ODK Digital Assessments Training Course

Participants can explain the ODK workflow and configure the components needed for a project.

• ODK Collect, ODK Central, and XLSForm roles within deployment workflow
• Project, form, submission, entity, and attachment concepts mapped accurately
• Android device requirements, application permissions, and storage planning established
• User roles distinguish project managers, data collectors, analysts, and administrators
• Server options assessed: ODK Central hosting, self-hosting, and organisational support
• Form lifecycle traced from authoring through publication, submission, review, and archive

Participants can create a valid XLSForm using appropriate question types and metadata.

• Survey, choices, and settings worksheets organised using XLSForm conventions
• Question names follow stable naming rules for exports and longitudinal analysis
• Core types configured: text, integer, decimal, date, select, and note
• Metadata fields capture submission time, device identifier, username, and location
• Required responses distinguished from conditionally applicable assessment questions
• ODK Validate identifies syntax errors before form publication

Participants can write field-ready questions that reduce ambiguity, burden and response error.

• Question wording avoids double-barrelled, leading, vague, and culturally loaded language
• Response options designed for mutual exclusivity and collective exhaustiveness
• Recall periods specified to improve comparability of household survey responses
• Sensitive questions sequenced using privacy, rapport, and safeguarding considerations
• Cognitive testing checks whether respondents interpret intended concepts consistently
• Enumerator instructions separated from respondent-facing wording through guidance labels

Participants can control form flow and prevent invalid entries using XLSForm expressions.

• Relevance expressions display questions only when preceding responses meet conditions
• Constraint expressions prevent impossible ages, dates, quantities, and percentages
• Calculation fields derive totals, ratios, scores, and eligibility decisions
• Indexed-repeat functions reference responses within repeating household member groups
• Default values prepopulate dates, usernames, locations, and programme identifiers
• Constraint messages explain correction requirements using clear enumerator-facing language

Participants can structure complex household, facility and activity data using groups and repeats.

• Field-list groups organise short interview screens for efficient enumerator completion
• Repeats capture multiple household members, distributions, facilities, and observations
• Repeat counts control roster length using previously entered household totals
• Nested repeats assessed carefully to avoid difficult review and export structures
• Household identifiers designed for follow-up, deduplication, and longitudinal monitoring
• Roster questions sequence respondent, household, and service-delivery information logically

Participants can create manageable selection lists for location, programme and respondent data.

• Choice lists use stable codes separate from translated respondent-facing labels
• Cascading selects filter districts, facilities, villages, and programme sites
• Choice filters reference list attributes using XLSForm select_choice expressions
• External CSV files support large location lists and beneficiary reference data
• Search appearance improves selection from long lists on mobile devices
• Entity records support managed follow-up data for recurring programme interactions

Participants can build multilingual forms that support consistent interviewer and respondent understanding.

• Language columns separate English, local-language, and enumerator instruction labels
• Translated choice labels retain consistent codes for clean multilingual analysis
• Right-to-left and special-character rendering checked on target Android devices
• Audio prompts and image choices support low-literacy respondent interaction
• Question appearance settings improve readability, grouping, and input speed
• Translation review uses back-translation and terminology lists for sensitive concepts

Participants can configure geospatial, media and timestamp evidence appropriate to assessment objectives.

• Geopoint questions capture coordinates, altitude, accuracy, and location timestamps
• Location accuracy thresholds set according to urban, rural, and facility contexts
• Image questions document infrastructure conditions, distribution evidence, and observations
• Audio recordings assessed against consent, safeguarding, and storage requirements
• Start and end timestamps support interview duration monitoring and supervision
• Media file sizes planned against device storage and transmission constraints

Participants can embed preventive and detective controls into form and review processes.

• Range checks flag values outside plausible demographic and programme thresholds
• Soft constraints permit exceptional values while recording enumerator explanations
• Duplicate detection combines identifiers, timestamps, locations, and respondent attributes
• Completeness rules identify missing mandatory evidence before submission approval
• Paradata reviewed for interview duration, edits, GPS accuracy, and device patterns
• Data-quality dimensions assessed: accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, and uniqueness

Participants can apply ethical and data-protection measures to digital assessment workflows.

• Informed-consent scripts explain purpose, voluntary participation, risks, and withdrawal
• Data minimisation limits collection to information necessary for stated decisions
• Personally identifiable information classified by sensitivity and operational need
• Role-based access controls restrict projects, forms, submissions, and exports
• Retention schedules define archival, deletion, and secure disposal requirements
• Safeguarding referral questions use approved protocols and restricted visibility

Participants can align ODK deployment choices with sampling, logistics and fieldwork protocols.

• Sampling frames assessed for coverage, duplication, currency, and identifier quality
• Probability and purposive sampling approaches matched to assessment objectives
• Sample-size assumptions document precision, confidence, design effect, and nonresponse
• Enumerator workloads planned using interview duration, travel time, and supervision ratios
• Fieldwork protocols define contact attempts, substitutions, refusals, and callbacks
• Offline deployment plans account for charging, connectivity, security, and device replacement

Participants can prepare enumerators and devices for controlled, consistent ODK data collection.

• Enumerator briefing covers consent, probing, neutrality, confidentiality, and escalation pathways
• Android devices configured with ODK Collect, user accounts, and project settings
• Blank-form refresh procedures prevent teams using obsolete questionnaire versions
• Submission queues managed during poor connectivity and delayed synchronisation periods
• Device registers record custody, serial numbers, incidents, and return status
• Supervisor protocols review completed forms, corrections, and daily progress reports

Participants can test forms systematically and document revisions before operational deployment.

• Desk testing checks labels, logic, calculations, constraints, and required responses
• Scenario-based testing traces expected paths through complex skip patterns
• Pilot protocols test interview duration, comprehension, connectivity, and supervision arrangements
• Test cases include missing values, boundary values, invalid entries, and exceptions
• Issue logs record defect severity, owner, corrective action, and retest status
• Version control records approved changes between draft, pilot, and production forms

Participants can administer an ODK Central project with appropriate form, user and submission controls.

• ODK Central projects created with forms, app users, web users, and roles
• Form publication follows reviewed versioning and release approval procedures
• App-user credentials assigned without sharing personal administrator accounts
• Submission review status distinguishes received, edited, approved, and rejected records
• Central audit logs support investigation of access, edits, and configuration changes
• Project archives preserve final forms, exports, documentation, and approval records

Participants can review submissions and prepare clean datasets for analysis and reporting.

• Submission review queues prioritise incomplete, anomalous, late, and high-risk records
• Correction requests document specific issues without changing original field evidence
• Data-cleaning logs preserve rationale, source values, corrections, and approvers
• Missing-data patterns assessed before imputation, exclusion, or follow-up decisions
• Outlier review combines statistical checks with contextual programme knowledge
• De-identification removes direct identifiers before sharing analytical datasets

Participants can prepare ODK data exports for analysis, indicator calculation and management reporting.

• ODK Central exports generated in CSV, Excel, JSON, and media formats
• Repeat-group exports linked through submission identifiers and parent-child relationships
• Codebooks document variables, labels, formats, valid values, and derivation rules
• Indicator calculations reconcile form variables with approved reference-sheet definitions
• Disaggregation tables examine sex, age, disability, location, and programme category
• Data visualisation choices distinguish operational monitoring from evaluative inference

Participants can plan controlled data exchange between ODK and organisational reporting systems.

• Unique identifiers connect ODK submissions with beneficiary, facility, and programme systems
• Application programming interfaces support scheduled retrieval of approved submissions
• Data dictionaries align ODK fields with database and reporting-system structures
• Master-data controls manage locations, facilities, partners, and programme code changes
• Data-flow diagrams identify collection, storage, transformation, reporting, and access points
• Routine monitoring calendars align form availability with reporting deadlines

Participants can establish governance arrangements that sustain an ODK assessment system after deployment.

• RACI matrices assign accountability for form ownership, approvals, review, and support
• Standard operating procedures document deployment, correction, escalation, and archival steps
• Change-control requests assess effects on indicators, exports, training, and comparability
• Service continuity plans address account loss, server incidents, and device failures
• Data-governance reviews confirm lawful purpose, access, retention, and sharing controls
• Handover packs include form source files, codebooks, credentials, and support contacts

Participants can build, review and present a complete ODK digital assessment package for a defined programme decision.

• Assessment brief defines decisions, users, indicators, respondent groups, and operational constraints
• XLSForm combines consent, relevance, constraints, repeats, calculations, and multilingual labels
• ODK Central project configures user roles, form release, and submission review
• Pilot findings produce documented revisions to questions, logic, and field procedures
• Data-quality protocol specifies checks, escalation thresholds, correction records, and approvals
• Deployment presentation defends design choices, safeguards, reporting outputs, and handover arrangements