TRAINING
Supervisors, team leaders, measurers and interviewers should receive different training, tailored to their roles in the data collection. One extra day of training on mobile technology is highly recommended for those team members who will be responsible for mobile data collection. During the extra training day the following must be covered:
- Use of the smartphone in general
- ODK Collect, the mobile data collection application on the phones
- The questionnaires, including enough time to practice by going through, filling in and familiarising themselves with the questionnaires on the phones
MDC Tool 5 – FAQ – Tips for Survey Coordinators
MDC Tool 6 – MDC Training for Enumerators
MDC Tool 7 – Tips for ODK Enumerators
MDC Tool 11 – MDC Training for Survey Managers
DATA COLLECTION
The team leader or another highly competent team member is responsible for handling the phones and administering the questionnaires. One way to simplify the data collection process when all SENS modules are included in the survey is to have the team leader conducting the individual questionnaires on one phone, and another interviewer conducting the household questionnaires on a separate phone.
The questionnaires are filled out one question at a time. Each question has its own screen, and the user can swipe from Question 1 to Question 2 to Question 3, etc,, typing in responses as they are offered. Data is saved directly on the phone with a file name that easily identifies the respondent and the household.
In addition to entering all measurements and interview answers into the smartphones, the survey teams should also record all anthropometric and haemoglobin measurements were taken on children and women on a paper form. This serves as a back-up in case electronic data is accidentally erased.
During data collection, the phones should be in flight mode and not connected to any network. This will ensure the phone battery to last for the duration of a day’s data collection. External USB batteries should be available if needed. However, every night the survey manager needs to remember to recharge all the phones.
In some settings, you might be interested in collecting GPS coordinates during data collection, and since the phones have integrated GPS this can be turned on and explored when desired.
SUPERVISION
The supervision team should be set up as normal with one supervisor per two survey teams. In addition, to support and control teams on ‘normal’ issues, the supervisors must be ready to support teams who have issues with the mobile data collection, meaning that the supervisors must have knowledge of MDC themselves.
At the end of the day, the survey manager and survey supervisors browse through the questionnaires looking for missed entries or other errors in order to provide feedback to the teams on how they can improve their work and avoid repeating the same errors the next day.
SENS Mobile Technology – ODK Collect for Survey Manager
SENS Mobile Technology – ODK Collect for Enumerators
SENS MDC Coding webinar #1 for SENS Survey Managers
SENS MDC Coding webinar# 2 for SENS Survey Managers
SENS MDC Coding webinar# 3 for SENS Survey Managers
SENS v3 Standardisation test 20 August 2019 webinar for SENS Survey Managers