New to this group. Glad you are all here and appreciate any help you can
provide to me.
Our organization works in health centers in rural Mozambique. Currently a
field officer delivers supplies to the health center monthly and fills out
a long paper form with 176 data elements (cells), then enters all this data
into the computer when the return to the office. The field officers would
like a way to enter this data while in the field in order to save time. We
have been planning on use ODKCollect on tablets to enter the data, but some
questions have been raised about the usability of entering this many data
points on a tablet, particularly because users often jump around while
filling out the paper form (instead of proceeding linearly, as would be the
case in a survey or something similar).
I have a couple questions for this group that would help us assess how this
could work that I wasn't able to answer reading through the website. I've
attached the current data collection paper form to this message in case
that helps you understand the use case.
I know you can put multiple questions on the same page in ODK. Is there
a limit to the number of questions on a page?
Our paper form contains many tables (rows/columns). Is there any way to
do grid or table style data entry, instead of having to list each cell as
its own question?
Because users may want to skip around between sections, is there anyway
to put a table of contents (or something similar) where the user can go and
navigate to a different group of questions? I know that once you've
completed the form there is a way to do this, but I'm not sure if it's
possible when you start the form. Our form has 9 different sections.
Any examples from anyone who has used ODKCollect for something similar.
Worked? Didn't work? We want a solution that our field officers will
actually use.
I've been working with an organisation in Mozambique collecting data with
ODK tools. (Although I use my own custom server rather than aggregate).
This organisation averages around 40 surveys per day.
I'm only going to respond to your questions 3 and 4 as I haven't much
experience in using grid layouts. Mainly we use phones for our surveys
rather than tablets. For the same reason I tend to avoid the presentation
of multiple questions on a single page due to screen constraints and also
to allow the data collector to focus on one question at a time.
I am currently working on an audit of health facilities in the Solomon
Islands this includes an inventory of up to 15 "areas" in each facility
type. Initially we put these questions into a repeating group which starts
with a "select one" question, "select the area you are in". The questions
specific to that area are then asked. Hence the data collector can
complete the area audit in any order.
An issue with this approach is that it is difficult to provide a constraint
that each area must be visited, but only once. (Version 1.4 of ODK may
help with this). An alternative, which addresses this issue, is to take
the repeating group and "flatten it" out a fixed number of times. This is
extra work in creating and maintaining your survey template but if there
are not too many "areas" and not too many questions for each of those areas
then it is probably a better approach.
In the Solomon Islands the team in the field modified the survey during
training to remove the ability to record the details of the area in any
order. Instead the data collector was led through the areas in a specific
sequence. I'm not actually sure what the rationale for this was although I
can ask the team if you are interested.
In general the use of the phones/tablets is less flexible than using
paper however I usually find this to be a good thing. For example when
conducting a survey that involves interviewing someone, the interviewer
does not need to consider sometimes complex skip rules to determine the
next question to ask. They simply record the answer, swipe left and ask the
next question shown. In many situations this allows the interviewer to
focus on eliciting the information rather than the structure of the survey.
Maybe less so in the sort of audit style survey that you are considering.
regards
Neil
ยทยทยท
On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Sarah Jackson < sarah.jackson@villagereach.org> wrote:
Hello All -
New to this group. Glad you are all here and appreciate any help you can
provide to me.
Our organization works in health centers in rural Mozambique. Currently a
field officer delivers supplies to the health center monthly and fills out
a long paper form with 176 data elements (cells), then enters all this data
into the computer when the return to the office. The field officers would
like a way to enter this data while in the field in order to save time. We
have been planning on use ODKCollect on tablets to enter the data, but some
questions have been raised about the usability of entering this many data
points on a tablet, particularly because users often jump around while
filling out the paper form (instead of proceeding linearly, as would be the
case in a survey or something similar).
I have a couple questions for this group that would help us assess how
this could work that I wasn't able to answer reading through the website.
I've attached the current data collection paper form to this message in
case that helps you understand the use case.
I know you can put multiple questions on the same page in ODK. Is there
a limit to the number of questions on a page?
Our paper form contains many tables (rows/columns). Is there any way to
do grid or table style data entry, instead of having to list each cell as
its own question?
Because users may want to skip around between sections, is there anyway
to put a table of contents (or something similar) where the user can go and
navigate to a different group of questions? I know that once you've
completed the form there is a way to do this, but I'm not sure if it's
possible when you start the form. Our form has 9 different sections.
Any examples from anyone who has used ODKCollect for something similar.
Worked? Didn't work? We want a solution that our field officers will
actually use.