Informed Consent

You are invited to participate in a survey being conducted by ArtCenter College of Design (ArtCenter). The purpose of this survey is to examine ArtCenter alumni professional and academic career outcomes following graduation. Your participation in this survey will contribute to the College’s understanding of post-graduation activities, helping to enhance educational and student life programming for current and future students. Data is collected anonymously and reported in aggregate form by the College. Questions about the survey and subsequent reports should be directed to the Center for Educational Effectiveness (cee@artcenter.edu).

Purpose: The U.S. Department of Education stipulates, as part of the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965), institutions of higher education must provide information to current and prospective students on placement and types of employment obtained by graduated students, job placement rates of graduated students, and information regarding the types of graduate and professional education in which graduates of the institution's four-year degree programs enroll. Institutions must identify the source(s) of the information, and any timeframes and methodology associated with it. ArtCenter College of Design has elected to collect this important information by administering a survey each semester (term) to the class of graduating students (those students who have completed their degrees). The information collected is used in institutional decision making and strategy, and provides the College with other critical information necessary for addressing the student experience and educational programming.

Description of Research: You will be asked to respond to a series questions via an online survey service (Alchemer) on a variety of topics including your job search, employment status, additional education, satisfaction with your educational experience, engagement with institutional resources, etc. Your responses will be recorded electronically; once you complete the survey you may request a copy of the resulting report from the Center for Educational Effectiveness.

Duration: The survey will take approximately 5–7 minutes of your time, although it could take longer depending on your answers. The full survey should take no more than 10 minutes at most.

Risks: Risk associated with this study is low and no more than would be encountered with daily activities. The act of responding to the online survey is no more risky than any other computer based activity. There may be questions in the survey which you are uncomfortable or would rather not answer. Your participation is voluntary and all questions are optional.

Your survey responses, including any personal information, will be stored by the College in a protected digital file. The information is subject to all college policies and procedures related to privacy and data protection. Please only share the information in your survey responses that you are comfortable disclosing.

Benefits: There are no costs for participating. Data obtained is beneficial to the College and will contribute to a greater understanding of student career outcomes following graduation.

Incentives/Compensation: By completing the survey you are eligible to receive a digital reward. Eligibility for receiving an incentive is based on the acceptance of this Informed Consent and the College’s receipt of a completed survey from a participant before the close of the survey time period. Incentives will be disbursed automatically after the completion (submission) of the survey. Participants will receive an email with instructions on how to claim and a link to their incentive after clicking the “Submit” button. The College’s rules for the incentive distribution can be found here. Inquiries about the incentive program should be directed to the Center for Educational Effectiveness.

Participation: Your participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. You may withdraw your responses at any time without any negative consequences (please contact the Center for Educational Effectiveness for this request). Your willingness to take part in the survey, or your decision to withdraw from the study is entirely your decision and will not affect your relationship or standing with the college in any way. By participating in this survey, you agree to the use of third-party systems that will collect your survey responses and administer your incentive. The data and information collected by these systems will only be used for communication and reporting purposes.

Confidentiality/Anonymity of Responses: Information collected for this study will be held confidential. Except as provided elsewhere in this policy, any personal data collected during the survey, such as your name, email address, demographic information and survey responses will be collected, processed and stored in accordance with all applicable college policies including its privacy policy. By participating in the survey and accepting these terms you agree to the use of your data as provided in this policy and in the privacy policy. Your personal information collected in the survey will not be sold or used for any other purpose. By participating in the survey and accepting these terms you agree to the use of your data as provided in this policy and in the privacy policy. Please be aware that your personal information may be processed in the country where it was collected from as well as other countries, including the United States, where laws regarding processing of personal information may be less stringent than the laws in your country.

Any report or information posted to the College’s public facing website will only contain aggregate information. No individual information will be published under any circumstances. All information collected will be kept secure using encryption protocols used by the survey service. Datasets and all records of this study will only be accessed by staff members in the Center for Educational Effectiveness. All stored information for this survey will be kept on the College’s server and in the online survey service college account managed by the Center for Educational Effectiveness. If a printed version is needed, the document will be kept in a locked file drawer inside of an office where only the Center for Educational Effectiveness staff has access. Records related to the survey and resulting report are kept permanently on file, per the College’s record retention policy and for reporting related to the College’s regional accreditation cycle.

Results: The Center for Educational Effectiveness will begin compiling data for the fall, spring, and summer classes in the fall term. A report with aggregated data and findings will be produced. This report will contain a summary of descriptive statistics related to survey, the topics and questions including response rates with data charts. Requests for the report may be sent to cee@artcenter.edu.

If you have questions or concerns about your participation, problems or issues with the online system, or other issues related to the survey, please contact Sarah Gass, Assistant Research Analyst for Institutional Research and the Center for Educational Effectiveness, at sarah.gass@artcenter.edu or 626 396-4374.