Paper questionnaires, late data entry and inconsistent field practices still delay many surveys across the region, and the errors they introduce are often discovered only at analysis. Mobile data collection removes much of that friction, but it does not fix a poorly designed instrument or a sample that cannot support the conclusions drawn from it. Practitioners need both the methodological foundations and the technical fluency to apply them on tablets and phones.

This programme takes participants through each stage of a field survey. It begins with research design, indicators and sampling, moves to questionnaire construction and translation, and then teaches form building with open-source mobile tools. Later sessions deal with piloting, enumerator recruitment and training, quality assurance during fieldwork, server management, and the cleaning and documentation of the finished data set.

Participants work on a single survey project throughout the week, building their own tool, testing it with colleagues as respondents and examining the results on a server. Time is also given to ethics, data protection, consent for minors and sensitive topics, and accessibility. Each person leaves with a tested form, a field manual outline and a data cleaning script or checklist for use in their next assignment.

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

• Translate research questions into measurable indicators and a survey design.
• Select a sampling method and calculate a defensible sample size.
• Write clear, unbiased questions and structure a logical questionnaire.
• Build mobile forms with validation, skip logic and repeat groups in Kobo, ODK or CommCare.
• Plan and run enumerator training, pilot testing and field supervision.
• Clean, validate and document survey data using spreadsheets.
• Apply consent, ethics and data protection practices to field collection.

The course suits people who commission, design or carry out data collection, including:

• Monitoring and evaluation officers and data managers
• Research officers and survey coordinators
• Field supervisors and enumerators moving into lead roles
• Programme staff in health, education, agriculture and livelihoods
• Statisticians and planning officers in national and county government
• Market research and social research analysts
• University researchers and postgraduate students
• Consultants conducting baselines and evaluations

Participants leave the course with:

• A tested mobile survey form built to professional standards.
• A sampling plan with a worked sample size calculation.
• A field manual outline and enumerator training agenda.
• A quality assurance checklist covering back-checks and spot checks.
• A data cleaning checklist and a documented sample data set.
• A consent script and data protection note for their own surveys.

The programme is delivered as a guided survey project, with most hours spent at a keyboard or on a device. It features:

• Laptop labs using free tools and Android phones or tablets
• A mock field exercise in which participants interview each other
• Instrument clinics that critique wording, flow and logic
• Practice back-check and cleaning tasks on a deliberately messy data set
• Reference sheets for XLSForm syntax to use after the course

On attending all sessions and completing the form-building and cleaning exercises, participants receive a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.