Frequently Asked Questions

Students connect to www.ourschool.net with a randomly generated login. Their login automatically directs them to the appropriate survey. 

 

The term Snapshot is meant to inform users that you can use up to two surveys per school year, however it is common to only survey once per school year. Ordinarily, each surveying window or period will last for up to four weeks and all students are invited to participate in each period.

After each survey period is completed and the survey is closed, school administrators will be provided with reports based on the results for that survey period. If two survey periods are used, two sets of reports will be provided. This description is general for standard survey setups.

Particular projects and research initiatives may differ slightly.Please contact your project or District Coordinator if you have any questions.

 

Not to worry! To have extra codes added, contact the Helpdesk (support@thelearningbar.com or 1-877-840-2424 ext. 1) with the following information:

1. The name of the survey that requires more login codes
2. The number of codes required
3. The reason for the codes. e.g. lost codes, more students than expected.

For more information, see Distributing Survey Accounts to Participants. 

In the View Reports menu you can view reports from previous years by selecting the appropriate school year at the top of the screen.

See Comparing Results: Year Over Year for more information.

Note: If you do not have access to your school’s reports because you are new to the role or of coordinator have moved schools, please contact your District Coordinator.

Yes! The survey has been recently updated to have adaptive display functionality, allowing the survey to be completed using smartphones, tablets or other internet-enabled mobile devices. We recommend using a screen 4 inches or bigger.

You can read more details in our article: Using OurSCHOOL with mobile devices

The requirement of consent from students and/or parents would depend on laws outlined in your jurisdiction. However, as the OurSCHOOL system deals exclusively within anonymous student data, it typically does not require express consent as defined in most privacy legislation.

Although parent consent may not be required, we strongly recommend that you inform parents and guardians about the OurSCHOOL Survey. See Student Survey - Letter to Parents for a basic template and Communication and Student Preparation for more general resources

Deadlines are set by your district, sometimes based on provincial survey periods, and are usually communicated by your District Coordinator. We recommend that you contact them directly if you have any concerns. If you are unsure who this is, see Finding Your District Coordinator.

Unless otherwise stated by your District Coordinator, surveys will remain open until June 30th or until manually closed by the School Coordinator. For more information, see Closing Surveys.

No, it is not possible to identify individual survey participants. Survey participants are never asked to provide personally identifiable information (i.e., name, email / mailing address, phone number, student ID, etc).

All anonymous survey responses are aggregated when reported to the school or district. In addition to not collecting personally identifiable information, individual anonymity is further protected by setting a minimum number of responses required in order to report a result for any population. The reporting procedures follow Statistics Canada’s standard of not reporting aggregate results which include less than 5 cases.

Survey length depends on how much content is included in the survey. This is determined by your District Coordinator, sometimes based on provincial requirements.  We recommend that you contact them directly if you have any concerns. If you are unsure who this is, see Finding Your District Coordinator. 

It is usually possible to reopen a closed survey, however in some cases permission from the District Coordinator is required. We request that you contact them first if you would like to reopen a previously closed survey. If you are unsure who this is, see Finding Your District Coordinator.

Adding custom questions to your Parent Survey allows schools to collect the voice and experiences of school families on issues specific to your school.

Schools can add up to two optional Open-Ended Questions (OEQs) as well as up to two optional Multiple-Choice or Multiple Answer Questions (MCQs/MAQs). For details on how to configure your Parent Survey follow the instructions in this link.

Did you know?
A guide to creating custom questions is available here, as well as some sample custom questions here.

The OurSCHOOL Parent Survey is a comprehensive survey that is based on Joyce Epstein’s framework for fostering positive relations between the school and the community and captures parents’ perceptions of children’s experiences at home and school. The survey measures these topics as well as the extent to which parents feel the school supports learning and positive behavior and whether the school promotes a safe and inclusive environment.

These articles provide detailed descriptions of all 10 measures, as well as the method of calculating and reporting for each.

Sharing your Survey login URL is up to each school individually. However, using multiple mediums to notify parents and guardians of the survey can encourage a much higher response rate. Here are some examples that other OurSCHOOL members have used:

• social media
• emails
• parent-teacher interviews
• school website
• Newsletters.

For more examples please read our Strategies for Increasing Parent Survey Participation article. Please note that sharing your unique Parent Survey URL to any publicly shared media does open up access to the public.

Schools can use the OurSCHOOL Teacher Survey with school teaching staff from Kindergarten to Grade 12 even if your school does not use the OurSCHOOL Student Survey.

Currently, the OurSCHOOL survey is developed for teachers only. There are plans to expand on this in the future. Feel free to connect with us for more information.

Teacher can access the survey through a unique link that will be provided by the school. School Coordinators will be able to customize their schools URL when completing the survey setup.

Guided by the two research paradigms, the OurSCHOOL Teacher Survey provides data on 12 measures that schools and educators can use to improve student outcomes.

These articles provide detailed descriptions of all 12 measures, as well as the method of calculating and reporting for each. A summary of the research literature that supports the importance of each measure is also included.

Adding custom questions to your Teacher Survey allows schools to collect the voice and experiences of school families on issues specific to your school.

Schools can add up to two optional Open-Ended Questions (OEQs) as well as up to two optional Multiple-Choice or Multiple Answer Questions (MCQs/MAQs). For details on how to configure your Teacher Survey follow the instructions in this link.

Did you know?
A guide to creating custom questions is available here, as well as some sample custom questions here.