Organisations now collect household, facility and community data on phones and tablets as a matter of routine. Mobile tools have cut the cost and delay of paper surveys, but they have also made it easy to gather sensitive information at scale without the safeguards that research ethics and data protection law demand. Donors and partners increasingly check how data is collected, stored and shared, and weak practice can end a project or a partnership.

This programme combines technical survey craft with the governance that must surround it. Participants begin with the research question and the type of data needed, then learn questionnaire design, question wording, scales, sampling basics and pilot testing. They move to building electronic forms, configuring servers, managing devices and users, and running fieldwork with real-time monitoring. Compliance topics run alongside: consent procedures, protection of children and vulnerable groups, confidentiality, access control and incident response if data is lost.

Teaching is lab-based, with a continuous case in which each team plans a survey, programmes the form, collects test data and prepares a clean, documented dataset. Participants finish with a protocol, a data management plan and a checklist they can reuse on future studies.

By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:

• Translate a research question into a measurable set of survey variables.
• Write clear, unbiased questions and organise them into a logical questionnaire.
• Select an appropriate sampling method and calculate a sample size.
• Build and test mobile data collection forms with validation and skip logic.
• Plan enumerator training, supervision and daily field quality checks.
• Apply informed consent, confidentiality and data minimisation principles.
• Secure, store and share datasets in line with data protection requirements.
• Clean data and document every change in a verifiable audit trail.

The programme is intended for people who plan, run or approve data collection, such as:

• Monitoring and evaluation officers and managers
• Survey managers and field supervisors
• Researchers and research assistants in universities and think tanks
• Statisticians and data analysts
• Programme officers in NGOs and development projects
• Public sector planners and statistics office staff
• Data protection and compliance officers
• Consultants who conduct baseline and endline studies

Each participant takes away practical outputs, including:

• A tested questionnaire and matching electronic form for a survey of their choice.
• A sampling plan with sample size working and field allocation.
• A consent script and an ethical risk checklist for fieldwork.
• A data management plan covering storage, access, retention and sharing.
• A daily field monitoring sheet for catching errors and fabrication.
• A cleaned practice dataset with a documented audit trail.

Participants learn by running a small survey cycle on their own devices:

• Computer labs for building, deploying and testing electronic forms
• Field simulation in which participants act as enumerators and respondents
• Review of real questionnaires to spot flawed questions
• Compliance scenarios on consent, data loss and sharing requests
• Coaching on each participant's protocol and data management plan

A CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion from Vision Reach Global Consultancy is awarded to participants who attend all sessions and complete the lab exercises and the closing protocol.