My Communities

Understanding participants would be very important. This is because these are people who provide the information we want. If they are misunderstood the likelihood of getting inaccurate data would be very high.

after thorough observing my target group, i will choose the best method that suit thier status at the same anabling me obating enough needed iformation.

Understanding your users is a very vital thing to consider before implementing and research work in order to effectively obtain good result from organization study on a certain project.

It is essential to understand our users, as we need to specify our data collection tools, methods accordingly. If we are trying to bring a group of 8 to 12 people for a "Focus Group Discussion" and if the donor stated that we need to involve community members from religious leaders, female leaders, transgender community leaders in a tribal area, this can not be done in one group, as we have done our research and found out that female members of community can not be in the same room with male members, than we can have seperate focus group discussions for religious male leaders, female community members and transgender community members as an example.

I have learned many data collecting methos,survey collects both the qualitative and quantitative data,foused group disccusion collects qualitative data,interview collect qualitative data,observation collects both qualitative and quantitave,document review among others.they are two types of data qualitative and quantitative.
qualitative data collects data that can be expressed in wordsfor example indinidual feeling,attitudes and behaviours and quantitative data is expredded in numbers e.g 40 students failed exams.

It's very important to understanding your users or sometimes we called them target audience.
Because language usage is very important in collecting data from your target audience, also their level of education, also the technology they are used to. Although nowadays with the phones are very familiar no matter their level of education.
The most important thing is the language usage in collecting the data.

That is very important in data collection.

Absolutely true

Very correct

In summary, to ensure that your data collection tools work well for the group of people you are collecting data from, it is important to understand the group of participants before designing the data, by finding out about them (language spoken, literacy rate, method of communication, etc.), and then monitor the data collection to correct any failures in the process that have not been anticipated.

This topic made me understand the usefulness of understanding what your donors, executives, program managers, partners and governmental agencies need. It explained the ways one can choose the best method of data collection and based on which data they are collecting. This module gives a guide on survey questions formulation. It states what should or should not be included , depending on who are are going to be collecting the data from. This module also gives a guide and understanding on participants cultural orientation, languages they are familiar with, most effective ways of communication, level of literacy and technical literacy.

Understanding your users is very important and how will you address issues with users who have to be asked personal questions with someone else present?

It is important to understand users language, culture and religious norms for a smooth data collection process.

To ensure that your data collection tools work well for the group of people you are collecting the data from, it is important that you understand the group of people you will be working with before designing the tool. and monitor the data collection to see if whether unexpected issues arises. to avoid many problems, you can learn about the group of people you are gathering data from

Understanding users will really help on how the data collecting tool can be designed and how the items to be on the tool must be to suit the level of the people you will work with during data collection.

Understanding your target population is very important. Helps in deciding the tools to deploy in collecting relevant data for the project.

VERY HAPPY

The issues raised in the discussion are of great concern when conducting research. It is important to always study the research participants. The issues of educational level and cultural believes of participates generally will hinder the type of data collection tool. Therefore, it is equally important to consider the issue of educational level and cultural believes of participants in order to design data collection tools that will not be affected by the issues raised. Data collection tools may be changed by studying and observing participants and see to it what may affect the data collection process.

Understanding your participation which we have understanding and observing under M and E

It is paramount to understand the users because in the case of diverse group within the same target populace.

It is key to understand the cultures/beliefs/affiliations of a group from whom data is collected in order to align the research with conscious data collection to avoid any problems.

Yes is very important to understand what kind of the users will going to use the data and what kind of the method required during the data collection

It is very critical to understand on whom the data collections tools are going to be used to ensure that they are tailor made to avoid any lapses during the process.

The survey data collection method has been widely used because it encourages privacy. Respondents tends not to talk about some sensitive things or answer some sensitive questions especially when data collection methods like Focus group, Interview or community workshop is used. Qualitative data might not be ensured. Therefore, if other data collection methods is a necessity, respondents should be ensured of privacy and to also avoid asking of sensitive information that might hurt their feelings

To understand what users you have during the M&E process is very vital for the organization

Undisputed matter to look after the nation of your country and serve them in many aspects

Understanding the uniqueness of our users will help us decide and design a data collection tool that will fetch accurate data for our program.

Surveys are most efficient mode of data collection in high literate areas.

Interviews are better where people prefer verbal communication

Observation is a better mode where the target respondents have visual impairment and hearing abnormalities.

To choose right data collect method is essential to determine accurate information

Understanding the study group is important in order to carry out data collection,the language the speak,cultural beliefs and literacy levels affect the tools used in the data collection.

During the Anza Mapema Project dealing with sexual transmission matters and of such related areas had difficulties for many residents in Kisumu.One of the reasons was due to their fear within the testing times and thinking of shame whenever the test results might be out.The Anza Mapema Project had tough and tiresome moments to bring the infected ones near them for the goals planned might be partially or fully fulfilled.

Understanding your participants or users is very important. I remember when we were gathering information for a particular purpose we realize that if your participants or users don't understand you likewise yourself, you end up collecting inaccurate data.

It is important to understand the group of people you will be working with before designing data tools.
Such as
What languages do these people speak.
Which languages can these people read or write
What is the average level of language proficiency.
What is the literacy rate for these target population.

What are the proportion of these population have access to technologies such as computers, smartphone, email or sms

Hie team.
There are other participants that behave in a strange way every time you approach them just because they feel you are msking money on them. How do you help yourself in such cases?

Of course, many factors must be taken into account when filling out data or a questionnaire

Including the language factor, the ability to read, and even culture

As for the tools, the researcher must design a suitable data tool for the target group

Understanding your population as well as the sample is one of significant aspects of data quality and what makes sense in the context of a given project.

Understanding your participants is very important in data collection process because not all participants are the same.

The beneficiaries in my location do not speak English so I will need to translate whatever tool I use to the local language of Marathi. I will also have to build rapport through project staff and stakeholders to be able to do the interviews. Some of this is already in place.
Social change is the focus, female education attainment is what I aim to change and for that to happen I will need to build a good rapport with the decision makers in the family and also the adolescent girls who will be direct beneficiaries.

I will have to translate my questionnaire/ interview guide to suit the needs of my primary beneficiaries. My data collectors will have access to smartphones and are tech savvy.

To ensure that your data collection tools work well for the group of people you are collecting data from, it is important to both:

Understand the group of people you will be working with before designing the tools.
Monitor data collection to see whether unexpected issues arise.

As data gatherers, we should have a grasp about the minimum literacy level of the prospected participants. Questions to ponder include-- What is the literacy level of this community when I asked this "TOPIC"?; Could they do it through online mode?; Do I have enough resources?; Have I coordinated this with the leaders of the community to avoid ethical issues?

Does this come before designing a particular project? What if we are assigned to conduct M & E on a pre-existing project we have no prior knowledge about?

How do one collect data in a community that are hostile to strangers?

how do you get such address if the target population are nomadic? How do government keep track of their birth date if they give birth to children in their transitions

supposing that you are a stranger and do not understand the local language, how would you have communicated with them?

i tink its very good subjects

There have been a few places where the course mentions 'accuracy of data'. I am a bit confused on what this means and how to to go about making sure data in such tools like surveys, observation, etc... are accurate. I am hoping this will be taught later in the course.

To ensure that your data collection tools work well for the group of people you are collecting data from, it is important to both:

Understand the group of people you will be working with before designing the tools.
Monitor data collection to see whether unexpected issues arise.

Learning about the group of people from whom you will be gathering data is very critical to the data collection process.

I admire the way understanding was separated from observation. You'd think only understanding can help solve every question that the environment posits but observation is a ground breaker.

I admire the way understanding was separated from observation. You'd think only understanding can help solve every question that the environment posits but observation is a ground breaker.

Understanding your stakeholders (both participants in data collection and users of such data) is essential to seamless collection of data that will ensure realibility, acceptance and usability by all.

Module 2:Data collection choices
Data collection methods
These include ;survey,forcus group, interview,observation, laboratory measurements and community workshop
There two types of data that is;
Qualitative data,these are informationas that can only be expressed in words and cannot be reduced into numbers
Quantitative data,it involves information that can be expressed in numbers and percentage
To ensure that the data collection tools work well for the people you are collecting data from it's important to understand and monitor the population.

Data collection choices
Data collection involves tools and processes for collecting information about a project
Data collection tools;
Survey, interview, observation, forcus group, laboratory measurements, community workshop
Types of data;
Qualitative data which are only expressed in words and quantitative data which can be expressed in numbers and percentage.
Understanding your participants;
To avoid many problems during data collection,you need to learn about the group that you are collecting data from i.e,know the language they speak, literacy level,level of language proficiency and the language they can read.

Identifying , knowing and understanding your stakeholders (both participants in data collection and users of your data) is essential for the seamless and successful collection of data ensuring data reliability, acceptability and usability by all relevant stakeholders.

So therefore stakeholders mapping and aligning your M&E approaches, methodologies and strategies to suit their needs is the first step towards an impactful M&E outcome.

However, challenges could arise that will have significant impact on your data collection, storage and management such as insecurity and political restiveness. How best can these unforeseen risks mitigated in ensuring a hitch free data collection exercise? Does any member of the community have experience in this regard? Please share your experience and/or provide a case study

Identifying , knowing and understanding your stakeholders (both participants in data collection and users of your data) is essential for the seamless and successful collection of data ensuring data reliability, acceptability and usability by all relevant stakeholders.

So therefore stakeholders mapping and aligning your M&E approaches, methodologies and strategies to suit their needs is the first step towards an impactful M&E outcome.

However, challenges could arise that will have significant impact on your data collection, storage and management such as insecurity and political restiveness. How best can these unforeseen risks mitigated in ensuring a hitch free data collection exercise? Does any member of the community have experience in this regard? Please share your experience and/or provide a case study

Im planning to evaluate a set of my organization's rules for donations. We donate only to productive projects or to provide equipment and furniture for local community societies. but do not donate to cover operating expenses for these societies.
So I'm planning to use (Interviews) with these society's presidents to ask ask about the effect of our assistance to them- especially in the case of equipment and furniture donations.
After considering the Observation note, I think that politeness can lead the presidents of the societies to give incorrect data to common questions , especially since that im from the (donors) part from their point of view.
So I will ask (documents review) to check for their answers.

Data collection methods discussed in this module include; interview,forcus groups, survey, observation, laboratory measurements and community workshop.
There are two types of data
Qualitative data: data expressed in words and cannot be easily reduced to numbers.
Quantitative data: these are informations that can be summerized in numbers
It is very important to understand the people you will be working with inorder for your data collection tools to work well.
Before you collect data, you must understand the group of people you will be gathering information from i.e the language they speak, literacy level.
You should also observe and verify the accuracy of your data collection process

It's important to understand the target audience before collecting data.

This is very amazing techniques to know about the persons or individual to collect data from differant people, to know about their perception, knowldge and education, their cultural context and their attitude towards a specific problem they think about it. Moreover if the topic is more sensitive in the culteral context the direct observation is very important to consider but that would also need a high analytic thinking how to give consideration about a specific concern for a specific community group.

To be able to make any headway with an individual we need to understand them. This is no different with participants. They happen to be even more in number and may call for varied means of communication to reach to them. The better we appreciate the particpants populace the better for us all.

It is through understanding them that we are better positioned to work with the and make a difference that benefits all parties involved. It is paramount to understand our users to better serve them.

Data tools do come in "one size fits all" making for the fact that we have to adapt the tools to fit the various participants. In some cases we may need to either revise or adapt other tools to obtain the same info.

Nomads get their tag from their nature of life/living. They do not have a fixed abode so the point here is data collectors need to be versatile. Figure out ways of identifying nomads that faclitates data collection. This applies across the board. It is not cast in stone so we have to adopt to our circumsnatces.

The two go hand in hand. If we do not observe, we limit our capacity to understand phenomena. Observation is the window that lets us appreciate deeper issues making sense of why they are what they are. It is hard to achieve understanding without being oberservant. Though observation does not automatically lead to understanding. Both require deliberate effort.

Language too, matters. We many times communicate what makes sense to us and forget it may not appeal to the users the same way or even mean something entirely different. Better understanding of users helps us mold messaging that fits their psyche and not ours.

The same thing can even happen where people speak the same language. They use language differently and it can easily be misleading. Understanding users can help avoid or at worst mitigate such occurances.

It is interesting topic and helping

It is interesting topic and helping

The presentation and explanation of concepts is very clear and easy to comprehend. Well done!

Data collection is one of the building blocks for M$E. It is from here that you will know exactly if your data can answer the questions you're collecting data for.
Data collections involves understanding of the needs of your beneficiaries, knowing what they need to be done and how they wish the data has to be used.

The choice of data collection ranges from cost, availability, technical difficulties. It's important to understand this.
After which we can choose the methods for data collection from, surveys, focus groups, laboratory measurements and so on depending on the type of data you wanna collect, is it about feelings? Does it need real numbers and proportions?

You're right! Wrong interpretation of common languages in the localities cause the same issues.
You may find the group of people of different ages understand words differently.

The presentation and explanation of concepts is very clear and easy to comprehend. Well done!

Multiple approaches will provide better M&E information although some may be costly to use

By understanding the group of people you will be working with before designing the data collection tools. This will ensure that unexpected issues wouldn't arise during the data collection process.

The question here is that, you shouldn't have used questionaires...but instead use interview and recordings which will help you to record all data that are accurately...thats how i think.

here we see that you need to understand your users such that they are not disappointed at the end.
you should know their needs.

Understanding your audience or participants is very important e.g
Understand the group of people you will be working with before designing the tools.
Monitor data collection to see whether unexpected issues arise.
What language(s) do these people speak?
What is the average level of language proficiency?
What is the literacy rate for this population?
Which languages can people read? Write?
What is the culturally preferred method of communication? For example, would people from this group generally be comfortable talking to a stranger in public, or would a private phone conversation be preferred? Would it be appropriate for a person of one gender to interview a person of another gender?
What proportion of people from this population have access to technologies such as…
Basic mobile phones?
Feature phones? Smartphones?
Computers?
Email?
SMS?
How skilled are people in this population using these technologies?
Some of this information—such as languages spoken and literacy level—can be found in public data sets, such as census records. For other information, consider spending some time speaking with members of the target population, local experts, and program staff.

What you learn about this group will inform your data collection tool choice and design. For example, if you are working with individuals with low levels of literacy, distributing written surveys will not be a good option. If you are working with a group of people who generally are not comfortable speaking with strangers alone in public, you may need to arrange for chaperones, parents, or other people to be present.

If Stakehokders or your funder expectations are unrealistic it is better to raise the issue before the project starts than to disappoint them later. Research must be conducted before collecting data, this will help in making sure that you understand the social and cultural dynamics of your participants.

Before making a choice in data collection it is important to ask yourself about the user of the data and what information they will answer. Without a clear understanding of your projects stakeholders, one is unlikely to satisfy their needs. These stakeholders include donors, partners, beneficiaries etc.
It is also important to manage stakeholder expectations to avoid disappointing them later in the project. Understanding participants cultural, education, educational and demographic characteristics is also very important in data collection.

Understand the group of people you will be working with before designing the tools.
Monitor data collection to see whether unexpected issues arise.

First of all,for a given study
the responsible team has to find out the type of stakeholders who is asking for that process.
once the team is aware of the level of expectations , or in other words , what the stakeholder is attempting to reach through this study ?
by highlighting frankly the competence of the team and understanding the purpose that the stakeholders are implementing through this project .
in consequences, the team is clarifying his potential in a honest way, and that will prevent any arising issues in terms of expected results.

Secondly, the target population could be in the eye's of the team as an independent study ,before applying any of the methods for collecting data, the team has also to be aware of the type of the target population. by following this pattern, the process will go smoothly by choosing the right method which will lead to match the expectations of the stakeholders and delivering the accurate information in order to make the right decision.

i have learnt that in data collection we need to understand the environment of our respondents and our respondents themselves before we come up with a data collection tool

What are the uses of each tool

First method introduce your self and the nature of your works and reason behind collecting the data and how much its important the data to be valid
So when they know why you are there this will give them more confidence to help you in collecting valid data
Second method ask from one of the community leaders to joined you during the first 2 or 3 interviews because the presense of the CL will encourage the participate to cooperate with you.

In this section of module 2 I have learned that before commencement of the data collection, understanding the your participants is of much importance.

Participants may come from any type of social standard with differences in the level of literacy. Therefore you should study well these people because they may affect the outcome of the data collection outcomes.

Also, it has been discussed that even after understanding them you may still consider a progressive observation such that the information learned from the observations may improve the quality of the data collected.

This is a very nice topic (understanding participants) to consider in M&E exercises. I did not take it seriously but now through this, I see how important it is.

Without understand your your stakeholders and also your participatan model of Data collection will be poor

There may be some occasions that women are not interested to talk with a stranger man in this case we should deploy a woman to talk with her.
In some places, people do not like to talk with someone who handling smartphone or it may cause danger to data collector.

Understanding the user is an essential part of user-centered design.
Determining what the user said and did is fairly easy.

However, determining what users think and feel is more subtle.

It must be based on careful observations and analysis of how they behave and react to certain tasks, suggestions, or conversations.

I have learned that the data collection process in different countries and times can't be similar due to external factor differences. This means we need to understand the area we are surveying and collecting data from, and observe the data collection process to retaliate to any challenges that might come due to our faults. There are also digital data collection tools that are proliferating due to the ease of data collection, however, there are various conflicts of interest that influences teh data collection decision.

Data collection requires minimal errors as possible for better decision. Therefore, it's important that literacy level Is first established to info the kind of data collection method to be used. Issues to do with culture are very critical. Some adults won't take it lightly if you were just to interview their children without consent.

Therefore, it's prudent that before data is collected, some of these factors be looked at first.

If any issues arise, I can change the data collection tools by observing and verifying data collection processes. I will cross-check data with the existing information and will use dfferent M&E tools to cross-check for data accuracy. Also, will discuss the issues with the team to find alternatives for changing the data collection processes and it is questions, indicators and type of information and facts we need to collect and report to donors and stakeholders as they are requied.

I would like to change my tool to prevent these issues, To collect the data with mobile tool for survey.

observing needs too much expertise and there will always be unavoidable errors.
more so observation only can not get you all the information for example you cannot know a person's name or age by observation but you can know their gender

if a large proportion of the population have access to smartphones and computers then use the digital method of collecting data

then you violate the ethical principle of being competent

If stakeholders (donors, etc) require quantitative data, and the M&E team are to work in a culture of low literacy that also forbids individual meeting with strangers, how possible will survey method work? (Survey is best used to obtain quantitative data).

A need to understand the user's familiar language for accurate data collected.
Are the users literate to be able to use different gadgets in the field provided for colleting data for example; .computers, EMAILS among others.
Making sure that beliefs and individual's feelings are respected by the people collecting data from strangers.
Finally as M&E is to continually making sure that data brought from users contains quality through analyzing it and making sure it meets the donors need.