The Importance of Multiple Modes During Remote Data Collection

COVID-19 presents a range of challenges to traditional face-to-face data collection. Having enumerators travel around communities to conduct interviews in-person poses difficulties for ethical researchers.

The Role of Mobile Phones in Data Collection in the COVID Era

Mobile phones, and, in particular, smartphones, have revolutionized the way people connect and communicate. While smart and non-smart mobile phone penetration and network infrastructure in developing countries still lag that in the developed world, the gap is closing fast. This presents new opportunities for researchers seeking to gather data without face-to-face contact.

There are a number of research challenges posed by remote data collection. Questionnaires should typically be shorter, as respondents tend to fatigue easier in remote interview settings. Question formats also need to be adjusted for best responses, with a focus on quantitative data being key.

Incentives can become an important part of remote data collection. A motivated panel of respondents is likely to respond more favorably to surveys in any delivery mode. Of course, delivering these incentives electronically means the use of cash transfers or mobile phone top-ups are ideal methods of incentivizing participation.

Multiple Modes Important For Improving Representativeness

Internet-based data collection may skew urban, young, and educated, representing the higher levels of smartphone penetration in those groups.

Using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) will help alleviate those representation problems, but is more expensive and time-consuming.

SMS-based surveys can also help alleviate issues of access to smart vs. non-smartphones, hence rebalancing data to include more rural and older respondents. Designing surveys for SMS-based delivery needs to consider the technical capabilities of the format, requiring shorter and simpler surveys. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) surveys have also proven successful for remote data collection.

Havuta’s all-in-one data analytics and beneficiary management platform means these, and other, modes of survey delivery can be deployed from a single dashboard. Results can then be processed for analysis, reweighting, and cleaning without having to use multiple services to collect and merge data.

Havuta’s open API means interoperability with other data analytics platforms for organizations with legacy software preferences for research analysis.

Data collection in a post-COVID world will create the need for remote data collection at a larger scale than before. Remote data collection offers enormous efficiency gains but does pose challenges for researchers. Those challenges, if recognized, can easily be overcome to maximize data quality.

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