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KoBoToolbox

KoBotoolbox provides an integrated suite of applications for handheld digital data collection. Digital Data collection is superior to paper-based methods in terms of speed, data quality, and security, and is a cost-effective alternative to manual data entry. However, those who attempt to move toward digital data collection are often faced with technical challenges requiring special programming skills, special equipment, or gaps in the process. Having faced these same issues, The team behind KoBoToolbox created this suite of applications; the same toolbox that we use to conduct large scale population studies in places like the Central African Republic, Northern Uganda, or Liberia.

Whether you are conducting academic research of a large or small sample, or performing monitoring and evaluation of an aid program, or even collecting a simple opinion poll, these flexible tools will get you results faster, cheaper, and more accurately than ever before. You can find more examples of real research questions in our user Showcases. A detailed flowchart of how a researcher proceeds from a basic research question, through the process of collecting data, and up to reporting findings is available here: System Diagram

KoBoForm: Designing the Questionnaire

The KoBoForm application will help you create a survey instrument that will work with KoBoCollect, a handheld data collection application. KoBoForm is a browser based application, and it works online, though it can also be downloaded and installed offline. 

KoBoForm will help you build a survey that can contain many kinds of questions, including text or numerical input, multi-select, single-select, as well as special data types like bar-codes, images, audio, or pictures. Add time-stamps and geo-location with GPS so that you know exactly when and where your data was collected. Optional Data constraints and skip logic ensure data accuracy.

KoBoCollect: Mobile data collection

KoBoCollect is a mobile application that runs on Android smartphones. It is based on the Open Data Kit project's ODK Collect, we've added support for Cascading Selections, to make your data collection easier. Survey questionnaires built in KoBoForm can be loaded onto any number of phones for use in the field. For a large scale population survey we can field as many as 50 phones, so that enumerators can collect large numbers of surveys quickly. 

The nature of the application greatly improves data quality over traditional methods. The user is presented one question at a time, questions can be required, data contraints can be applied so that results fall within a given range, and skip logic can control the order of questions based on given answers. 

 KoBoSync: Data Aggregation

Once data has been collected, use KoBoSync, a simple java application, to move completed surveys from your Android phones onto your computer. KoBoSync then combines all the data into a database containing all records. The CSV database file can be imported into all kinds of analysis software. KoBoSync operates offline as a standalone application, but most users will probably use the KoBoSync that is built into KoBoForm. 

KoBoMap: Geospatial data display

If you collect data that can be aggregated for specific geographic strata (e.g. adminsitrative level or user defined regions), KoBoMap lets you easily display those results and create an interractive map with selectable indicators and color-based infographics, as well as pop-up charts. KoBoMap is optimized for low bandwith connections and provides a user-friendly interface to update and add new indicators.