In the past, data collection was performed using paper and pen, which made it prone to error, difficult to conduct on a large scale, and high in transaction costs.

ICT tools such as mobile devices and software that allow 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.

One of the commonly used tools is ODK (Open Data Kit). Open Data Kit has been used to observe elections, monitor rainforests, track outbreaks, conduct one-off surveys, rapid assessments, baseline studies, project mid-term evaluation, project end-term evaluation, market research, during and directly following disasters, and in many other cases.

This course is a hands-on, step by step guide that will teach learners how to set up, administer, and manage a mobile-based data collection platform using ODK.

Course Objectives

This online training course in Mobile Data Collection using Open Data Kit (ODK) will teach learners how to:

1. Build/design forms (Digitize questionnaires) in ODK Build and in Microsoft Excel (XLSForm syntax)/Spreadsheet

2. Check for xlsform syntax errors, validate forms and convert xlsform to XForm

3. Setup a free sub-domain on Free DNS

4. Set up an account on Digital Ocean

5. Setup ODK Aggregate server on Digital Ocean

6. Collect data offline on mobile devices using ODK Collect.

7. Upload and aggregate collected data in a cloud server

8. Visualize, manage, analyze and map data online

9. Download data from the cloud server for further analysis