TITLE: Pros and cons of conducting ecological fieldwork with ODK
DATE: 2021-12-30
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
====================================================================


I constantly flip back and forth on using mobile data collection 
methods for ecological fieldwork. I put a decent amount of effort 
into making ODK forms for the SEOSAW project, and when they were 
rolled out to remote project partners they worked pretty well. 
However, I've yet to drag myself away from using conventional pen 
and paper for my own fieldwork.

  [ODK forms for the SEOSAW project]: 
https://seosaw.github.io/manuals.html

  ![Example of an ODK form used to collect vegetation plot 
metadata.](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/odk_pro_con/odk_example.p
ng)

Here, I'm going to briefly lay out some pros and cons of using 
mobile data collection methods for ecological fieldwork. There are 
many different mobile data collection software, but I'll use ODK as 
an example here, because it's one of the most ubiquitous and it's 
the one I've used most in the past.

Pros

Using ODK forms eliminates errors introduced during data 
transcription from paper to computer. Data collection on paper can 
get quite messy, especially if it's raining or you're in a rush. On 
the other hand, the data transcription phase can help to identify 
potential data recording errors, which can be fixed the next day if 
transcription is done each evening after work.

I've read a few articles which suggest that the speed of data 
recording is improved when using ODK. I actually think that's 
debatable. It depends on how well trained the data recorder is and 
how well the ODK form is designed. It's easy to design an 
unintuitive ODK form. Data entry by paper can be very quick, 
especially if you make use of shorthand, symbols and diagrams.

Our work involves rolling out the same data collection protocol to 
many different project partners, so they can collect data at their 
field sites and send it back to us for analysis. With a pen and 
paper, there's no consistency among data collectors in how they 
record their data, which can lead to data being collected in the 
wrong way, and can make it difficult to figure out the formatting 
of the original paper tables. It's easy to cut corners during data 
recording with paper forms, telling yourself that you will remember 
what various squiggles and poorly written notes mean, but this can 
backfire.

ODK forms can be programmed to check data entry in real time. For 
example, when recording tree stem diameters, there are some logical 
checks, like if a stem is lt5 cm diameter it should not be 
recorded, and if a stem is gt100 cm diameter it is likely to be a 
mistake and should be double checked. Similarly, when a plot is 
being recensused, it is possible to check newly recorded data 
against data recorded in previous years. So if a stem suddenly 
grows by an unrealistic amount, the data recorder can be notified. 
Data checking can also be done on paper forms, but with ODK forms 
it can be enforced with warnings and error messages.

Cons

Although ODK helps to enforce some structure in data collection, it 
necessarily reduces the flexibility of data entry. It's often 
useful to annotate data points on a paper form, e.g. "this diameter 
measurement was taken in two parts with a long piece of string 
because the tree was very big". If an ODK form is poorly designed, 
it might not have anywhere to record this extra information, and so 
it will be lost. Even with a "notes" question in the ODK form, I 
still get the feeling that the data recorder is less likely to 
record these annotations on an ODK form than on a more flexible 
paper form.

Waterproof paper is more robust in the field than a mobile phone or 
a tablet. With waterproof paper you don't have to worry about sun 
glaring off the screen making it impossible to read, you don't have 
to worry about it getting wet and damaging the electronics or 
making the screen difficult to use, and you don't have to worry 
about it running out of battery in the middle of the day. 
Ultimately, electronics are much more likely to break than paper.

Although most people around the world now have access to an Android 
smartphone, it's still a consideration that there is some extra 
cost in rolling out mobile data collection among project partners.

There will be extra training involved in teaching data collectors 
how to set up ODKCollect or KoboCollect on their Android device, 
and this can be hard to do properly if there is a language barrier 
and the training is being done remotely. Although ODK promises a 
simple interface to record data, getting the blank forms downloaded 
to your device and uploading the collected data to a remote server 
cab be a hassle, requiring detailed step by step instructions. 
Often our fieldsites don't have a reliable mobile data connection, 
so form data can't be uploaded to the remote server immediately. 
This means that the data needs to be manually sent from the Android 
device to a laptop every few days as a backup, using software like 
ODK Briefcase, just in case the phone is damaged or lost, and this 
requires more training. I get the sense that people place undue 
trust in digital data storage as compared to paper, or rather the 
digital data is out of sight and so out of mind, and this might 
lead to data not getting backed up as often as it should in the 
field.

  [step by step instructions]: 
https://bitbucket.org/miombo/seosaw/raw/master/doc/forms/odk/filling
_forms.txt
  [ODK Briefcase]: https://docs.getodk.org/briefcase-intro/