Data collection and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) have always been an integral part of development work. In the past, these tasks were performed with paper and pen, which made them prone to error, difficult to conduct on a large scale, and high in transaction costs.

ICT tools such as mobile devices and software that allows users to create surveys, collect, manage and upload data to storage facilities in real-time, have reduced the conventional challenges associated with remote data collection and M&E.

If you have always wanted to learn how to collect, manage and analyze project data using mobile devices, this training course is for you. This training course also comes with additional M&E and GIS modules to help participants put the skills acquired into perspective. The GIS module will help participants to work with spatial data.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The course is designed for different representatives: government, project teams, NGOs, multi and bilateral development organizations, consultancies, etc, that are typically employed as project managers and directors, M&E specialists, technical specialists, and researchers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course gives the participants the knowledge, tools and techniques to gather data for project/programme using innovative Mobile data gathering Technology.

At the end of the course, you will become familiar with using ICT tools and methods to conduct data collection, statistical analysis, and reporting.

COURSE CONTENT

Section I

• M&E and Mobile data collection
• Benefits of Mobile data collection for M&E
• Introduction to common mobile based data collection platforms
• Challenges of Mobile Based Data Collection
• Data aggregation, storage, and dissemination

Section II

• Overview of available mobile phone based data collection platforms.
• Types of questions and their data types.
• Questionnaire/Form logic
• Extended data types geoid, image, and multimedia
• Survey Authoring
• Design forms using a web interfaces using:
• Hands-on Exercise
• ODK Build
• KoboToolBox
• Preparing mobile devices for data collection
• Installing application: ODK Collect
• Configuring the device (Mobile Phones)
• Uploading the form into the mobile devices
• Hands-on Exercise

Section III

• Advanced survey Authoring: XLSForms
• Introduction to XLSforms syntax
• New data types
• Notes and dates
• Multiple choice Questions
• Multiple Language Support
• Hints and Metadata
• Hands-on Exercise
• Conditional Survey Branching
• Required questions
• Constraining responses
• Skip: Asking Relevant Questions
• The specify other
• Grouping questions
• Skipping many questions at once (Skipping a section)
• Repeating a set of questions
• Special formatting
• Making dynamic calculations

Section IV

• Hosting survey data: Cloud Hosting
• Google Apps Engine
• ODK Aggregate
• KoboToolbox
• Formhub
• Downloading data
• Manual download (ODK Briefcase)
• Using the online server interface
• Hands-on Exercise

Section V (GIS)

• Introduction to GIS
• Working with Spatial data (GPS Coordinates)
• Choice of Platform
• Discussion on the Choice of Platform
• Integrating Mobile Data Collection tools into projects