Put more than one question per screen in Android Data Entry

[cmloria]

Dear CSPRO Team,
My question is if you can put more than one question per screen in data entry for the Android version. This is because for the interviewer is more easier to read the questions in groups. Thank you very much.

[josh]

In the latest beta version (http://www.csprousers.org/beta/), if you are using a tablet, we display the labels and responses for the surrounding questions on the form and you can tap on the labels/responses to navigate to those questions. This isn't the same as the way multiple questions are displayed on the PC version but does the give user context that is currently missing when showing one question at a time.

[htuser]

Dear Josh,
I would like to know if it's technically impossible/difficult to have real multiple field by screen as the worldbank survey solution's (https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ster&hl=fr )? Can we expect to have roster and real multiple field by screen in the 6.1 version?
Thank in advance,

[josh]

It is technically difficult but it is also not clear how to do this in a way that gives a nice user experience and fits in with the way CSPro procs work. What I mean is if you have multiple fields with radio buttons or checkboxes on a form and the user is able to tap on any one of them then when are the preproc, postproc and onfocus routines run? It is clear with text boxes when the user enters and exits the field but with a radio button that has a default value the user could never really enter the field if they want to accept the default. With checkboxes the user might tap on zero, one, two or more items and you never which is the last one so that you can run the postproc. On the PC we get around this by making the extended controls (radio buttons, checkboxes...) come up in a popup window when the user enters the field so we know when they enter and exit the field. We could do the same on Android but with the smaller screen that might not be such a nice user experience and would it really be any better than what the current beta does where all the questions are displayed on the left and the current question is displayed in the main window? We have discussed other ideas but haven't come up with something that we are happy with. Either we end up with some procs not getting triggered or we add additional UI elements for the user to indicate when they are entering/leaving fields.

We would be happy to get user input on what the best approach would be here. What are the cases where you really need to have multiple questions on the screen at the same time beyond what we do in the beta? We get a lot of a people saying "you should do it because survey solutions does it" but that isn't really a good reason.

Rosters are a separate issue and we have some ideas on how to do that that are on our todo list although duplicating what is on the PC would not work well on the small screen. We are looking at having a visual representation of the grid in a separate part of the screen to indicate where the user is in the roster but continue to have the current question in the main window.

[htuser]

Dear Josh,
I have some simple ideas about displaying multiples field and rosters on Android. The ideas are so simple that i think you already think it...

Data collectors/surveyors are more comfortable with paper like electronic form template. It's because the Windows version form template is the best on the world because designers can customize it's application to have paper like electronic form. Nevertheless, if you want an universal template on Android for displaying on phone and tablets, it can be difficult to use a Csentry Windows like template. It's because, i think you can solve this using two approach:
1.- Using a unique template (for displaying rosters and multiples fields) for tablets/phone of different screen size. In this event, this template must be pitch and zoom friendly,

2.- Using multiples templates (for displaying rosters and multiples fields) based on the device screen size. In this event, in the csentry android, you should have a menu allowing the final users (surveyors) to choose the screen size of his device. This can be done automatically if you can have a specific function (getscreensize: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1016 ... -in-pixels / http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6589 ... -of-device ) or/and some tablets/phone screen size dictionary . if this method is chosen, csprousers on the forum can help you built this dictionary.

I think that it's more easy and simple to write it in a mail than a compiler. Each technology has it's own limitation. But, the Windows form template allowing designers to customize its form is perfect. It would be perfect and ideal if Csentry Android can display form as the Windows Csentry versions.

Another limitation to improve is the question type technology. It has some notable weakness as the dictionnary who allow only to define basic numeric and alphanumeric data types.
Some CAPI software as limevurvey has greater diversity (http://manual.limesurvey.org/Question_types)
It will be very good to have greatest diversity in the next version of Cspro. It will also very interesting to have some technology as file/photo attachments, automatic sound recording, small handwriting recognition pad (similar to numeric pad)! I'm using digitizer pen with Samsung Note tablet. The experience is amazing because we can write directly on field , as on the paper, rather than using virtual keyboard who's screen space consuming.

I'll send more ideas by mail.
best Regards,

[josh]

Thanks for the ideas @htuser. We will include them in our discussions on this issue.

My personal opinion is that a lot of the need for making the form on Android match the paper form is because in many countries we are still in a transition period between paper and CAPI. The reason that CSPro on the PC allows you to make the form look like the paper form is that it was designed for key from paper surveys in which case it is important to be able to match the paper to the electronic. In a CAPI survey, you normally wouldn't have a paper questionnaire so there is no paper to match. Our review of the research is that for a purely CAPI questionnaire, showing one question at a time gives better quality data as the enumerator is forced to focus on the question at hand. However, currently in many surveys the enumerators were recently using paper and are now doing the same survey in CAPI or they were trained first on paper and then moved to CAPI so they are still used to having the paper version. I've seen surveys in which the paper version is developed first and then the CAPI version is developed. Eventually this will change and for new surveys we will not ever have a paper version and will go straight to CAPI. At that point, the need for the CAPI version to match the paper will go away.

[Merlino]

Hi! josh

I also think you're right when you say that "showing one question at a time gives better quality data as the enumerator is forced to focus on the question at hand"
because I also noticed this, especially when there's leaps and agents can wander no matter how risk disable certain protections.

[htuser]

Dear Josh,
" However, currently in many surveys the enumerators were recently using paper and are now doing the same survey in CAPI or they were trained first on paper and then moved to CAPI so they are still used to having the paper version. I've seen surveys in which the paper version is developed first and then the CAPI version is developed."
In developing country, we always give a hard copy of the questionnaire to the enumerators in the event of a hardware failure etc. First, all questionnaire are already developed, finalized in word format by thematic specialists. Its because training is already performed first using the word/pdf version of the questionnaire. The better is to have a word/pdf version like electronic questionnaire, as Csentry Windows.
Best regards,

[josh]

I understand. That is the exactly what I was saying. In many countries we are still in a half paper/half electronic place where there is a desire to have the two match.