ED responses to OMB Qs

OMB Questions

FAFSA On The Web Tracker Survey

OMB has the following questions regarding this generic clearance:

 

1. Did you consider adding a "Not Applicable" (or similar) column to the questions with rating scales?  For example, in a question such as that on the 6th page of the PDF you submitted (which has to do with the helpfulness of filling out a FOTW worksheet before completing the online application), would every person filling out the survey have done such a worksheet?  If someone didn't do the worksheet they would probably respond with either #1 - Not Helpful at All, or "Don't Know" - neither of which captures the true answer, which is that they didn't do a worksheet.
   [Grebeldinger, Beth] I'm sorry that I didn't correctly explain the process here.  The scale purposely doesn't include a "Not Applicable".  The only way that a survey respondent would get to the  screen to answer the questions about the helpfulness of the worksheets would be if they had indicated on the previous page that they had completed at least one worksheet prior to completing the FAFSA application.  If they selected "None of the above" they would have skipped the questions regarding the helpfulness of the worksheets. 

2. On page 8 of the PDF ("which of the following types of help did you access last? (select all that apply)").  Why ask for the "last" type of help if you're collecting information about multiple types used? [Grebeldinger, Beth] Upon further review we are going to change the question to indicate that the respondent can only select one of the help options.   

3. Is the question on page 10 asked only if a respondent clicked a box indicating that they used a type of help listed on page 8? [Grebeldinger, Beth] If you are referring to the question "Were your questions resolved on your first contact with customer service?" then yes, if the respondent answered "None of the above" to the question about help in filling out the FAFSA application they would skip forward in the survey to the question about using the PIN to electronically sign the FAFSA application.

4. If someone doesn't fill in the text boxes, on for example page 14 of the PDF, are they prompted with an error message or can they just skip to the next page if they have no written comments? [Grebeldinger, Beth] Responses to the text boxes are optional.  If the respondents do not complete the text boxes they can skip forward to the next question.