Lecture 2

Digital Data Collection

Dr. Abbas Maaroof
[email protected]
AITRS-11 August 2021
 Course Outline

1. Introduction to Digital Data Collection-Day #1

2. Data collection using open source KoBoToolbox -

Day#2

3. Introduction to SmartSheet Data Collection Day#3

 Day #2
Data collection using open
source KoBoToolbox
Data collection using open source KoBoToolbox

• Introduction
• Getting started with KoBo Toolbox
• Creating a project
• Adding questions
• Implementing skip checks
• Implementing validation logic
• Deploying the form & collecting data
• Configuration, data entry & uploading
• Viewing and downloading data
 What is Kobo Toolbox?
The Kobo Toolbox is a free data collection solution available for
Android mobile devices. KoBoToolbox is a suite of tools for field data
collection for use in challenging environments. The software is free
and open source and works both on and offline.

It has been developed by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with

support from UN OCHA. This open source mobile data collection tool
was designed by and for the international development and
humanitarian community.
https://support.kobotoolbox.org/
Installing KoBoToolbox on your own computer is not necessary and is
only recommended if
1) you are a developer
2) if you are an advanced user and work in an environment with
absolutely no Internet access.
Mobile Data Collection:
User Guide for Data
Collection KoBoToolbox
KoBoToolbox is a platform for developing
and deploying mobile data collection
solutions.

In this Lecture, you will learn how to get

started using KoBo Toolbox to develop
data collection forms that include data
repeat groups, data validations and skip
logic.
https://portal.undac.org/pssuportal/portalrest/filesharing/download/public/4RvGyYd8ZaQMIIq
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/docum
ents/files/unhcr_kobo_guidelines_may2016.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/user/KoBoToolbox
What languages are supported?
You can create KoBoToolbox projects in many languages, including
Arabic

KoBoToolBox ‫النسخة العربية عن استخدام‬

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13pn7AeTyNz-C4RblSkLSJYa6IUtbQu62/view
 KoBoToolbox Currently Available Features

1. Form builder: Previously available tools for designing ODK-

compatible forms, such as ODK Build or XLSForms, have proven
complex and difficult to use, or lacking in features.
The integrated KoBo form builder aims to address these limitations by
providing a simple click and drag interface which requires few technical
skills to master, while retaining the feature depth of the underlying XML
structure for more advanced users. The form builder is also fully
compatible with XLSForms, allowing a flexible interchange between the
formats at any stage of form design, and a seamless transfer of
previously designed XLSForms into KoBo Toolbox.

2. Question library: In order to simplify survey design and allow users

and organisations to manage and re-use questions, the form builder
integrates a question library. This allows prepared questions to be
rapidly identified and inserted into a form as it is designed
3. Android- or browser-based data collection: Data can be collected not
just via a dedicated app on any Android device, but also in a browser-
based form (thanks to Enketo technology) accessible on any computer,
or mobile device running another operating system. Data collection via
both methods is fully supported offline as well as online

4. Data submission: When offline, data is stored locally on both the app
or browser, and then submitted directly to the server whenever an
internet connection becomes available. Alternatives for offline
transmission also exist, in case the system needs to be used in a
completely offline environment

5. Data management: The Toolbox incorporates the rich features of

form hub technology for data management, allowing aggregation,
editing and annotation of the data directly within the platform, as well
as mapping of geo-referenced data and photo display. The API allows
dynamic and automated interaction with the data, including its seamless
integration into other databases or websites.
6. Data download: Data can be downloaded in a number of formats,
ready for analysis in Excel, SPSS, or other statistical packages.
7. Data analysis in Excel: The KoBoToolbox Excel Data Analyser greatly
facilitates analysis of survey responses, providing simple but powerful
charts which visualise responses to questions and enable initial analyses
to be conducted within minutes, without any advanced technical
expertise required (although analytical expertise is still essential to
ensure that results are not misinterpreted).
KoBoToolbox Excel Data Analyser v1.23
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/applications/kobotoolbox/document/kobotoolbox-
excel-data-analyser-v123
Data Analyser Manual
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/applications/kobotoolbox/document/data-
analyser-manual

8. User access control: Users create separate accounts and their forms
and data are inaccessible to other users and system administrators –
unless you choose to share.
KoBoToolbox Data Collection Steps
Step#1: Sign up and Login; please sign
up at this link. After activating your
account through the emailed link, you
can log in to access your account
https://www.kobotoolbox.org/
‫النسخة العربية عن استخدام ‪KoBoToolBox‬‬
Step#2: Create your first form
Step#2: Create your first form by clicking on New
Step#3: Choose a source for
your project and input
project details
Step#3: Choose a source for your project and input
project details
You can change it to Arabic version
Step#4: Adding Questions
Step#4: Click on the + button to add your first question
and choose a response type.
Step#4: Click on the + button to add your first question
and choose a response type.
Type this question
3
1
2
 Preview Form

Question 1
Question 2:Type Gender and Select one
 You can even add
hint for the question

This part for more

Male option
Female
Question 3:How old are you? In years
Question hint
Question 4: Are you married? Yes or No
Step #5: Creating Group of Questions
Creating group after highlight all for using command
key in mac and Control key in Window

Then create a group

First Questions group is Respondent details
Question 5: How many people are in this
household? Select number
Question 6: Which of the following are
your household’s sources of
income? Select Many
1 Business
2. Salary
3. Piece work
4. Other

Question 7: Other source of income

Group them together as
HOUSEHOLD DETAILS
Question 8: Do you own land? Select One
Yes or No
Question 9: If yes, specify the details of
each piece of land (as a Note)

Question 10: Number of Hectares ( as

Decimal)
Question 11: Type of use(Agricultural
land/Non-agricultural land) as Select
one
Question 12: Record of GPS for this
household

You have three GPS options point, line

and area. We can choose point for our
example
Preview Form
Step#6: To add more details to a
question, click on a question’s
Settings. For example, you can add
skip logic to a question.
Implementing skip checks
Skip Logic example 1
Step#6: To add more details to a question, click on a
question’s Settings. For example, you can add skip
logic to a question.
Example: Are you married?
We need to add skip logic for the age to
be married for example add condition
above 13 years old
You will not see the question how old are you until you
respond to the age! For example add 15 years old
 Skip Logic Example 2

Question: Which of the following are your household’s

sources of income?

Adding Skip Logic to Other

When a person choose other then skip it to

Specify other source of income
Go to Setting
 2

Do not forget to save!

1 2 3
Implementing validation logic
Example 1: Adding Validation
criteria to the question:
How Old are you?
1 2 3

4
Age out of range
Deploying the form to Mobile
devices and collecting data
Close it
Click Deploy- its means
we can enter the data on
mobile devices
Many options
1. Online-Offline (multiple
submission) Option
2. Android application Option
Choose Android application
Step#7: Click Preview Form to quickly view your
questions and test skip logic.
Step#8: To save the form click the Save button, then
‘X’ to close the form.
Step#9: To start collecting data you need to
first deploy your draft form as a new data collection
project.
Step#10: You’re ready to collect data! You can enter
data in the browser on any device (computer,
iPhone, Android) or use our Android
application KoBoCollect.
Collecting Data with
KoBoCollect on Android
https://support.kobotoolbox.org/kobocollect-android.html
KoBoCollect is KoBoToolbox’s data collection app and can be installed on any Android
phone or tablet through the Google Play Store. To install the app on your Android device
1. Setup server URL on KoBoCollect
After installing KoBoCollect, you need to configure it so that it can be used
together with your KoBoToolbox account for data collection.

1. Open KoBoCollect on your device.

2. Find General Settings by clicking on the three dot icon on the upper right side of
the screen, then click on Server.

3. In the Server Settings, under URL, enter the server

URL https://kc.kobotoolbox.org or https://kc.humanitarianresponse.info (depending on
which server you use).
4. Then enter your username and password

Note: Sometimes
devices will have
trouble connecting to
the server if the device
date and time is not
correct.
2. Download blank forms from your account

To download forms from your account and start

data collection, follow these steps:

1.Make sure you are connected to the internet on

your device and you have deployed at least one
project in KoBoToolbox.

2.On the home screen menu of KoBoCollect,

select Get Blank Form
3. A list of all your forms from your different projects will
be shown. Click Select All (or select the ones you wish
to download), then click Get Selected.
After selecting
the form for
example my
project then
Select Fill
Blank Form
3. Collect data through filling blank forms
At this point, you no longer need an internet connection. The blank forms and the
following submissions will stay on your device until you regain internet connection
and send the data submissions to the server.

1.Back in the main home screen, select Fill Blank Form.

2.Select the form you wish to fill out and enter data.
3.Now you may go through and start answering all the questions (swiping your
finger from right to left)
4.When you reach the end of the form click on Save Form and Exit (making sure
the form is marked as ‘finalized’)
4. Uploading finalized data to the server
After you have completed forms,
follow these steps to upload the
collected data to your KoBoToolbox
account and server.
1. Make sure you are connected to
the internet on your device.
2. From the home screen, click
on Send Finalized Form
3. A list of your most recently
collected forms appears.
4. Click Select All (or select just the
ones you wish to send), then
click Send Selected.
The data
back to the
server
 How to analyse data collected using KoBo Forms

There are three main ways to analyse the data collected via
KoBo forms:

1. Analyse Data within Kobo’s website (best for quickly

checking responses to questions)

2. Excel analyser (best for creating reports quickly)

3. Mapping responses (only if GPS or mapping data has been

collected)
1. Analyse Data within Kobo’s
website (best for quickly checking
responses to questions)
Example: Try to enter 5 submissions for any random data to
see the analytics

1. Table
2. Reports
3. Gallery
3. Downloads
3. Downloads
4. Map
2. Excel analyser (best for
creating reports quickly)
Download to Excel or Excel Analyser
Once the data is collected, we recommend that you download the data
using Excel for analysing. This enables you to quickly create tables and
charts for reports.
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/applications/kobotoolbox/document/kobotoolbox-
excel-data-analyser-v123
You also can use the building Excel analyser. The excel analyser will
enable you select questions and view responses in various formats,
such as a bar chart. You are also able to see the data disaggregated by
responses to other questions. For example, you can view responses to
“Time taken to collect water and return, including queuing time, from
main water source prior to the crisis” by demographic.
Quick start guide KoboToolbox Excel Data Analyser v1.23 User Guide
v0.1 140925

There are three necessary steps to configuring the Excel Data Analyser
so that you can analyse data in it.

1. On the Config sheet, choose the language in which you want the user
interface to appear.
2. Import your data by copying into the workbook the following three
Excel sheets: the ‘survey’ and ‘choices’ sheet from the form itself
(either created directly with XLSForm, or exported to Excel from the
KoBo form manager), and the sheet containing the collected data
(exported to Excel from the Kobo project manager). On the Config
sheet, type in the names you have given to these three sheets to
establish the necessary links.
3. Finally, choose on the Config sheet the language in which you want
to see the graphical outputs (choosing from the languages coded
Typical KoBToolbox Excel Data Analyser v1.23
3. Mapping responses (only if GPS
or mapping data has been collected)
Mapping
KoBo automatically creates a map for you if your survey asks for GPS points. This
enables you to search a map to answer questions like “where are the non-functioning
water sources?”. This data can also be downloaded as a KML file for integration into
other data analysers.
Analyse Data Tab in KoBo
The Analyse Data tab in KoBo can give you a quick overview of answers to questions.
However, it is recommended to downloading the data to Excel or the Excel analyser
when writing reports.
Further support we can get from MapAction or HDX (Humanitarian Data
exchange).
https://mapaction.org/ MapAction
https://data.humdata.org/ HDX (Humanitarian Data exchange).

https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/op%C3%A9rations/colombia/hdx-datasets#table/1
Humanitarian RESPONSE
Security

Data stored on Kobo is not publicly

available. However, the data stored
on KoBo is only as secure as your
user name and password. If you are
very concerned about the security of
your data, please visit this section of
their website.
 KoBo’s Data Collection Strength
Collecting and analysing data
KoBo allows you to collect qualitative and quantitative data quickly on your
phone, tablet or computer. You can also collect rich data including photo, video
and audio content.

Analysing Data
KoBo allows you to download the data as an Excel Analyser form. This is a
highly powerful data analysis tool, which enables you to quickly create charts
and graphs from your data. Kobo is a very powerful tool for quantitative data
analysis, but although it can collect rich data, it does not provide an easy way
of analysing non-quantifiable qualitative data.

Mapping
Your project may include a one or more GPS questions in its form. KoBo
Toolbox will include the GPS data (latitude, longitude, altitude, precision) in the
dataset that can be downloaded as XLS or CSV. It is also possible to view the
GPS coordinates on an online map and to download the points as a KML file for
use in other applications.
 KoBo’s Data Collection Strength
Skip Logic
Skip logic is also sometimes referred to as 'branching' or 'relevant
conditions'. By default, all questions are always visible. Skip logic
controls which question should be displayed only if a certain condition
is (or multiple conditions are) fulfilled.

Grouping Questions
Groups are collection of one or more questions inside a form, and help
you break up your survey into manageable sections.

Question Library
Libraries enable you to archive and reuse frequently used
questions, save question groups, create entire form templates which
can be used as a starting point and save multiple choice answer sets.
Libraries are uploaded in .xls format.
 KoBo’s Data Collection Strength

Collecting data offline

All data collection can take place offline. When a user enters data it is
stored first on the device. KoBoCollect can be set to attempt sending
the information through a network connection immediately or only at
a later stage when the interviewer or supervisor wants to upload
finalized forms.

Support
KoBo offers an online community support network. Questions posted
on the network will be answered by other users or KoBo staff.

https://support.kobotoolbox.org/
Thank you