What is the best approach for structuring KoboToolbox forms for nutrition surveys?

User Support Form Building
1

I am currently working on an initiative where we are adopting KoboToolbox for coordinating our Post-Distribution Monitoring efforts.

I would like to hear from you how you approach form structuring and data management specifically for these kinds of projects

2

I have worked with Kobo but on different projects but in general; however its very crucial to have a proper flow which will make things easily. This starts from form design, data workflow, and management best practices

Form Design: Make sure you fully undestand the questionaire before creating a form for data collection. Understands the objective of what you are going to do ; also put you forms into section and each section should have its numbering style to ensure you can isolate the variable with easy. Eg. Questions in section A ; should be like q1_0 q1_2 etc, Section B ; q2_0, q2_1 etc.
Eg.

  1. Intro & Consent
  2. Household Identification
  • GPS location
  • Region/District/Village
  • Household ID (pre-filled if follow-up)
  1. Respondent Details
  • Name, age, gender, relationship to HH head
  1. Household Roster
  • Repeating group: members’ names, age, sex, net usage
  1. Intervention Recall
  • “Did your household receive X?”
  • “How many items did you receive?”
  1. Usage & Condition Check
  • “Are the items still available?”
  • “Are they in good condition?”
  • Image capture of condition (optional)
  1. Satisfaction / Feedback
  2. Enumerator metadata
  • Interview end time, notes, device ID

Make sure you design your form usin XLSX not online builder

  • Variable naming: Use short, meaningful variable names (net_used, hh_id)
  • Skip logic using relevant fields to reduce error
  • Constraints to enforce valid entries (e.g., age between 0 and 120)
  • Calculate fields for deriving indicators (e.g., usage rate)
  • Repeat groups for rosters (people, items)
  • Image questions to capture condition, issues, etc.*
    Unique IDs to avoid duplicates across enumerators**

As for Data Managemet;
Start Pre-Deployment; do some pilot interviews ; take few days to full understand the data
During data collection; amake sure there is ongoing data management during collection phase
Post-Collection; THis is where you will clean all trash out of your data

Note; Make sure you have that one person that will be dedicated to all sort of above things all the time.