I remember the first time I saw OpenDataKit (ODK) in action.  

My immediate thought? 

"WOW.  This is a game changer. "

I was running a survey with a few other colleagues, and we made a "mistake" on our ODK form: We forgot to put a limit on the maximum number of characters an enumerator could enter into an open text field.  

The enumerators started to use this open-text field to type in people's stories.  

And you know what those stories thumb-typed into ODK made me do?  Cry.  I sat at my computer, seeing so many intimate stories come through day after day, and tears streamed down my face.  (And I'm not a crier, I'm a logical numbers person!)

Now:  when has data ever made you CRY?

Probably never, right?

But why not?  As aid and development workers, our data should scream out for humanity!  

After the survey was over - we used that data to design entire programmes around all the data collected.  And then thought:  

"How else can this software be used?"

ODK forms are pretty much revolutionary - for programme assessments, health, WASH, nutrition, shelter, food security, M&E questionnaires, research, logistics management: you name it, it's probably possible.

So how are YOU using Mobile Data Collection?

Humanitarian and development programmes need to get BETTER, FASTER, and MORE ACCOUNTABLE with the help of data and technology.

Because data means we get to help change peoples' STORIES. 

Are you ready to learn?

Why do you need this course?

  • You are new to ODK, and you need to get up to speed quickly because you've got a survey coming up pronto.
  • You are overwhelmed with lots of free information on ODK, and need a systematic way to learn everything step by step.
  • You are self-taught, and unsure if you’ve covered everything in XLSForm design.
  • You're designing ODK forms already, but are having lots of problems with data errors from your forms.
  • You're a Monitoring and Information Management professional and you need to improve your professional resume.
  • You're a researcher and need to create fairly complex data collection forms that meet rigorous academic standards.

This course will go LIVE on September 18th.  

It's brand-new.  So we're accepting 50 early-bird learners at 75% off the regular price so we can work with you to make this course even MORE AWESOME.

I'm an early-bird learner.

What will you learn?

At the beginning of the course – you might be starting from scratch.  By the end?  You’ll have:

  • your own server,
  • your own set of high-quality XLSForms,
  • your own encryption keys so you can apply data protection strategies to your data,
  • a lot of confidence in designing complex and creative questionnaires,
  • practice deploying your form and collecting real field-data,
  • the know-how to manage all ODK functions in an offline-environment,
  • and practice exporting your data so you can work with it in other software programmes.

Why take this course?  Isn't all this info available for free online?

My one big hesitation offering this course is that I don't want it to detract from all the amazing, wonderful, open-source information available out there for ODK users!  Yes - by all means - if you're using the free resources and it's working for you - continue!!  

The ODK community is probably the best, most inclusive, helpful group of people out there.

This course may add some cheatsheets, helpful tips, and tutorials specifically for learners - but it's not meant to teach you anything that's not already available in free resources.

So what's the benefit of this course?

The main benefit of this course is to walk learners through XLSForm design and setup in a systematic format to help you learn high-quality form design faster than if you wade through the free resources.  

It's video-based so you can see how to apply each lesson and then practice it yourself.  

And you'll be able to test your own understanding by taking quizzes after each lesson.

Finally, at the end of it all, if you complete the course, you'll receive a Certificate of Completion that you can add to your CV to show potential employers that you're serious about mastering ODK.


About the instructor

Director

Janna Rous

Hi!  I'm Janna!  And I've got to come clean - I LOVE working with data, numbers, and maps. I LOVE being a humanitarian aid worker!  And I LOVE brainstorming with my peers about how we can use information management tools to make our humanitarian programmes ROCK.I'm a Water Resources Engineer with a background in computer modelling of watersheds.  I've worked with some PRETTY DARN BIG datasets, models, and mapping projects over the years.  But I'm not just a numbers gal...I've been working and volunteering in the international development and humanitarian sectors for over 13 years!  I've managed WASH, health, nutrition, shelter, cash, and information management programmes as part of a senior management team for over 3 years, and have lived and worked in the Middle East, Sudan, and Ghana. My passion now is combining my love of data with my love of emergency response to help aid workers all over the world become proficient in using information management tools to make their programmes more efficient, more accountable, and more timely. I currently live in the UK with my best friend (who also happens to be my husband - yay!!) and our beautiful baby girl.

Already know you want to take the course?  

Sign up, become one of our early-bird learners, and prepare for the launch date of September 18th.

Sign up now!

So What's included in This Course?

In each lesson, there are four main components to each lesson:

  1. Video teaching:  you'll meet me (Janna) in each lesson, where I'll review each topic, and show you how to use each new skill. 
  2. Examples and Cheatsheets:  I also include downloadable examples and cheatsheets to help you out with your own form design! (You might find it easier to understand new concepts when you can see them applied.)
  3. Exercise/Assignment:  You'll complete an exercise for each lesson to ensure you get to practice what you've learned.  We're keeping the lessons really practical!
  4. Quiz:  You'll also take a quiz with each lesson to make sure you've mastered the concepts.

Course Curriculum

Lesson 1: Intro to OpenDataKit, XLSForm, Expectations and Pre-Test

You may have had a bit of exposure to ODK before, but you’ll start here with a very brief overview of ODK and XLSForm. You'll take a short survey to let me know who you are and what your expectations are for the course. And your first assignment will be gathering all the resources you’ll need to succeed in the course as well as filling in a Pre-Test to see what your level of knowledge is at the beginning of the course.

Lesson 2: Prepping your Questionnaire with the T-LOGICAL Template

Before you ever start putting a single element into an ODK form, Kobo form designer, or XLSForm – you first need to know what all the questions are, what the logic of the questions is (e.g., do all questions apply to all people, or are there certain answers that should be restricted, or should you allow text responses or multiple choice?), and make sure you have agreement between all your stakeholders.  This T-LOGICAL Template will help you think through all the questions you need to answer before you start programming a form.

Lesson 3: Converting T-LOGICAL into the XLSForm (Part 1)

Once you’ve got your questions and your logical template – you’re ready to jump into the XLSForm.  This lesson will teach you how to set up your basic XLSForm, what all the different question types are, and how to make multi-language forms. You’ll also learn to apply basic elements of the XLSForm such as making questions required, giving hints to your interviewer, applying restrictions on what data can be entered into each question, and setting up error messages when someone puts in an incorrect answer.

Lesson 4: Converting T-LOGICAL into the XLSForm (Part 2)

Next, you’ll learn how to group questions that are related to one another.  You’ll apply skip-logic to your questionnaire by making certain questions only relevant to certain people and learn how to repeat certain questions if you need to collect the same info a number of times for different people or objects.  You’ll learn more complex options for filtering answers to different questions based on previous answers, and how to add elements like “default answers” and “calculations” to your form.

Lesson 5: Getting Creative with Your Form Design

Once you’ve got the basic functions and layout of your questionnaire – you’re going to want to take your skills up a notch by learning how to collect different kinds of multimedia (photos, videos, audio, signatures, barcodes, maps, etc) with your ODK form.  Then you’re going to learn how to use multimedia in the questions itself – how to use images or video in your questions, for example.

Lesson 6: Preparing to Use Your Form for Real-World Data Collection

Once you’ve got your questionnaire, you’re ready to start testing it out!  You’ll learn a few options for setting up a server, validating your form and uploading it to your server, connecting your mobile phone to the server, and testing your form. 

Lesson 7: Encrypting your Form

If you’re collecting personal data – you should most definitely consider encrypting that information so it stays safe.  In this lesson you’ll set up your own encryption keys and apply them to your form.

Lesson 8: Collecting Data and Exporting It for Analysis

After all of this, you’ll collect data using your newly-designed form, watch that data come into your server, and then export your data for further analysis.

Post-Test

Finally! You've gotten through to the end! You’ll take the SAME test that you took at the beginning of the course - and we'll find out how much progress you made!!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

There is lots of FREE ODK support out there - so why should I take this course?

Great question! My one big hesitation offering this course is that I don't want it to detract from all the amazing, wonderful, open-source information available out there for ODK users!  Yes - by all means - if you're using the free resources and it's working for you - continue!!  The ODK community is probably the best, most inclusive, helpful group of people out there.

This course may add some cheatsheets, helpful tips, and tutorials specifically for learners - but it's not meant to teach you anything that's not already available in free resources.

So why take it?  The main benefit of this course is to walk learners through XLSForm design and setup in a systematic format to help you learn high-quality form design faster than if you wade through the free resources.  It's video-based so you can see how to apply each lesson and then practice it yourself.  And you'll be able to test your own understanding by taking quizzes after each lesson.  The course is also geared specifically towards people in the aid and development sector, so examples in the course will all be focused on helping you apply ODK in those contexts specifically.  Finally, at the end of it all, if you complete the course, you'll receive a Certificate of Completion that you can add to your CV to show potential employers that you're serious about mastering ODK.

How long will it take me to finish the course?

The course is broken into 8 different lessons. Each lesson (including the teaching and the exercises) should take you 30-90 minutes to complete, depending on your skill level. You should be able to complete the full course in 8 hours on average.

Do I need to be an aid worker to take this course?

No! The course can be taken by aid workers (from both international and national NGOs), development workers, researchers working abroad, supply chain managers who frequently work in low-to-middle-income countries, students who are trying to get a job in the humanitarian or development sector, donors, government workers, or anyone else with an interest in global action. The data, examples, and analyses are all focused on humanitarian programming, but they all teach the basics of ODK.

What skill level in ODK do I need to have?  Is it for beginners or more experienced users?

The course is geared for beginners and intermediate to advanced users.  Depending on your level of experience, you’ll probably get different things out of the course.  For example, if you’ve been using ODK for a little while and you’re self-taught, you might know how to do some of the basics, but might learn a few tips and techniques you hadn’t thought of before. If you’re a beginner, as long as you can open up Excel, navigate through the toolbar, and enter numbers into cells - you're probably at the right level to start learning XLSForm.  I’ll be mainly teaching form design in XLSForm. Most beginners usually start out with an online form builder (which I’ll introduce in the course) – however, to make more complex forms, I find that XLSForm just gives more control over final quality of your data. I’ll be showing how to use relevancies, skip patterns, randomized M&E solutions within your form, how to encrypt data, use multimedia, use the “audit” tool, use calculations effectively, etc. I won’t be going into XML in the course, but the goal is for you to be able to design a very complex form with the techniques taught in the course.

What if I buy this course and then find out its either too basic or too advanced for me?

Don't worry at all! If you buy this course and then find out it's completely not the right fit for you, I've got a 100% money-back guarantee! If you buy the course then determine it's not right for you, you've got 30 days to send me an email, and I'll completely refund your money!

Will I get a certificate for completing the course?

Yes, if you complete it, you will receive a Certificate of Completion for this course.

Do you provide a receipt so that our NGO's training budget can cover the cost of the training?

Of course! Once you pay the course fee, I will send you a receipt by email!

What if I need extra help on one of the assignments?

I’m going to be engaging with you throughout the course to make sure you succeed and get the help you need.  You will also have full access to the open source ODK community, just like everyone else, where you can help one another design great forms. Your questions will hopefully help other new ODK users learn as well.

Can I get a discount if I can't afford the course fee or if there are multiple people from my office taking the course?

I've tried to price the course so that it's affordable - and I know from years of humanitarian programming that if you pay for training - it becomes more valuable, and you have a higher chance of completing it! So because of this, I don't offer the training for free.

However, if you are a national NGO that has no training budget, if you are a student struggling to pay for groceries, or if you have other extenuating circumstances, please send me an email and we'll see if we can work something out.

If you’re an NGO or university that is looking to provide this course at scale to either your own staff or to your partner NGO staff, then please contact me at janna[at]humanitariandatasolutions.com.

How will my success be measured in the course?

I will give you a pre-test and a post-test in this course. The results of these tests are used to ensure the course is doing a good job of teaching you the fundamentals of XLSForm design.

Is the training available in any other languages?

Currently, the training is only available in English. However, if there is sufficient demand, I will translate the course into Arabic and French.

What forms of payment do you accept?

Payment is accepted through PayPal.  If you don’t have access to PayPal or a way to make an online payment, please send me an email and we’ll figure out a solution at janna[at]humanitariandatasolutions.com.

How much does it cost?

I want this course to be affordable for anyone out there wanting to not only learn ODK, but also how to use mobile data collection to make programmes better, faster, and more accountable.

This training is not subsidized by institutional donors.  The course fee is so Humanitarian Data Solutions can continue to help people like YOU use information management tools through creating training courses, engaging in the humanitarian tech community, and consulting with humanitarian teams around the world. 

Because this is a new course, it's being pre-launched at 75% off the regular price. Before 18th September, it will be available to 50 learners at the early-bird price: 

Just $25 USD until 18th September!

If you're in any way serving populations in poverty or crisis, then this course is for you!  

ODK skills are essential for the humanitarian and development teams of tomorrow. 

Sign me up now!