Web-based survey services at the UCSB Social Science Survey Center There is growing interest in the possibility to conduct surveys on the web. Web-based surveys are particularly effective when studying closed populations, and have proven to be particularly cost-effective with highly "wired" student and corporate communities. The Social Science Survey Center has invested the last year in putting together an efficient and cost-effective way to field your study as a web-based survey. | Features available to all our customers: DEDICATED SERVERS 
Respondents to our online questionnaires DO NOT have to wait for other users to browse other departmental pages, download files or students to finish reading their e-mail. We have set up dedicated, blazing fast hardware optimized to run all the necessary components of a web survey: our Dell PowerEdge servers run super-stable FreeBSD. AUTHENTICATION 
IRBs often mandates the questionnaire to be seen and answered only bywho it was intended for, especially when dealing with sensitive topics. We have worked on providing authentication, automated password generation, random logins and all that is necessary to protect confidentiality. DATA SECURITY
Our web surveys can be taken over SSL, so confidential surveys are free from snooping. Our servers are backed up every night, and are protected by dedicated UPSs against sudden power loss. MAIL MANAGEMENT 
Fielding a web survey often means mailing thousands of people, and reminding the non-respondents to participate. It's unthinkable to do that by hand, wading through thousands of responses, and it's not wise to "spam" people over and over when they have already responded. Further, how can one identify non-respondents when, as it's usually the case, the survey does not contain information on the identity of the responder? We
solved all these problems for you, maintaining confidentiality and
automating the process of invitation and reminding. DEDICATED SYSADMIN TIME
Your survey server just can't afford downtime, unplanned reboots, the Microsoft virus of the day etc. We have system administrators who constantly monitors the correct working and deployment of studies. EXPERTISE 
We have years of experience with web programming and survey management. You DO NOT need to learn HTML, PHP or anything else: you can give us a word processed version of the questionnaire or program your own using our user-friendly WYSIWYG software. LOW COST 
We are a campus-based nonprofit organization: our revenues are reinvestedin full in our technical setup and in our students's education and job opportunities. We also offer our service at low or no cost to UCSB students. |
| Our standard service includes: - Consultation on research strategy
- Questionnaire design and programming
- Web hosting for your questionnaire(s)
- Free mailing list for respondents to report feedback/problems or inquire about the study
- Technical support for respondents
- Instant Response Rates: you click on a link to see up to date response rate information
- Data on Demand: immediate data availability, at any time all your responses are just a click away, instantly dowloadable from a secure, password-password protected site
We can provide custom services like: - Custom look, logos, links
- Consent forms and all sorts of informative materials
- Personalized mailing
- Questionnaire randomization
- Dynamic "skips" and questionnaire branching
- "Piping": we can use responses in the text of following questions
- ...and much more. Contact us for details about what we can do for you.
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