most commonly spoken languages would likely help response rate. The first priority is establishing a francophone equivalent of the CCWS.

When will a French language version of the survey be available? Is Tableau available in French? A French version of the survey is currently available. At this time the Tableau dashboard is only available in English but we are seeking funds to develop a parallel francophone dashboard.  We welcome interest from any institution interested in supporting this.

What kind of modules will be available in the future? We have received interest for different types of modules. Common suggestions have included health service use and satisfaction with services. We would like to plan future modules based on institutional need, so please send us your ideas.

Is there an employee version? The CCWS has been conceptualized taking a ‘whole campus approach’, and so is modifiable for use by students, staff and faculty, and campus community members. We are currently preparing to pilot the employee version of the CCWS in Spring 2021. We plan for it to be available to interested institutions beginning with the Fall 2021 deployment. The employee version consists of the same core content as the student version. Please contact us if you are interested in hearing more about the CCWS for employees.

How is data (e.g., cohort file, results) transferred? Is it secure? Cohort files and case-level data for individual institutions are transferred using UBC's Microsoft OneDrive. MS OneDrive allows users to securely store, share, and synchronize files and folders from anywhere at any time. Data are stored securely and hosted in Canada, and are encrypted at rest. OneDrive complies with Provincial and UBC security requirements. The CCWS previously used UBC’s WorkSpace 2.0, but has transitioned to OneDrive as WorkSpace 2.0 will be decommissioned in the near future.

Can a student remove themselves from the mailing list if they do not want to participate? Students can unsubscribe from the invitation/reminder emails, if this option is available. The email invitation will also include an institutional contact email that students can contact to request being removed from the mailing list.

How do we promote/advertise the CCWS to students? How does your institutional research office typically recruit for/promote student surveys? Identify staff and student campus champions to inform students about the survey through various strategies. You can put up posters around campus and notify students to ‘check their email’ as a call to action in student-facing emails, newsletters, etc. Please see our communications toolkit online.

What has been the average response rate for participating institutions thus far? In the first cohort in BC the average response rate was 22.1% when incentives were provided and at least three reminders were sent.