Open Data Kit Template files for Project Location Data

[fretchen]

Looks pretty cool to me. As for the forms there are other people to judge on their content (@Maja4Dev or @Jo-Schie ) ?

However, I wonder if we could have some (minimal ?) documentation on these two files ? As a user I would wonder:

• Why does the repo have two xlsx files ? Which one should I use when ?
• Is the xlm file connected to the rest in any fashion ?

One possible solution would be to have a short explanation in some small md file on the topic of odk etc ?

[ckreutz]

@fretchen yes sure but I would add this to the Readme file. Shall I push a draft version / addition?

[ckreutz]

@Maja4Dev added the changes to the template files. @fretchen added an explanation in the readme file.

[maevedefrance]

Hi there, sorry in advance for the length of the post and if any of these points are off topic, but this can happen with an external point of view 😊. I admit I didn't read all the associated documentation, but also on purpose, as I think it's useful to have such data collection tools as self-explanatory as possible to make sure everything is done for a quality data collection.

I guess the users will be perfectly aware/trained on all the notions etc explained (as else very hard to get the whole understanding for someone who does not have prior knowledge)? Because I doubt that many will open the external documentation, so it can be good to embed it further as hints/explanations in the form in my opinion. Relatedly, I would add a clearer title to the form, a quick intro explaining the purpose for the user (who is capturing, when & why), perhaps some section labels to give it flow/ for better readability (project general information, location specific info, location specific geo etc)? Perhaps add color/bold to some labels to make sure some elements are well read/ user friendly, ie start and end date in the activity_start /activity_end labels (https://xlsform.org/en/#styling-prompts).

Here is more specific feedback: Unique-ID :

• It’s not clear to me for new locations what should be done for the code, as the variable is mandatory. Is there any guidance on how it should be built that could be added to the hint? Or a skip pattern on whether it’s new or not to be added to deal with the case?
• For the hint, maybe talk of variable rather than column, easier for the person collecting the data to understand

All text / number / data variables: any constraints that should be added (Regex- https://cartong.pages.gitlab.cartong.org/learning-corner/en/5_survey_design_mdc/5_6_form/5_6_4_validation_criteria#use-of-regex--when-how-and-examples-in-the-humanitarian-and-development-fields) or min/max for ex) to avoid errors? For example for it to be in a range of numbers, to start with a letter and then have X numbers, for there to be a min and max date or budget, to avoid avoidatable errors. Even just making sure there is no negative data captured:)

Data owner: perhaps add example in hint to make it more user friendly? I suppose a dropdown list with an “if other, please specify” would be too complicated to compile?

publishing_restrictions: will the person answering always know for sure if yes or no, or should a “to be discussed further” option be useful?

Location name: what should they do if there is no name? Describe its location, write NA? Location Activity Status: there is no need to have an “if other please specify”? Just checking

Additional Activity-Description : would it make sense to make the text multiline in appearance so they can describe in more detail? I guess this depends if data is collected on web at all, which I imagine it is?

KC Theme/Sub-sector: I guess this is not finalised, but the names are not coded in a format that is exploitable, they are “just” normal labels, so the cascading lists can’t work -there are spaces, special characters etc)

DAC 5: don’t get the new row for each location, you mean a new submission? Or do you want a repeat group in the form so that a series of location per project can be captured inside one submission?

Budget share: same, do you want this in a repeat group, to then be able to make and check the sums through calculations? Sorry if off topic, hard for me to be sure of the general logic of what is being collected

Latitude & Longitude: If the data is not always captured in the field, could you not at least have a skip pattern to make a GPS type variable usable if relevant (as so much easier / less error prone…). Or if using an online app like Enketo in Kobo for capture, to be able to capture it by pointing on the map as such tools make possible? And if “yet unknown”, should there not be a skip pattern so the latitude/longitude not be captured, or else not make it mandatory?

Do you want any [metadata](https://cartong.pages.gitlab.cartong.org/learning-corner/en/5_survey_design_mdc/5_6_form/5_6_6_quality_control) (such as when the submission was started/ended?) or is it not useful?

And just a side note that made me smile- I just saw in the “start here” tab a mention of our XLSForm cheat sheet, that I initiated a few years ago, nice to see it being used 😊.

hope this is useful, don't hesitate if you have further questions, Maeve

[Maja4Dev]

Dear Maeve (@Jo-Schie @fretchen @goergen95),

thank you, this is very useful! We will try to add more explanation to the data fields, but we need to make sure that they dont become too long for data entry by mobile phone.

Unique-ID: is only mandatory if there are earlier versions that have received this ID by KfW. We will have to explain this better in this data field. And calling it variable here makes sense!

All text / number / data variables: we have lots of constraints in the excel template - who could add them in Kobo?

Data owner: This will be the name of an institution, so we can say, e.g. KfW or Ministry of Health Tansania. A drop down menu cannot be created, too many potential institutions.

publishing_restrictions: will the person answering always know this? Yes, because KfW will define this in the ToR. But we can add here: see also ToR

Location name: what should they do if there is no name? Describe its location, write NA? Yes, describe its location. We should make this clear.

Location Activity Status: there is no need to have an “if other please specify”? You are correct.

Additional Activity-Description: We would like to avoid lenghty descriptions. This field is for additional output features, like MW for a plower plant to show them on a map, not all the details.

KC Theme/Sub-sector: They only serve as a filter to help quickly finding the right location type among the 254 options, not to be themselves saved in the database. In the database should be only the location types. What do you mean that the cascading lists don't work?

DAC 5: don’t get the new row for each location, you mean a new submission? Or do you want a repeat group in the form so that a series of location per project can be captured inside one submission? - I am not sure I understand what you mean by new submission vs repeat group 🤔. A new row in the excel template would describe a different activity and/or location type/output and/or DAC-subsector at the same GPS-coordinates. We only did not clarify how to enter this in Kobo instead of Excel - we need to do this. If we can do this more elegantly by creating repeat groups, this would be cool!

Budget share: same, do you want this in a repeat group, to then be able to make and check the sums through calculations? If this would be possible in Kobo, this would be cool!

Latitude & Longitude: If the data is not always captured in the field, could you not at least have a skip pattern to make a GPS type variable usable if relevant (as so much easier / less error prone…). Or if using an online app like Enketo in Kobo for capture, to be able to capture it by pointing on the map as such tools make possible? And if “yet unknown”, should there not be a skip pattern so the latitude/longitude not be captured, or else not make it mandatory? - We need to discuss this.

Do you want any [metadata]? All of the above is metadata but the coordinates ;-). We have the data of the latest update, the data owner - the timeframe of the collection is too much detail for us. We need to keep it simple. Any crucial metadata you are missing?

RE: Your XLSForm cheat sheet: Everything that goes around, comes around 😊. @ckreutz is always ever using the good stuff 😊.

[fretchen]

Given the (possible ?) complexity of the suggested changes I opened a new issue #25 and this gives us also time to work through them step-by-step ? However, I would be curious if we see some blockers @maevedefrance ?

For tracking the status let us take a list here:

• [ ] Unique-ID
• [ ] All text / number / data variables
• [ ] Data owner
• [ ] publishing_restrictions
• [ ] Location name
• [ ] Location Activity Status
• [ ] Additional Activity-Description
• [ ] KC Theme/Sub-sector
• [ ] DAC 5
• [ ] Budget share
• [ ] Latitude & Longitude
• [ ] Metadata

[ckreutz]

Dear all,

I do not understand, why this shall be all done within the pull request. The current version works and is validated. I would build on it instead of holding this version back. This is the whole logic of a Github repo. 😀 The feedback from @maevedefrance is really helpful, but these are improvements and not pointers to breaking issues or am I missing here something? The basic logic is there and grouping etc. is the cherry on the cake.