1. What is the purpose of this research?
The University of Michigan wants to better understand how the university is perceived and trusted by members of its community to help guide future initiatives and growth for the university. Your voice is important and your participation in this survey will provide valuable insights.
2. What should I expect?
If you have been invited to an individual interview:
Our research partners at Edelman DXI are conducting one-on-one phone conversations with optional video. Reya Calistes from Edelman DXI will reach out to you via email with a request for participation. Once you provide a time and date that works for you, a meeting invite will be sent to you confirming participation.
If you have been invited to a focus group:
Our research partners at Edelman DXI are conducting group conversations with up to 6 participants. Please follow the instructions provided in the email. You will provide your phone number and share times that you are available through a self-scheduling link. You will receive a call back to confirm your participation time and date.
3. How can I reschedule my discussion since I’m now unavailable at my original time?
Individual interviews
If you need to reschedule for any reason, please reach out to your original point of contact (Reya Calistes from Edelman DXI) and she will work with you directly to find a new time.
Focus groups
If you need to reschedule for any reason, please reach out to your original point of contact via email and you will be sent a new link to use to reschedule or you can call the phone number provided in the initial communication to reschedule your session over the phone.
4. How are you handling parental consent for minors?
If the participant is a minor (less than 17 years old), our research partner will seek parental consent over the phone when reaching out to confirm the time and date of participation.
5. Is this a phone or video chat discussion?
- Focus groups – Qualmeeting is the platform that will be used to hold the focus group sessions for this study. After confirming the time and date of your participation, our partner will send you instructions via email with a test link so you can gain access to the Qualmeeting platform and confirm that your audio and video works. If you need troubleshooting support when testing the platform, please reach out to our partner directly at that time.
- Interviews – Teams is the platform that will be utilized to hold the interviews for this study. Our research partners at Edelman DXI, after confirming the time and date of your participation, will send you a Teams meeting invite. You do not need to have a Teams account to use the link provided in the meeting invite as it will open on a web browser. While you can attend using a tablet or mobile device, we do recommend that you use a laptop or desktop computer for a better optimized experience.
6. Will my answers be recorded or stored?
Our discussions may be recorded. Our moderator will ask for participant consent at the top of the interview before any recording begins. Any discussion that is recorded will be securely stored by our research partners at Edelman DXI and video and/or audio from the recordings will not be shared with the university. All findings from research will be reported in aggregate level; no personal information (e.g. your name and/or video imagery) will be reported on or shared with the university as a part of this project.
7. When will I receive my incentive?
Incentives will be distributed once all discussions for this study have been held as described in the invitation email. The university will reach out with more information at that time, but it will take roughly 2-4 weeks after the end of all the discussions for all incentives to be distributed. To follow up on your incentive distribution, please email UM.Audience.Research@umich.edu.
8. I was not contacted by the University of Michigan to participate, and I want to share my opinions/viewpoints as part of this study. How can I participate?
The University of Michigan community is large and encompasses many different audiences. To ensure that we are hearing voices from each part of our community, we are reaching out to randomly selected subsamples of each audience to achieve equal representation in our study findings, which means that we are unable to hear from every single person for this study.
9. How did you receive my email address for this study?
You have previously approved the use of your email on a University of Michigan-owned distribution list and have likely received emails from the university in the past, whether for recruitment, educational, or other purposes. We only contacted emails that have opted in to receive further communications from the university as part of recruitment efforts for this study. If you would like to be removed from future studies or email outreach, please email UM.Audience.Research@umich.edu.
10. I would not like to participate, but my friend, spouse, etc. would like to participate on my behalf. Is this possible?
At this time, we are only able to accept those who were originally contacted for participation to ensure an equally representative sample of the University of Michigan community.