Illinois Qualtrics Guide

This guide will show you how to create, edit, distribute, and view the results of a Qualtrics survey. It is written for staff, faculty, and students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign but may be helpful to anyone. Created and maintained by CITL Data Analytics and provided in partnership with Technology Services Research Enablement, Office of the CIO.

Authors

Nathan Jeffery, conceptualization, writing, editing, software

Aleena Khan, investigation, writing, editing

Paige Cunningham, writing, editing, validation

Maryalice Wu, supervision

Published

Sep 9, 2026

Introduction

Qualtrics is a popular online survey platform that can be used to create, distribute, and analyze surveys and forms. The University of Illinois has a campus-wide Qualtrics license, so all U of I faculty, staff, and students can use Qualtrics at no cost.

What is this guide?

The guide is an attempt to compile what we’ve learned about using Qualtrics: how to do common tasks, what works, and what to avoid. It does not have to be read from start to finish; feel free to jump right to the relevant section(s).

Sections are listed in the table of contents, which will appear on the left or as a “hamburger-style” menu, depending on your screen size. On a wide enough screen, subsections will also be listed in the “On this page” bar at the right. Many images can be clicked to zoom in.

Qualtrics also maintains extensive documentation on their website. Our goal is not to rewrite the existing materials but to facilitate the work of faculty, students, and staff by presenting information in an easy-to-access and relevant format. We also include some information that isn’t covered in the official Qualtrics documentation.

Why use Qualtrics?

Everyone at the University has access to several survey/form creation tools, including Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, RedCap, and Webtools. So, why use Qualtrics specifically?

The simple answer is that, depending on what you’re trying to do, some tools may work better than others. For example, for HIPAA-protected health information, RedCap may be the best choice, whereas for a quick registration form, the best choice is whatever you are most comfortable using.

Here are some situations where Qualtrics may be a good choice:

If you need a FERPA-compliant way to collect data from students.
If your survey includes skip logic or display logic, where some questions are shown or hidden based on responses to previous questions (see Survey Logic).
If you’re planning to collaborate with colleagues outside the university.
If your surveys are used by a group within the university (i.e., a lab, a project group, or a unit like Housing or HR).
If you want to distribute your survey using personalized links or (for an added cost) SMS messages (see 5 Survey Distribution).
If you want to use automated workflows, such as emailing respondents a summary of their results, sending you (the researcher) a notification in Microsoft Teams, or populating a Google Sheet (see 16 Workflows).
If you’d like to easily download your data to analyze it in a tool like Excel, SPSS, R, or Python.

Features

The University has a Qualtrics CoreXM license with some premium features:¹

Premium CoreXM and programming/automation features (details below).
Training and support.
- Free courses, events, and webinars through XM Basecamp. (Note that not all Basecamp offerings are included with our license.)
- Personal support from experts at Illinois as well as experts at Qualtrics.
  - (Note: for best results, login to Qualtrics before attempting to access the Qualtrics Support portal.)
- Access to the XM Community, a global peer-to-peer discussion board about Qualtrics.
- System status page that constantly monitors Qualtrics performance.
The XM Product Roadmap is a great way to learn about changes to Qualtrics software. It includes a history of product updates and a look at upcoming features.
Illinois does not subscribe to the separate Qualtrics products that are built on top of the CoreXM foundation (CustomerXM, EmployeeXM, whateverXM, etc.). We also do not have access to Conjoints/MaxDiff or Website/App Feedback.
- We do have access to the Qualtrics offline surveys app, but not the XM Mobile App. The offline app is a workable solution when you need to administer surveys at a location that does not have a reliable internet connection. Please contact us if you would like to use the offline app so we can enable the appropriate permissions.
- We have XM Directory, which lets you upload contacts and distribute surveys to them.

Premium CoreXM features:

File Upload question type: allows survey participants to upload a file along with their survey response. This is useful if your survey collects files, images, or documentation from respondents.
Signature question type: allows participants to draw their signature, essentially ‘signing’ the survey. Can be useful for obtaining informed consent.
Table of Contents survey flow element: adds a table of contents to your survey, allowing survey participants to navigate between different blocks of questions and track their overall progress.
SMS Distributions: if you have a list of mobile phone numbers for your respondents, you can distribute a short survey - or a link to a survey - using SMS text messages. SMS distributions can be purchased from the WebStore at $550 for 50,000 SMS credits. See SMS Distribution for details.

Programming and automation features:

Workflows allow you to trigger tasks based on various events. Examples include sending an email notification about a survey response, or automatically sending a survey invitation when an event occurs on a related system. For both the trigger event and the resulting task, you have a lot of options, most of which are inside the Qualtrics platform and some of which are external, such as connecting to Excel Online or Teams. Workflows report successes and failures when they run, which is useful if you need to troubleshoot. See 16 Workflows.
The Qualtrics Application Programming Interface (API) allows you to automate repetitive processes within the application. API can be used to automate contact lists, create surveys, and to move information in and out of Qualtrics. Detailed API documentation is available online. To obtain access to the Qualtrics API, submit a request.
Qualtrics lets you embed HTML and JavaScript in the Survey Editor to add custom functionality to your survey. For example, you can change the size of a question text box, create a custom question type, and much more. A few examples of custom JavaScript are included in Custom JavaScript.

Good to know:

Qualtrics survey projects and response data are stored and managed by Qualtrics, not by the University of Illinois.
Qualtrics regularly backs up your data, protects it from unauthorized access, and adheres to several security standards. See the Qualtrics security statement for details.
For added protection, survey owners can export their surveys and responses to create personal backup copies; multiple file formats are available.

Request a Consultation

If this guide does not answer your questions, you can also schedule a consultation. Consulting is open to all University of Illinois students, faculty, and staff during the Fall, Spring and Summer 2 semesters.

You are encouraged to contact us for appointments by submitting a request. Drop-in questions during consulting hours are welcome either through Zoom during our virtual drop-in hours or in person at Scholarly Commons 220 Main library (check their website for updates - (https://www.library.illinois.edu/sc/)).

Thanks to the folks at Wayne State University for the knowledge base article that we based this list on. Our license is quite similar to theirs.↩︎