Anyone, ODK for grade and attendance book app for teachers?

Support
1

Is Community the correct category? Should I post a copy elsewhere? Marketplace?

We have a demand in East Africa for a simple attendance and grade book for teachers in primary and secondary schools. We are considering ODK because it would enable the consolidation of the data for the principals with proper error checking.

We work in schools with WiFi LANs, but no Internet Access. We have searched for an existing application that would work, but most require Internet access or a complicated server with more features that we need, i.e. Moodle, School Tool.

Our other option is to use spreadsheets for teachers that would be uploaded into a simple database, but even with locked cells and drop down lists, we are worried that a lot of corrupt data would get into the database and might be unfair to students.

Anyone who wants a copy of our work so far can email me: ed[at]worldpossible.org.

2

I would be more than happy to help. You may inbox me on imran3may@gmail.com

Thanks
Imran

1 Like
3

@EdResor I think ODK might work well for this use-case. The best way to get started is just simply to try it out with the resources that are available at https://opendatakit.org/use.

If you run into any problems, then post those problems in the Support. If you want to hire someone to do this work for you, then post your offer in the Marketplace.

4

@A.N.M_AL-IMRAN Thank you so much for offering to help! In general, we prefer that help happen in public and not over email. This way, everyone can learn from the help you provide.

2 Likes
5

Dear Yaw,

Thaks for your guidence. I agree with you.

Regards,
Imran

1 Like
6

Hi Yaw,

i like your vision.

Open Life.
Open Mind.
Open Source.

Best Regards

1 Like
7

Hi Edmund,

My name is Jeff from Nairobi Kenya, I have been using ODK for five years. I
have been involved numerous times in training and implementation. I would
like to be part of this project to help where I can and also to learn

1 Like
8

Thank you everyone for your support of this open source effort. Please let us all know if you think a Grade and Attendance Book App would be help people where you work or if you know of other solutions that might work better for schools with no Internet access and with teachers with limited computer access and experience.

We are particularly encouraged by the following 2012 article and the Table interfaces which it describes. These interfaces seem to have been developed especially to offer some of the features that users are already familiar with from using spreadsheets.

ODK TABLES: BUILDING EASILY CUSTOMIZABLE INFORMATION APPLICATIONS ON ANDROID DEVICES, by Waylon Brunette, Samuel Sudar, Nicholas Worden, Dylan Price, Richard Anderson, Gaetano Borriello at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA [USA] , {wrb, sudars, dylan, anderson, gaetano}@cse.uw.edu, nick.c.worden@gmail.com

Although we have not yet been able to find any more up to date information on the use of tables, some quick searches of this forum indicate that Tables are currently both frequently used and well supported by the community.

A. Can anyone recommend a simple ODK app that uses Tables?
We would like to try out an existing app with teachers and administrators in rural schools in Ethiopia and Kenya to see if they are willing and able to use it.

B. Does anyone have experience using the Google Chrome App ODK Collect on Chromebooks and Windows laptops and tablets?
Many of the schools which are asking for help are dependent upon Chromebooks, Windows laptops, and 10" Windows 10 Tablets. We are hoping that an ODK App with Tables will actually be easier to use on these devices with larger screens and mechanical keyboards.

C. Would anyone like to participate with cross platform and user testing of whatever ODK App with Tables is suggested as a model for a Grade and Attendance Book App?

Thanks in advance for any criticism, advice, and suggestions. Please feel free to ask any questions.
Ed

9

Hi Ed,

Tables and Collect are not compatible and solve different problems. Tables is part of ODK 2 and not as widely used as Collect. If you want to try Tables, https://opendatakit.org/use/2_0_tools/active-distribution is the place to start your exploration.

If you need to use something like Collect on a non-Android device, try Enketo. It's like ODK Collect but it runs in a web browser and it's great!

Finally, since you are focused on education, another option you can also try is Tangerine. It's built by @Mike_McKay and that's pretty much all you need to know about it! Mike has been building awesome (fruit-themed) data collection tools for years and it might be a great starting point for you.