Frequently Asked Questions

Does it cost anything to become a Data Buddy?

No! Participation in the Data Buddies Project is voluntary. You agree to distribute our surveys to your students and faculty, and in exchange, we provide you with a customized department report containing your students’ responses.

Is being a buddy time consuming?

Participation is a low time commitment. The department simply needs to designate a liaison (e.g., administrative staff member; department chair) who will distribute our online survey links to students and faculty each semester. We provide suggested text to accompany the survey links.

How do you deal with Institutional Review Boards?

Our surveys are approved by Solutions IRB.

This means that your institution’s IRB likely does not need to be involved with this research. We will verify that this is true with your institution’s IRB, and work directly with your institution’s IRB if they request to be involved in the research.

How are results published?

Results are only published in summary form. No individual department or students will be identified in any reports.

How is this project funded?

This project is partially supported by the National Science Foundation as part of a Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance grant. The other portion of our funding comes from CERP clients, who employ CERP to perform comparative evaluation, analysis and reporting on data from their own intervention program(s).