Change Sheet Memo

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

DATE: January 21, 2020

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, OMB Liaison, NCES

FROM: Tracy Hunt-White, Team Lead, Postsecondary Longitudinal and Sample Surveys, NCES

SUBJECT: 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) Browser Security Change Request (OMB# 1850-0666 v.27)

The 2019-20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) is a nationally representative cross-sectional study of how students and their families finance education beyond high school in a given academic year. NPSAS is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and was first implemented by NCES during the 1986–87 academic year and has been fielded every 3 to 4 years since. This request pertains to the 11th cycle in the NPSAS series conducted during the 2019–20 academic year. NPSAS:20 will be both nationally- and state-representative and will serve as the base year data collection for the 2020 cohort of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:20), a study of first-time beginning postsecondary students that will be conducted three years (BPS:20/22) and six years (BPS:20/25) after beginning their postsecondary education. NPSAS:20 will consist of a nationally-representative sample of undergraduate and graduate students, and a nationally-representative sample of first-time beginning students (FTBs). Subsets of questions in the NPSAS:20 student interview will focus on describing aspects of the experience of beginning students in their first year of postsecondary education, including student debt and education experiences.

The request is to conduct all activities related to NPSAS:20, including materials and procedures related to: the NPSAS:20 student data collection, consisting of abstraction of student data from institutions and a student survey; panel maintenance activities for a NPSAS:2020 follow-up field test (for BPS:20/22); and carried over respondent burden, procedures, and materials related to the NPSAS:20 institution sampling, enrollment list collection, and matching to administrative data files was approved by OMB in December 2019 (OMB#1859-0666 v.25). The NPSAS:20 enrollment list collection from institutions takes place from October 2019 through July 2020, the student records collection will take place from February through November 2020, and the student survey data collection will take place from January through November 2020. This request is to add language to the student survey (both English and Spanish) with directions concerning browser security to ensure the security of survey responses.

The Department of Education is interested in providing respondents with explicit instructions on how to ensure the security of their responses. We propose adding an introductory screen with language to ensure that web survey respondents log out of the survey and fully close out of their browser when they complete the survey to ensure the security of their responses. This type of language will be added to all NCES surveys to encourage respondents to use the best protocol to ensure the security of their data. In addition, we propose adding language to the introductory screen informing respondents that they will be logged out of the survey after 10 minutes of inactivity. Also, a timeout message will appear after 8 minutes of inactivity to alert the respondent that the session will close in 2 minutes.

This request does not introduce significant changes to the estimated respondent burden or the costs to the federal government. The following revisions were made to Appendix I (NPSAS:20 Student Survey Instrument). New text is denoted in red font.

• Added – The edits were added to Table 1. Summary of Interview Changes (p. I-3) as seen below.

Variable name	Variable label	Change Removed (X), Added (A), Revised (R)	Rationale	Prior study, if not in NPSAS:16	FTB-only item	Abbreviated item	NRFU item
BROWSERSEC	Browser security information	A	Added to provide directions concerning browser security			X	X

• Added – The inactivity warning popups were added as seen below (p. I-24).

Inactivity Warning Pop-up for Student Survey

To ensure the security of survey responses, a pop-up will appear after 8 minutes of inactivity to alert the respondent that the session will close in 2 minutes.

English wording:

Alert: Due to inactivity, your session will close in 2 minutes. Click "Continue" if you need more time.

Spanish wording:

Aviso: Debido a inactividad, tu sesión se cerrará en 2 minutos. Presiona "Continuar" si necesitas tiempo adicional.

• Added – The text of browser security warnings was added as seen below (p. I-25 and p. I-147, English and Spanish respectively).

BROWSERSEC

Here are a few reminders to keep your responses secure: 

Please LOG OUT of the survey system and CLOSE ALL browser windows when you have finished or if you need to stop before finishing.

For example, if you used Chrome or Safari to open the survey, make sure no Chrome or Safari windows are open after you end the survey.

Not closing all browsers may allow someone else to see your responses.

To protect your data, you will be logged off if you are idle for more than 10 minutes and will need to log back in.

Please click the "Next" button to continue.

Help Text:

This is an informational screen only. (Click the "Next" button.)

BROWSERSEC

Aquí hay unos recordatorios para mantener seguro tus respuestas:

Por favor CIERRA LA SESIÓN del sistema de encuesta y CIERRA TODAS las ventanas de tu navegador o browser cuando has terminado o si necesitas parar antes de terminar.

Por ejemplo, si usaste Chrome o Safari para abrir la encuesta, asegurate que ningun ventana de Chrome o Safari sigue abierto despues de terminar la encuesta.

No cerrar todos los navegadores podrá dejar que otra persona vea tus respuestas.

Para proteger tu información, tu sesión se cerrará si el sesión es inactivo por más de 10 minutos y deberás iniciar sesión de nuevo.

Por favor presiona el boton "Siguiente" para continuar.

Help Text:

Esta es una pantalla informativa únicamente. (Presiona el botón "Siguiente").