A validation screen is one of the two options for collecting identifiers with your survey results. Simply put, a validation screen is a question respondents see prior to taking the survey. These screens can function as a validation process for ensuring only the right group of respondents take the survey OR as a way of simply tracking the unique identifiers of those respondents who do take the survey.
The validation screen can be set up to ask students to enter campus e-mail or ID. This method is often used in conjunction with the anonymous generic link option, particularly in times when there is a need to collect identity, but the generic link is the best administration method.
A common example of this is when a campus wishes to create a QR code using the generic link, but would still like to collect identify and/or restrict access to a specific group of respondents.
A validation screen must be set up by your Baseline Support Specialist; contact Support (716-270-0000 M-F 8:00am - 8:00pm EST) if you would like to create a validation screen for your project.
**NOTE: Using the generic link without any validation screen is considered anonymous, meaning that neither Anthology staff nor the campus can track the identity of the respondent in any way with this survey link. Using a validation screen, or using the mass mailing feature, means that the respondent's identifier (either email or ID, depending on your settings) is collected by Anthology. While Anthology does have the ability to hide the respondent's identifier from the Baseline user who is collecting this data, it still technically exists and can be un-hidden upon request. Therefore, if you choose to use the mass mailing tool or validation screen as your data collection method, be advised that you should not advertise your survey as anonymous; we recommend using language to say that your survey is "confidential," since access to respondent IDs is controlled by permissions to Baseline and not inherently available to the general public.