Conducting Large-Scale Surveys: Insights from the Field

NIAS
Nature of the Event
NIAS Wednesday Discussion
Speaker
Anshuman Behera, Saransh Kumar and Jenish Trivedi
Venue
NIAS Lecture Hall
Event date
31 May 2023, 09:30 hrs
Other details

Abstract:    Conducting large-scale field surveys is a challenge considering limited resources and time availability. The conventional techniques used in collecting information from the field show hesitancy in adapting to technology for various factors ranging from availability and accessibility to data securing. However, following conventional techniques misses out on taking advantage of open-source mobile platforms to reduce logistic costs, save time, and enhance overall convenience. This talk introduces a novel approach to gathering socio-economic and geospatial data from the field using the ODK. This approach helps restore flexibility for the researchers in the field and is also valuable for the seamless integration of the data for analysis. Based on the experience of a three-month-long survey in rural Gujarat, we provide an account of the functioning of the application and its uses in the field, primarily in household sampling/census surveys. Moreover, our talk reflects on the qualitative methods we used along with the ODK during our field survey. Based on our experience, following this method helps overcome the myopic view, which limits the possibility of collecting diverse data in a single framework.