ACHA-NCHA
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Contact
ACHA-NCHA
Program Office
(410) 859-1500
mhoban@acha.org

 

ACHA-NCHA Web Version
Frequently Asked Questions

This page also available for download as a PDF document.

CONTACTING STUDENTS

Q: How are the students contacted using the NCHA-Web?

A: ACHA contacts students to participate in the ACHA-NCHA through a letter of invitation/consent sent via blast e-mail. You provide the text of the letter of invitation to ACHA as well as the subject line you want included with the e-mail. The ACHA-NCHA Program Office staff is then responsible for programming your school’s individual survey. After you decide who you wish to survey (e.g., all registered students, 10% of registered students), you must also supply ACHA with a list of student e-mail addresses in the first column of an Excel spreadsheet file. If you choose to sample only a percentage of your students, ACHA has the ability to select a random selection of students from a larger list (e.g., all student e-mails) and will do so for no additional charge. Additionally, you may want to personalize the electronic letter of invitation/consent sent to each student with the student's first name, such as “Dear Mary”. If so, add the first name corresponding to each e-mail address in the second column of the spreadsheet file. This information can usually be found at your Registrar’s Office or Office of Institutional Research. After receiving the Excel file with the e-mail addresses, ACHA generates a unique ID for each student. This unique ID number is imbedded in the survey URL sent to each students. Unique IDs are downloaded with student responses and allow us to prevent duplicate responses and contact non-responders. Unique IDs may also be used to distribute incentives to survey participants. Once survey data are downloaded, ACHA deletes Unique IDs from our records.

Q: Does ACHA send reminder messages to all students or just those who have not responded to the survey?

A: ACHA tracks survey responders via the unique ID. ACHA contacts only non-responders with a reminder e-mail. Although you may use your initial letter of invitation/consent and subject line to contact non-responders, many schools choose to compose a different letter of invitation/consent and use a different subject line when doing so.

Q: Is the NCHA-Web considered anonymous or confidential?

A: The web version of the survey is confidential. E-mail addresses are never physically attached to survey responses. The unique ID number is attached to student e-mail addresses solely for the purpose of contacting non-responders and awarding incentives. Once the surveying is completed, the spreadsheet file holding the e-mail addresses and unique IDs is erased. Unique IDs are also deleted from the downloaded survey data.

Q: What if my school will not allow me to provide ACHA with students’ e-mail addresses?

A: If your campus makes student e-mail addresses public via a published student directory, they will likely approve e-mail access by ACHA to administer the ACHA-NCHA. If your campus prohibits the exchange of e-mail addresses, you may still administer the NCHA-Web without providing student e-mail addresses to ACHA. ACHA will assign your institution unique IDs based on the number of students you intend to sample. Then, your campus IT department will have to match e-mail addresses to unique IDs and write computer code that will provide a unique URL to each student based on the unique ID generated by ACHA. Thus, each student will still receive her/his own unique URL in the e-mail invitation sent from your school. You would then be responsible for contacting non-responders. ACHA can provide your school with a list of submitted unique IDs so they may be eliminated prior to re-contact.

Q: My campus will not allow ACHA access to student e-mail addresses and my IT department has told me that they can only blast e-mail “static messages” (identical messages). The e-mail messages cannot be personalized with a unique ID imbedded in the URL nor in the greetings. Is there another way to administer the ACHA-NCHA Web?

A. If there is no way to remedy this problem on campus, ACHA can provide a “static” URL for your campus survey submissions. However, without unique IDs imbedded in the URL, ACHA cannot control for multiple submissions, cannot track non-responders, and cannot identify respondents to award incentives. While this methodology has been implemented with success, it is not recommended as it introduces a possible source of error not present in the standard methodology.

Q: Do I have to use the ACHA letter of invitation/consent as provided in the User’s Manual?

A: ACHA offers an example letter of invitation/consent in the User’s Manual, which you may edit to meet the specific needs of your campus or requirements of your IRB. Whether or not you choose to use the example letter of Invitation/consent, you must provide ACHA with the exact text of your letter of invitation/consent as well as the exact text you wish to use in reminder messages sent to non-responders. You must additionally provide a subject line for the e-mail containing the letter of invitation/consent or reminder letter of invitation/consent. The standard subject line used is “ACHA-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA)”, but you may want to personalize the subject line to include your school name so your students know the communication is connected with your college/university.

Q: How do ACHA-NCHA-Web survey participants provide consent?

A: The example letter of invitation/consent includes instructions that stipulate students who are 18 years of age or older need only click on the link to the survey to confirm their consent. If there is additional consent information required by your campus IRB, you may want to include a link in your invitation e-mail that will direct students to further information, such as a campus consent requirement. It is recommended that you keep the letter of invitation/consent clear and concise.

 

SAMPLE SIZE

Q: We are a school with a student population of 2,400. How many students should we contact using the ACHA-NCHA-Web?

A: The ACHA-NCHA User’s Manual presents recommended sample sizes, or you can see the table of sample sizes listed below. Most ACHA-NCHA Web surveyors experience a range of 10% to 35% return. The average response proportion is about 25%. Thus, you may want to estimate the number of contacts based on a 25% return. With a school your size you should survey all 2,400 students with the aim of getting 600 submitted surveys.

The net proportion of returned surveys depends in part on the following: (1) campus-wide prepublicity, (2) timing of first contact (do not survey just before finals or breaks), (3) contact of non-responders, (4) accuracy and utilization of e-mail addresses (e.g., do the students use the campus generated e-mail addresses?), (5) coordination with campus IT department to prevent interference from spam and/or rate control filters, and (6) incentives.

Student Population
<600
600-3,000
3,000-9,999
10,000-19,999
20,000-29,999
≥30,000

Desired Sample Size (Returned Surveys)
all students
600
700
800
900
1,000

 

Q. If I sample all students or an entire subset of students (such as all first-year students or all graduate students) will our data be included in the final national ACHA-NCHA Reference Group even though we didn’t select a random sample?

A. The purpose of sampling a randomized subset of students is simply to eliminate the need to sample all students. Thus, sampling the universe is the same or better than selecting a random subset of students. By sampling the universe of all students your data will be included in the Reference Group data set and reports.

 

INCENTIVES

Q: Can ACHA help us select random respondents to award participation incentives?

A: ACHA tracks ID numbers of participating students. We are able to randomly select ID numbers from the pool of participating students and provide you with the corresponding email address from the spreadsheet file. E-mail addresses are never physically or electronically attached to the survey responses.

 

EXTRA QUESTIONS

Q: Can we add extra questions to the ACHA-NCHA Web?

A: Yes, it is possible to add up to five additional questions for a surcharge of $700. Your Institutional SPSS Data Set will contain the additional variables (extra questions) and they will be summarized on your Institutional Report.

The extra questions must be single questions. When asking a general question with an option to “select all that apply” from a list of responses, each item on the list is individually counted as a question. For example, the following question is actually five additional questions on the ACHA-NCHA:

In the last 12 months, did a medical professional ever prescribe you the following narcotics? (Select all that apply)
a. Codeine
b. Hydrocodone
c. Oxycodone
d. Tramadol
e. Morphine

Individual questions may not have more than 10 response categories. A minimum of three weeks is required to design the survey additions.

To order more than five questions or any outside of the criteria outlined above, you must contact Mary Hoban at mhoban@acha.org, and attach a draft of the extra questions.

 

ADDITIONAL DATA DOWNLOADS

Q: I have access to additional information from the registrar’s office about the students in my sample. Is it possible to have these data merged with my NCHA data set for each subject?

A: Yes, some customers choose to merge other variables provided by the registrar’s office (e.g., major, school or college, student athlete status, student residence hall) into their NCHA data set. It is possible to automatically download up to five additional variables for into your campus NCHA data file. Simply include the additional variables beginning in the third column of the Excel file containing the student e-mail addresses. The additional variables must be in numeric form. You are responsible for coordinating and maintaining the codebook of variable values and numeric codes. For example, if you want to be able to analyze your data by major and the registrar’s office provides you with the major for each student selected to participate, you are responsible for developing the code (e.g. electrical engineering = 1) and providing the resulting numeric code to ACHA in your Excel file. When we return your campus NCHA data set to you, the numeric value for these additional variables will be added matched for each respondent and added to your campus data set.

All variables sent to ACHA for automatic download into your NCHA dataset must be described in your IRB application.

 

COSTS

Q: What is the cost of implementing the ACHA-NCHA Web?

A: The cost is less for the survey if your school is an ACHA Institutional Member — see the pricing chart at http://www.acha-ncha.org/docs/NCHA_pricing.pdf. You are charged for all initial contacts ($0.20 each), re-contacting non-responders ($0.10 each), and an additional processing fee for each survey that is submitted ($0.25 each).

If your contact list is 3,000, you would pay for each initial contact ($600). First contact of nonresponders would be about 90% of the 3,000 or 2,700 ($270). Second contact of non-responders would be about 80% of 3,000 or 2,400 ($240). Final submitted surveys would be about 25% of the original sample of 3,000 or 750 ($187.50). Report packages are $300 each for ACHA Institutional Members. The estimated total for this example of 3,000 students would be $1,597.50.

 

REQUIRED PAPERWORK

Q: Why do I need to fill out an Institution of Higher Education Demographic Survey?

A: All colleges and universities that participate in the ACHA-NCHA are required to complete a demographic survey. The Demographic Survey, which can be found at http://www.acha-ncha.org/order.html, contains questions specific to your school, such as number of students, campus location, Carnegie classification, and survey methodology. ACHA uses this information to report on the aggregate dataset from each survey period. As ACHA will not process your school’s dataset or reports until this information is on file, it is recommended that you complete this survey as soon as possible once surveying has commenced.

Q: Am I required to obtain IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval for conducting the ACHA-NCHA?

A: Each surveyor is responsible for securing approval for conducting research involving human subjects from the appropriate campus office, prior to implementing the ACHA-NCHA. The body that grants approval for such surveys on your campus may be referred to as an Institutional (or Internal) Review Board, Human Subjects Committee, Grant Review Board, Research Review Board, or something similar. Many campuses will determine that the ACHA-NCHA presents minimal risk to the participants and grant an exemption or offer an expedited review of the project. Other campuses will require a full review of your proposed research with the ACHANCHA. Whatever the case, you are responsible for securing approval for the ACHA-NCHA, any additional questions added by the campus, and any additional variables you are providing to ACHA for automatic download into your dataset. A copy of such approval must be provided to ACHA before your dataset and reports are processed.

Q: Our school does not have an IRB, how can we meet this requirement?

A: If your campus does not have an IRB, we will accept written permission to survey from a campus administrator (e.g., Vice President/Vice Chancellor, Dean of Students). ACHA must have this information on file before processing your school’s dataset and report packages. Therefore, please ensure you have received the appropriate approval prior to inviting your students to participate in the ACHA-NCHA.

 

REPORT PACKAGE

Q: What does the Report Package include?

A: The ACHA-NCHA Report Package contains your Institutional Executive Summary (15 pages of salient results selected by the ACHA-NCHA Advisory Committee), Institutional Report (50 pages of frequency distributions for every variable in the survey for all subjects, and by each sex, with a bar graph), and your institutional data on a CD (SPSS system file with built in codebook). You will also receive a copy of the prior year’s Reference Group Executive Summary so you may begin making comparisons with your institutional data as soon as you receive your reports. After the survey period is completed for all schools involved, you will receive the Reference Group Executive Summary and Reference Group Report for the survey period. Each report package is $300 for ACHA Institutional Members and $500 for ACHA nonmembers.

Q: Is it possible to get extra report packages for a subset of my students, and if so, how much does it cost?

A: Many institutions choose to have ACHA generate extra report packages for a subset of their students (e.g., graduates, undergraduates, residents, first-year students, students on only one of multiple campuses). Each additional Reports package is $300 ($150 each for the Executive Summary and Institutional Report). Please contact Mary Hoban at mhoban@acha.org if you are interested in purchasing extra reports for your school.

 

SPAM FILTERS AND RATE CONTROL SYSTEMS

Q: My school uses rate control systems and spam filters that can intercept and block mass e-mailings from outside organizations. What can we do to prevent our invitations to participate in ACHA-NCHA Web from being blocked?

A: It is important that you work closely with your IT department to try to prevent this problem. Spam filters often look for specific words in the subject line and body of a message in an effort to decrease unsolicited e-mail messages. Words such as “win,” “prizes,” “last chance,” “drawing,” or even the use of multiple “!!!!!” in a message can trigger a spam filter and prevent the distribution of the messages. It’s important to test messages against your spam filter before the survey period begins. Rate control filters tend to block messages from a single IP address once a predetermined limit has been exceeded.

Please notify the IT department of your survey plans and let them know that that the invitations to participate will originate from webemailer.net (IP address 206.132.28.57). Although the e-mail messages will originate from the webemailer.net domain, they will appear to be from NCHA-WEB@acha.org (IP address 67.151.72.91). Both IP addresses and domains should be “whitelisted” to prevent the rate control system or spam filter from blocking our invitations. Likewise, the IT department may be able to “lift a quarantine” on e-mails originating from, webemailer.net, and acha.org. Lastly, the predetermined limit on rate control systems might need to be increased during your survey period.

 

SECURITY AND DOWNLOADING

Q. Does ACHA host the ACHA-NCHA Web internally on their servers and what kind of security is provided?

A. ACHA uses WebSurveyor Corporation servers to host the web version and contact students. WebSurveyor Corporation uses the most advanced encryption, firewalls, backup and 24-hour service support. As a major survey corporation, the security and access to information of any kind is under strict regulations and procedures that go beyond the measures taken by most organizations, agencies, and institutions of higher education. Additionally, ACHA does not provide any other organizations with students e-mail addresses.

Please see the ACHA-NCHA User’s Manual as well the Security and Downloading Synopsis for more information at: http://www.acha-ncha.org/docs/NCHA-WEB_SECURITY_AND_DOWNLOADING.pdf

Q. My IRB wants to know what kind of training ACHA-NCHA staff has with regard to protection of human subjects in research.

A. All ACHA-NCHA staff have completed the Human Participants Protection Education for Research Teams online course, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Certificates of completion are on file at ACHA and available upon request.

 

MATERIALS NEEDED

Q: What do I need to send to ACHA to implement the NCHA-Web?

A: The following materials must be sent to ACHA at least two weeks prior to the desired survey launch date:

  • The NCHA Order form, available at http://www.acha-ncha.org/order.html, and initial payments for both the total number of student contacts and report package.
  • An Excel file of student e-mail addresses in the first column of the file, the student’s first name in the second column (if the greetings are to be personalized), and any other variables to be downloaded (if applicable).
  • The letter of invitation/consent and subject line.
  • The reminder letter of invitation/consent that is sent to non-responders. To do this version, simply add to the initial invitation letter a phrase such as, “Recently you were contacted to participate in the ACHA-NCHA. Please consider…"

Please note that if you choose to add additional questions to the ACHA-NCHA, a final list of questions and all materials listed above much be sent to ACHA at least three weeks prior to the desired survey date.

Q: What do I need to send ACHA to process the ACHA-NCHA Web and receive my reports?

A:


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

  • ACHA-NCHA Website (www.acha-ncha.org)
  • ACHA-NCHA Brochure
  • ACHA-NCHA Users Manual
  • Mary T Hoban, PhD, CHES
    Director, ACHA-NCHA Program Office
    410-859-1500 x216
    mhoban@acha.org