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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.

The part of understanding user is the best since most of data collection always have issue during implementation, doing prior research will prevent such short coming.

Base on understanding i lead that we that are going to do the work we need to be nice and soft talking to people to make sure we get the right information we need.
2 is a good thing as well to asked the kids what is ur mother or father's name because some parents did not go to school and also can't spell their name the same way all the time but with the help of questions like that u can do correction to somethings.
3 we need to know our tagged people and their levels of education to help us carry out our work.
so that at the end of the day we get a quantitative and a quality data to present to our stakeholders

In most of the M&E assessments we do in our project lack of senior individual assign to conduct the task, always use survey method to which our participants or stakeholders fail to understand because it is in English. Beside that, the language use is too difficulty for the level of ground staffs to reason with.

This modules is really help and hope to put this to practice in near future.

Thanks,
Simon Sebit

it is very important to understand those using the data collection tool you are creating. understanding this is a fundamental conner stone in building a solid data collecting tool. it is always very important to keep it simple and straight to the point while taking into consideration the aspects of anonymoucity and confidentiality.
Some users will also feel shy and unfordable giving out information about themselves. I have had the opportunity to working tow crisis regions. one had a political crisis the latter has a socio-economic crisis. in the first region because of the of the crisis colling information from beneficiaries was a great issue as they will aways not want to be identified. in this project there are many services offered and the beneficiary had to use the same code each time they get a service however that was not the case because they did not want to be identified. small coupons had to be created to give them to use each time they came for a service to avoid double counting

that's very correct. i have the opportunity to work with key and Vulnerable populations. there is no way around it. it became extremely difficult to collect data from them if you do not have someone working with you that belongs to that group.

understanding your participants will help you to anticipate some of the errors you can meet during data collection. you got to understand their such as the language most people speak as well as most people write. in addition to that, understanding their literacy levels will do you good.

Understanding the target population is relevant in designing the tools.

Understanding the target population is relevant in designing the tools.

Technology makes work easier but it definitely can not replace humans.

Understanding your users or participants before data collection is very important as this would help to design data tools that would help to collect accurate data

Inconsistent in capturing age; this can be addressed by target the date of birth written in full.

Everything is fine! The course is positive

I think understanding the participant is one of the most important thing to collect our data, because we must know well the experience of our participants, so we can get the accurate data one. We must know the detail of their culture, education, language, or other demographic characteristics, in order to inform us for collection tool choice and design.

Understanding users is a very important aspect of data collection. This should be done for better adherance to ethical principles by M&E officers.

This will involve knowing their limitations, language, literacy level, adaptability and exposure to technology or other survey materials and equipments.

To know if they have access to technologies, language people speak, the literacy level and culturally preferred method of communication

understanding your users has to do with understanding their language the food the eat places they go to the kind of cloth they wear

Understanding user behavior is key to finding out how users interact with your product. Specifically, how much time do they spend using it? What do they click on the most? At what point in the user journey do they decide to bounce? Analyzing your users’ behavior will answer such questions and help you continuously refine your product.

It is of great importance to understand and monitor your participant in data collection

Observation we will say is a term that shows a method of data collection that covers covers a large group of people within a cluster.The information are gotten with the knowledge of the key factors.

Understanding your terget audience is key in the process of data collection. This is because if the data must be accurate and truly represent the population, then their must exist a communication between those collecting the data and those from which the data is being collected from.
The educational background and level of exposure of the population are to be considered in a great deal.
Also a close observation needs to be put into consideration because of social and societal influence on the population. Some individuals have different social media accounts with each with different names. Some have more than one cell phone numbers and registered with different names.

You have to understand your participant's position, identity and social status and so on , otherwise misunderstanding will arise. As for example, if you ask your question to a nomadic participant about his address, he or she will feel embarrassed as nomadic people have no fixed or permanent address.

Methods of data collection entirely depends on the intend purpose of the data being collected. Understanding of the target audience is very essential hence it is something to be handle before indulging into data collection processes

Understanding stakeholders is very vital as it guides in achieving their expectations and goals of the objectives.

It is always vital to analysis the methods used to collect data and design them based on the target participants

This topic has made me to understand why it is essential to continually observe and verify the accuracy of data collection process when engaging in M&E. And also to put in perspective issues which may arising, without forgetting to monitor if there are missing data or discouraging patterns. And last but not list, to ensure to change my M&E tool to prevent the mentioned issues.

in order to deliver a high quality data it is essential to understand your user's needs.

Understanding and observations are key in data collection processes, having an accurate data requires a lot of time input. As you need to first understand the class of population you are working with and the languages they understand, cuturally, educationally, speaking and written languages.

If you observe the level of literacy of the population very well, it will help a great deal, as this will help to develop or design tools that will fit into the targeted population. Also enabling you to get people of same language, beliefs etc to work with you in the data collection processes will be of great advantage, as that will be the first step to getting accurate data.

To avoid or prevent Incorrect report data Interviewer needs to be smart and experience moderator wth a wits of identifying and sensing incorrect data reported.

If data is not collected properly then it will affect the end result of the project.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR USERS
When collecting data it is very important that you know the users of your data and the participants-respondents.
What do they want to use the information for? The level of education, culture, knowledge and level of education should be looked into so that biasness in collecting data would be minimal.

need to know the type of data collection tool and its time flame

It is very important for the project to be able to understand their participants in order to make informed decisions on how the program will be implemented and how it may eventually affect those it is intended to assist.

there will data are lost because the its lack of language and the can't write
to avoid these lost of data there should be M&E understanding user who will coduct interview to understand language of beneficiary

Data validation tools help in observation an ensure accurate data.
Validation formulars in reporting tools.

Technology has made data Collection, analysis and presentation easier

Before you embark on collecting data electrically, find out if your participants have access to Basic mobile phones?
Feature phones? Smartphones Computers? Email? SMS?

Your stakeholders are the people and groups who are affected by or who have the power to affect your project.

i understand that understanding your users is also very important in selecting your data selection tool.

First of all, make the collection questionnaire as simple as possible to understand, capture information on name, year of birth following a methodology adaptable to the situation and the context

First of all, make the collection questionnaire as simple as possible to understand, capture information on name, year of birth following a methodology adaptable to the situation and the context

Understanding the participants eliminates the formulation unwanted questions in your data collection tools. it helps you develop relevant data collection tools which will be useful

very right. Different countries and even communities within a specific country may have varying demographic and other underlying factors therefore use of the same data collection design may not work

It will be great if we are able to identify the kind of data we are collecting ( qualitative or quantitative) having that in mind it will lead to a careful selection of the best method of data collection. despite our choices in selecting the method of data collection, it is of utmost importance to understand the cultural, educational and demographic characteristics of people we are collecting our data from which could be follow up with lots of observations.

UNDERSTANDIND THE PARTICIPANTS IS A GOOD PILLAR FOR M&E PROCESSES FOR DATA COLLECTION. Knowing the language used by participants_able of reading it or able of writting it, knowing the literacy level of the community or irreteracy rate in the community, recognizing whether people have high or low proficiency for the language intended to be used by researchers, knowing timely the culture of people which to collect data from, knowing if it is acceptable to people to speak with interviewer in public places,being aware of that participants are able of using thechnological materials to be used during data collection _being able of using basic phones mobile one, able of using smart phones, able to respond through e-mails or if able to respond through SMSs-all the above make pillar of perfect understanding of the users or participants for data collection-perfect.

the time we perform understanging of users or participants we become aware of what between qualitative and quantitative data to be collected easily or difficultily and this makes us to well chose which kind of data collection method to use during our data collection with the people.

Understanding your users will not only ensure you collect enough data, but additionally create a good relationship that contributes to the quality of your data. Users enables one to further understand the context and this ensures there is no biasness throughout the project lifecycle.

Understanding your audience is important for data collection functions. It can really be frustrating for data collectors once in the field before realizing that tools did not capture the local context or the literacy level of the target respondents. Even if you can understand the local language of the community, it can still be a challenge to gather useful data from respondents if the questions asked are beyond their level of comprehension.

IT IS BEST TO UNDERSTAND OUR PARTICIPANTS IN DATA COLLECTION, SO AS TO AVOID ISSUES OF MISUNDERSTANDINGS DUE TO LANGUAGE BARRIERS AS WELL AS TECHNOLOGY BARRIER.

Understanding the Users:

1. when you understand the users helps the M&E team to design the data collection tools in a way that it will be acceptable and easy to capture the required information

2. Also the cost of time used when developing the tools is maximized since the ones developing the tools will already have the ideas on how the tool can be developed to match their users

3. Also when the tools has been implemented the M&E finds it easy to strategize ways on how to analyze the collected data since they already understand the nature of thier users

Understandings of the respondents are the critical phase before preparation of design of instruments. It's critical to do both of the following to make sure your data collection techniques are effective for the population you are gathering data from: Before creating the tools, be aware of the team you'll be working with and Keep an eye on the data collecting process to spot any unforeseen problems.

Data is vital to successful participant management, and there are two types of data you need to have on your radar. Firstly, identifying your participant and their influence, secondly, understanding the data that will explain the progress of your project in a meaningful way. You can identify your participant by brainstorming, relying on your experience, conducting interviews, doing some research and so on.