Mobile Data Solutions Course

Posted by nwsoadmin on January 14th, 2015 Posted in: News From NNLM PNR

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• This is a guest post written by Nikki Dettmar, Evaluation Librarian, Outreach Evaluation Resource Center

Are you curious about the use of smart phones, tablets, or other mobile data resources to collect data for your assessment project, but are seeking more information on how to determine if this is the right approach for your project or program and how to process the data you collect using this method?

Check out http://techchange.org/media/mobile-data-solutions/, which was created as part of the Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project, with expertise provided by U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Digital Development Lab and designed by TechChange.

The primary goal of this freely available and accessible online course (free registration is required to access it) is to learn more about mobile tools, processes, and strategies for data collection in order to use mobile devices (referred to as mobile data solutions) to their full potential in doing so. The course will take about 2 hours to complete and can be done at your own pace over time. Your progress in the course is saved so you’ll be taken to the point where you stopped to continue learning the next time you access it.

The learning objectives of the course are

• Describe examples of mobile data solutions from collection through visualization
• Articulate the benefit of using these solutions
• Analyze the challenges and limitations associated with mobile data solutions
• Assess whether or not particular mobile data solutions are appropriate for a project, program or problem
• Outline how to design a project or activity to include mobile data solutions
• Explain the steps involved in implementing mobile data solutions
• Summarize how to analyze, visualize, and share mobile data