Action Required: Update to Qualtrics DMARC Email Distribution Changes posted on 1/29

New DMARC Requirements that Impact Qualtrics Workflow

 

What actions are needed?

For existing and new workflows that use the email task, the From Address must be updated to use one of the following domains. The email task will fail if this change is not made.

  • survey.osu.edu (Preferred)
  • osumc.edu
  • qemailserver.com
  • qualtrics-survey.com
  • qualtrics-research.com

Workflow Email Task Icon

All other available domains no longer function, which includes osu.edu. For reference, please review the steps below.

  1. Log into Qualtrics and open a survey project.
  2. Select the Workflows tab and open an existing Workflow or select Create a Workflow.

 

Screenshot of Qualtrics user interface to open workflow configuration

3. Within the Workflow editor, select an existing Email task or click Add a Task and select the Email task.

Screenshot of Qualtrics user interface to create a task in workflow configuration

Screenshot of Workflow Task Selection

4. Configure a From Address using one of the available domains referenced in this article.

    • Note: The Reply-To Email is unaffected by this requirement and any valid email address, including osu.edu may be used.

Screenshot of Qualtrics user interface for Email task configuration

 

How can I identify if my workflow has failed?

  1. Click on the Workflow tab to view your list of workflows.
  2. Select the workflow you would like to review.
  3. Click on the Run History tab.

Screenshot of Qualtrics user interface view of email workflow run history

 

What do I do if an existing workflow task has failed?

  1. Update all failed email tasks with the proper domain as referenced in the first section of this article.
  2. Use one of the Retake survey options to regenerate the workflow task as shown in the Retake Survey Link documentation.

Screenshot of Qualtrics user interface to generate Retake Survey Link

 

What was the issue?

There was a disconnect from communications on what actions were necessary. While all of our custom email domains are listed as DMARC Verified in Qualtrics, there were additional steps that our IT Security needed to take to fully setup the domain.

We submitted a request to IT Security to include the other domains; however, we were informed that some top-level domains (including osu.edu and fisher.osu.edu) do not support this configuration and cannot be added to Qualtrics.

We recognize the impact of this on our customers and we apologize for the inconvenience. To eliminate confusion within the workflow interface, we will be removing unusable domains in the near future.

If you have questions, please reach out to a Division Administrator for your area, which can be found here (Division Administrator List). If one is not listed for your area, please reach out to OTDI-SurveySupport@osu.edu.

Qualtrics Email Distribution Security Changes

All Qualtrics senders should be aware of changes coming to how some email providers enforce new spam-prevention policies.

What is the change?
This change is part of a larger initiative from Google and Yahoo to be more strict on complaint rates and spam prevention to reduce the number of spam emails their users receive and improve email security. How much these changes impact you depends on your role(s) with Ohio State and how you are using outside email services with your Ohio State email accounts. Learn what actions you can take beyond Qualtrics emails at OTDI’s site.

To make sure our messages don’t get blocked, OTDI will be making changes to certain Qualtrics settings.

What do I need to know?
1. OTDI will be changing the Qualtrics’ default From Address @qemailserver.com to @survey.osu.edu on Tuesday, January 30, 2024.
2. The change will not impact existing surveys/notifications that use the Qualtrics default @qemailserver as both domains meet DMARC requirements.

It is best practice to use @survey.osu.edu, please check your distribution emails and consider updating their notification to use this domain. To verify your distribution emails:

1. Open the project you would like to update.
2. From the selection tabs at the top of the page, please select Distributions
3. Select Emails on the right side of the page
4. Click on “+ Compose Email” and make sure the From Address is using @survey.osu.edu

Optional: review existing distribution (these cannot be updated, new distribution email must be created)

What if I have questions?
If you have questions about implementing these new requirements or what they mean for your experience with Qualtrics, please refer to our Email support documentation(link is external). If you cannot find an answer, please email OTDI-SurveySupport@osu.edu.

Legacy Single Response Report to be deprecated by January 15, 2024

 

What is the change?
The legacy single response report is a URL that displays a report for a single survey response. It is formatted like below:

https://qualtrics.com/CP/Report.php?SID={surveyId}&R={responseId}&ResponseSummary=True

These URLs are no longer generated by any workflows in the Qualtrics platform. However, there might be users in your brand who manually created these URLs in email triggers or email tasks by using piped text to add the responseId into the URL.

Starting December 15, 2023, these URLs will not work for newly created responses.

After January 15, 2024, these URLs will no longer work for any responses, and will instead return an error.

What action do I need to take?
Forward this email to users in your brand who might be manually constructing these URLs.

Any email task or email trigger where the user has manually created the legacy response report URL needs to be migrated to use the new single response report solution. There are 2 ways to switch to this new solution:

  1. Create an email task via Workflows and enable the “Include Response Report” option. This will automatically include a response report link in your email.
  2. Use an embedded data field in your email task to pipe in the new single response report URL. The format of the piped text is {srr://SingleResponseReportLink}

This migration must be completed before January 15, 2024. Legacy single response URLs will no longer work after that date.

What if I have questions?
If you have a question about how to start using the new single response report solution, please visit the Email Task support page. It’s also always worth checking the XM Community to see if any other users have the same question. If you’d rather speak to a specialist, our Support Team is always ready to assist. To contact them, please log into the Customer Success Hub.

Qualtrics Administration Transition

Qualtrics administration at Ohio State is transitioning to the Enterprise Content Services team within the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI). As part of this transition, Brand Administrator email requests will route to our team via ServiceNow, providing better visibility and monitoring for customers. The current mailbox qualtricsbrandadmins@osu.edu will be retired on Friday, October 20, 2023. 

Qualtrics allows users to create, distribute and analyze surveys and can be used by current faculty, staff and students with a valid Ohio State Username and password. 

OTDI will continue making updates to improve security and comply with Ohio State data standards for Qualtrics users. Any changes will be communicated to users via email and published on it.osu.edu/about-us/news and u.osu.edu/qualtrics. 

If you have any questions about this transition, contact a Brand Administrator via: OTDI-SurveySupport@osu.edu 

XM Community is migrating to a new platform – with associated downtime during the first week of April.

 

NOTE: ***This only impact XM Community***

What’s changing?

We use a third-party platform provider to power the XM Community. We are moving to a NEW and different third-party platform provider in an effort to better serve the needs of the XM Community. For those who are curious, the new platform is powered by inSided (owned by Gainsight).

Will this change be disruptive or involve any downtime for customers?

Unfortunately, yes. Due to vendor circumstances outside of our control, there will be downtime for the XM Community – potentially as much as two weeks. This is due to vendor migration delays. We are working closely with the new vendor to reduce this downtime as much as we possibly can. You can check the Qualtrics Status Page during the downtime and subscribe to receive updates, as well.

Another email will be sent in April once things are up and running to let you know when you can come experience the new Community!

For those of you who have experience in vendor change and management, you’re probably aware that the process sometimes comes with a few bumps in the road. We appreciate your patience while we work hard to bring you a new and improved XM Community experience as soon as possible!

Can I contact the XM Community team during this downtime with questions or concerns?

Yes, you can email Michael Cooksey, Head of XM Community: mcooksey@qualtrics.com

[Action Needed for Qualtrics Product Update] Migration to XM Directory Lite

What’s happening?
This update is related to the upcoming migration from Qualtrics’s legacy contacts platform to XM Directory Lite during Spring Break 23. The current contact database platform will be replaced with more modern technology, that ensure our organization can take advantage of performance improvements associated with XM Directory in the future.

Please note, our license does not include all of the available features described on our support pages for, including a centralized directory, so this change will be largely on the backend. It will result in some small UI modifications and the following notable changes:

• “Consolidating duplicate contacts” in a mailing list is now available under the List Options drop down.

• If you are adding contacts from a survey, please review these instructions to learn how to accomplish this same task in XM Directory.

• The XM Directory trims white space at the end or the beginning of the embedded data field name.
o Note: In order to prevent duplicate embedded data after the migration, we will replace white space with double underscores. For example, a brand that has two embedded data fields named “Age” and “ Age”. After the migration, “Age” and “__Age” will be displayed as two distinct embedded data fields in the directory for the brand.

• The new backend continues to support exporting contacts into CSV and TSV format, but XML and HTML formats are not supported.

• If Data Isolation is enabled for your brand, data in XM Directory will be encrypted after the migration is finished. Data Isolation has many benefits, but does result in some limitations on searching data in XM Directory. You can learn more by visiting this support page.

What action do I need to take?
This migration will occur in the background and there is no associated downtime, so there is no direct action that you need to take in the platform to prepare. However, we want you to be aware of the upcoming changes, and we want to minimize the impact of UI changes to the end users. Therefore, the migration will take place during OSU’s Spring Break.

What if I have questions?
If you have further questions about the migration or XM Directory functionality, please review our support pages or reach out to our Support Team, who’s always ready to assist. To contact them, please log into your Support Portal.

Notes from Qualtrics Regarding Updates to the Library

What is the change?
At Qualtrics, we are committed to ‘experience-first’ design, which means continuous improvement of the XM Platform™ based on feedback from our users to deliver an easy to use, consistent and accessible experience. As part of this on-going commitment, we are redesigning our Library user interface. The enhanced experience will make it easier and more flexible to collaborate and share common resources across projects and with teammates.

Easier to use and accessible: We have modernized the user experience to be easier and more intuitive to use, introducing consistent interactions, in addition to WCAG 2.0AA accessible patterns so all users can collaborate. The new left navigation pane makes it even easier to navigate both within and between different libraries within your organization.

Flexible folders: Our new organization model introduces flexible folders that enable users to organize their resources as desired. Previously all resources were siloed, but now you can organize resources by project, use-case, or other approaches and see all relevant resources together.

This enhanced user experience lays the foundation for future improvements, like easier to use message translations and improved cross-team collaboration through role-based access.

What action do I need to take?
Ahead of onboarding onto the new UI, we encourage you and your teams to take this opportunity to clean-up and organize your libraries. Specifically, organizing your current library items from the “Uncategorized” grouping into folders will aid in the transition (see this support page for instructions). We encourage you to share this email with your users as you see fit.

If you maintain your own internal training documents, you may also consider updating screenshots for UI changes and any how-to instructions about the Library.

What if I have questions?
If you have a question about the new Library UI, please visit the Library support page. It’s also always worth checking the XM Community to see if any other users have the same question. If you’d rather speak to a specialist, our Support Team is always ready to assist. To contact them, please log into your Support Portal.

Retiring Legacy Look & Feel Editor Feb. 19, 2022

The legacy Look & Feel editor will go out of support and be retired on Feb. 19, 2022. Users will no longer have access to the link ‘Use old “Look & Feel” editor’ located in the footer.

The present-day, default Look & Feel Editor is a faster, more modern experience. It also enables you to use the Look & Feel Editor in an accessible way with complete Keyboard navigation & screen reader support.

What action do I need to take?

No action is needed on your behalf. Start using the present-day, default Look & Feel editor. If you’d like to learn more about the current Look & Feel menu of customization options, you can start with the Look & Feel Overview support page. You will no longer have access to switch to the legacy Look & Feel editor on Feb. 19, 2022.

Qualtrics behind BuckeyePass Jan. 1, 2022

Ohio State is expanding use of multifactor authentication to increase the level of security to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing university information. On Jan. 1, Ohio State will integrate the use of BuckeyePass (Duo) with Qualtrics. BuckeyePass is provided to faculty, staff and students to help protect their accounts even if a password is stolen. Qualtrics is a widely used survey tool often used to collect research information. Read more about BuckeyePass.