training on:

Mobile Data Collection using Open Data Kit (ODK)

Ebrahim Seid Endris

GIS Researcher at Southern Agricultural Research Institute

Hawassa, 2023, Ethiopia

Topics to be covered
• Introduction to data collection methods
• Introduction to Open Data Kit and its component
• Set up ODK Collect
• Ways of designing and Creating questioner forms
• Loading forms into Collect on an Android device
• Collecting field data using ODK Collect
• Submitting(uploading) survey data to server
• Data management
• Extracting data from the server
• Visualizing Geographic Data
 data collection methods

A. Traditional field data collection systems

 Paper-based methods
 Relatively costly,
 Time consuming,
 Largely susceptible to human error
 Difficult to update the form
 Difficult to change the response during data collection
 There are two separate teams (data collector and data entry) for
operations.
 Cont’d
B. Modern data collection methods

 Digital form
 eliminates the need for paper surveys by automating the information capture
 reduce the time (data collection and entry)
 reduce errors
 reduce costs
 increase data quality
 Data Collection and Data Entry happen at the same time, and no need of separate
Data Entry staff.
 Unlimited data types; Text+ GPS location + picture + video + string+
numeric + audio + barcode

Example, ODK,
 Introduction to ODK
 ODK is set of tools for online and offline field data collection

 Developed by the Department of Computer Science and

Engineering at the University of Washington, United Nations of
America.

The ODK Community produces free and open source software for
collecting and managing data

 Used by organizations as an easy way to record and submit

information from the field in mobile data collection form.
 Cont’d
 Replaces paper forms used in survey-based data gathering

 It supports a wide range of question and answer types

 Designed to work well without network connectivity

 Basic components of ODK

• The ODK collection consists of three Primary components

I. ODK Collect
II. ODK Form
III. ODK Aggregate
Basic Components
Form Authoring
(ODK Build/XML Editor)

XForms ODK
Build/other

Mobile Engine
(ODK Collect)

Filled XML XML

Data Forms
Data Server
(ODK Aggregate)
 ODK Collect
• Is an open source Android based application (Operates in a
disconnected mode)
• providing simple interfaces for collecting data.

 Use the mobile clients for data collection and submission.

• Allows data collection using android mobile devices and data
submission to an online server even without an Internet
connection at the time of data collection.

 ODK Collect is a mobile platform

 Downloading and Installing ODK collect

1. Downloading from web (Opendatakit site)

2. Downloading from Play store
By typing “ODK” in the play store
The easiest way
Always has the latest stable release.
3. install it in to your android device or mobile

ODK will automatically install after you downloaded on older device,

while for newer devices, rename the file to restore the .apk extension.
ODK Collect App Interface

1. Settings
1
2. open to select and fill a blank
form
2
3. Open to edit filled forms
before submitting
3
4. Submit the finalized forms to
4 the server

5 5. download a blank form from

the e server
6
6. Delete blank saved forms
from the mobile
 ODK Form

 Allows the user to create / Authorize forms

 xml format

ODK Build, XLSForm, Kobo toolbox account

 ODK Aggregate
 Store data/ Data server

 Before using ODK in data collection it is important to design

database so that to link with ODK Collect for data collection.

 An open source Java application that stores, manages, analyzes,

and makes visual representations of Xform survey data collected
using ODK Collect or other compliant applications.
 runs on Google appengine, Tomcat, MySQL server, …
 ODK Aggregate;

Aggregate is an easy to deploy data storage system

hosted in the "cloud" or on local servers.

provides blank forms to ODK Collect (or other clients),

 Accepts finalized Xforms (submissions) from ODK Collect
and manage collected data,
 Visualize the collected data using maps and simple graphs,
 Export and publish data in a variety of formats (e.g., as CSV
files for spreadsheets, or as KML files for Google Earth),
http://opendatakit.org/use/aggregate/
 Cont’d
 An easy way to design database is by using kobo toolbox
template.
 With Kobo toolbox account we can design our
organizational profile and forms for data collection.

 Register to one the following Server Address

https://kc.humanitarianresponse.info or

https://kc.kobotoolbox.org/
 Account for humanitarian agencies is free of charge.
 Both servers are currently physically located in the United
States of America.
https://kc.kobotoolbox.org/
 Is my data safe on the two servers?

 The united nations office for the coordination of

Humanitarian Affair stakes the responsibility relating to
the server.
 regular database backups taken to keep data safe from
loss.
 Once your data is uploaded to the server, it is stored in
accounts protected by usernames and passwords.
 only the server administrator has technical access to the
database, and we will never access your data unless you
have given us explicit access to it.
 Adjustment of ODK Collect Settings
• Synchronizing:- After installing the application on our device, we
must synchronize it to our server in order to
 Download new forms.
 Upload finalized forms.
• Edit the ODK collect server settings to connect to our server.
general setting Server URL Insert the server URL address.
E.g.
depending on
which server
you use
 Blank Form creation
 A blank form is a .xml file.
 Must be designed before data collection

 Design you questions;

 Decide on expected responses

(answers)

 Explain your data.

The forms are subsequently saved to the phone's SD memory,

where it can be accessed without internet connectivity.
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 blank form design Methods

There are several ways to create (design) blank forms for ODK.
Among those,
1. Using ODK Build
2. Using kobo toolbox
3. Using Microsoft excel in XLSForm. (offline and more robust)
 A. Creating blank forms with ODK Build

• Build is an HTML5 web application (web based)

• online and offline available
• the quickest and easies
• it works best for designing simple forms.
• provides a visual, drag-and-drop interface.
Embedded Question types
 Steps (Online form creation)

1. You must have an account in order to create forms on ODK Build

2. Go to http://build.opendatakit.org, create a new account, and log in.
Once logged in, a blank survey is created.
2. Add questions (click on question types in the +Add New bar along the bottom).
3. Give your form a name (rename in the upper left-hand corner).
4. Once your new form is complete, save the form as .odkbuild file format.

If you have your own Aggregate server, use the URI and credentials you created
during setup.
Cont’d
 B. Creating blank forms Using kobo toolbox

• Online available
• The account is free of charge;
• Requires Wi-Fi
• limited storage capacity(5 GB storage)
• fully compatible with a number of data collection different tools such
as ODK or Formhub.

♥ Please login to create your forms from previously registered Kobo

toolbox server
You can create your first form by clicking on New, then choose build from scratch.

1
2
 Write here the name
of the form

Write here the short Select here

Write here the description of the form country
name of the
form

Finally click here to

start creating the form
Then, click on the + button to add your first question.

Figure:- KoBo Toolbox - Form builder interface

After typing in the question label, click Add Question and choose a
response type.
When you finish your form design, save and deploy it.
 C. Using XLSForm

 Excel-based form designer.

 simple to get started with but allow for the authoring of complex forms.
 supported by a number of popular data collection platforms.
 most ODK users design their forms
 Once the form has been designed, we should convert to Xforms
(xml file) using XLSForm Online or XLSForm Offline
in order to be used with ODK tools.
 It is recommend starting with XLSForm Online converter because of
 always up-to-date
 allows you to preview what the form will
look like.
 Basic format of XLSForm
• Basically, each Excel XLSForm has two worksheets: survey and
choices. The third worksheet called settings is optional and can be
added to provide additional specifications to the form
 The survey sheet (mandatory)

 This worksheet gives the form its overall structure and contains most
of the content of the form.
 The survey worksheet has 3 mandatory columns: type, name, and
label.
a) The type column specifies the type of entry we are adding.
b) The name column specifies the unique variable name for that entry.
No two entries can have the same name.
c) The label column contains the actual text one see in the XLSForm.
Cont’d
 The choices sheet (mandatory)
This worksheet is used to specify the choices for multiple choice questions.

Each row represents an answer choice.

The choices worksheet has 3 mandatory columns as well: list name, name, and
label.
1) list name column:- lets one group together a set of related answer
choices, i.e., answer choices that should appear together under a
question.
2) Name column:- specifies the unique variable name for that answer
choice.
3) Label column:- shows the answer choice exactly as one want it to
appear on the form. This choices sheet corresponds to the survey sheet
mentioned above.
 Cont’d

One should keep in mind when authoring forms in Excel is that the syntax used must be precise. For
example, if one writes Choices or choice instead of choices, the form won't work.
 The settings sheet (optional)

A third optional worksheet which can add additional specifications to

your form.
Form_title: The title of the form that is shown to users.
Form_id: The name used to identify the form submission.
 Question types
• ODK Collect supports forms with a wide variety of
question types. The exact functionality and display
style of each question are specified in your XLSForm
definition using the type and appearance columns.
These are just some of the simple question type we use under
type column in the survey worksheet:
 Downloading blank forms in to ODK
Collect
 To start collecting data you need to first deploy your draft form.

To be able to use ODK Collect for data collection, pre-designed data

collection forms will have to be loaded onto the application. There are
generally two ways of performing this task.

I. Get blank forms from a pre-configured ODK server designed to

distribute blank forms and also to receive form submissions; and,
II. Get blank forms directly onto the mobile device via a USB
connection with a computer where the pre-designed data collection
forms are located.
 Loading blank forms in to ODK Collect

A. From ODK Build (Offline)

1. Open ODK Build on your PC

2. Open your previously created (saved) form
3. Go to setting Form Properties Rename your Form Title Done
4. Export to XML... Rename the File Name Save
5. Move the saved file to your device (mobile) Paste it on device’s default
storage…..ODK……Forms......Paste it.
 B. Loading from Kobo toolbox server

Two Preconditions

 Make sure you are connected to the internet

By enabling your device “mobile data” or “Wi-Fi”)

 you should to have at least one project deployed in your Kobo Toolbox
account.

1. Open ODK Collect on your device.

3. Go back to the app home screen and select Get Blank Form, then, Select
the ones you would like to download, and tap Get Selected.
Click here to download
deployed form
Choose your own
form
 Start Collecting Data
Nb. To collect data, internet connection is not required.
i.e Once downloaded, the user can fill the form in an offline
mode.
However, you must be connected to the internet to submit data to
the server.
1. Select Fill Blank Form from the Main menu to complete a
survey.
3. Select the required form from the lists
4. Conduct the survey
5. When you reach at the end , rename the form, save and exit.
1 2 3
When you complete your data collection, the following
interface appears

To complete the task,

 Rename the form

 Check/uncheck Mark form…..
 Click “save form and exit” tab

We can edit saved form

We can’t edit saved form

 Editing saved forms
• We can edit our saved forms before finalizing.
• “Edit Saved Form” allows you to go back to saved forms
(only the non finalized ones) and edit them as necessary.
• Finalized forms can never be edited.
• In order to edit the saved form, the corresponding form must
present in “Fill Blank Form” list. Otherwise the following
message displays.
Open to edit saved
forms before finalizing
 Finalizing forms
Once you have completed the form, prepare it for upload by
finalizing it.
• The Saved Forms tab lists forms that are saved and finalized.
• Completed forms will be stored in your device and you can sent
them when internet is available.
In order to upload a form, we must finalize it by Checking “ Save
Form and Exit” tab during
 filling blank form or
 editing saved form
Cont’d

Nb: Completed forms will

be stored in your device
and you can sent them
when internet is available.
 Uploading finalized forms in to server
• Click on Send Finalized Form tab to upload your completed survey forms to the server.

2
1

=
2 Select the finalized forms to upload the data to the

aggregate server after they have been finalized

 Remember the following,

• You can edit Saved and Finalized forms.????????????????????

• Sent forms will not appear in the Edit Saved Forms list.
• Sent forms are no longer editable, but they remain viewable until they
are deleted.
• Sent forms, will be available for viewing in View Sent Forms list,
along with the details which cannot be edited.
• Now login into server and see your completed survey results.
 Login in to your server account
When we submit our completed forms, our Kobo account
reminds the submitted form from data collector.

Number of
submitted forms
Reminder
 Extracting data from Kobo Toolbox

Simply click “Download data” at the project management

form and select format: XLS, CSV, ZIP, KML…
The end