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Data monitoring

Introduction to tracking change over time

With Akvo Flow, we are committed to accelerating the progress of sustainable development goals by supporting you in making the best use of data. To achieve this, we believe that working with data does not have to only be a one-time event, but that you should be able to go back at a later date and follow up.

In Akvo Flow we call this monitoring: observing facts about something over time. With monitoring, you can go back and check: is the water pump still working? Has the quality of the water at this household improved? Has the farmer changed how she uses fertilisers? How much has the tree grown since the last visit?

tracking change over time

Monitoring

Akvo Flow's monitoring consists of two main components:

  • What you are monitoring, the subject of your data collection. We call this a data point.
  • Time.

The core idea of the monitoring feature in Akvo Flow is to create ‘data points’ to which information can be added over time through one or more monitoring forms. You can create multiple forms in a survey on the online space. These forms then together capture different aspects of a data point. One form is used to create the data point with attributes that are unique to the point and which will not change over time. The other forms are used to add additional information to an existing data point that may change over time. Every time you return to the data point you can submit more data with the monitoring forms.

Flow's monitoring supports collaboration. Often the initial monitoring round in done by a group of enumerators, who might not be available for the following rounds. In Flow's app, you can simply download existing data points for your monitoring (even if created by another enumerator), and add additional information to the points by filling out the monitoring forms. To make it easy to work with many data points on the app, you can search for a specific point by ID, or data point name, or sort the list by distance seeing the closest points to you first.

All data submitted to a data point is connected with the data point ID. When analysing the data you can visualise the latest status of your points, or show change over time for all your points or a for a specific one of your interest.

How to use monitoring with Akvo Flow and Akvo Lumen

Akvo's data platform guides you through all steps of your data journey, also when it comes to using the monitoring feature. You can find on Akvo Flow's support page articles focused on the Design and Capture stages. Akvo Lumen's support page guides you on how to Understand the data.

Below are all the articles and links to those that you cannot find here:

Design

  • Design your monitoring survey

Capture

  • Capture data for monitoring surveys with Akvo Flow app
  • Capture data for the right data point

Understand

  • View your monitoring survey data
  • Export your monitoring survey data
  • Lumen: Merging registration and monitoring form data
  • Lumen: Handling time in the dataset
  • Lumen: Visualise change over time

Are you interested in using our monitoring feature? Contact us for more details and support.

Design your monitoring survey

Akvo Flow's monitoring consists of two main components:

  • What you are monitoring, the subject of your data collection, a data point.
  • Time.

The core idea of the monitoring feature in Akvo Flow is to create ‘data points’ to which information can be added over time through one or more monitoring forms. In this article, we explain how to design a monitoring survey to make the most out of the feature. We will use the example below.

Example: Let's take the case of collecting data to track the functionality and water quality of your well. The 1st time you visit the well you register it and create the data point. At this point in time, you also submit the monitoring form asking about its functionality. You also measure the water quality parameters you are interested in with the 2nd monitoring form. Every time you visit the well in the future, you will be tracking is functionality and water quality status.

Monitoring survey forms

You can create multiple forms in a survey on the online space. These forms then together capture different aspects of a data point. One form is used to create the data point with attributes that are unique to the point and which will not change over time. We call this form the registration form. The other forms are used to add additional information to an existing data point that may change over time. These are the monitoring forms. Every time you return to the data point you can submit more data with the monitoring forms.

Set up a monitoring survey

  1. Create a new survey, give it a name. Add a form to your survey.
  2. In the survey settings, tick the checkbox 'Enable monitoring features'. Now you can create multiple forms in the survey.
  3. Start with setting up the registration form. Make sure the registration form is also selected in the dropdown menu under the 'Enable monitoring features' checkbox.
  4. Now set up the monitoring forms.
  5. Publish the forms by clicking the ‘publish’ button located on top of the forms.

Set up a monitoring survey

Registration form

A monitoring survey can have only one registration form. The registration form captures the basic information about the subject of your data collection. In this form, you ask questions about the data point that define your point and do not change over time. When capturing data this is the first form you submit. Once submitted it creates the data point.

In the registration there are two checkboxes which are important:

  • Use as data point name
  • Use as data point location

Use as a data point name is shown under the question type drop-down menu. When this is checked, the answer to this question will become part of the ‘name’ of the data point. This will be shown in lists on the device, on the map, and can be used to search data points. By default, this is off. This should only be enabled for one or two questions which will help to identify the data point, such as an ID, or a name. If you check this box for multiple questions the answer to the questions selected will appear separated by a dash ‘-‘ as the name of the data point.

Use as data point location is shown for geolocation questions. When this is checked, the location captured by this question will be used as the main location of the data point. By default, this is turned off.

Looking at our example, the registration form will capture data that will help us identify the well we are looking for when we come back another time to monitor it again. We will use the GPS question as 'data point location' and the question asking for the well's ID as 'data point name'. We will also use the cascade question that asks about the location of the well as 'data point name'. Here are some questions are registration form will hold:

  • Location of the water well, GPS and in a text (region, district, village, etc.)
  • ID of the well (if defined)
  • When the well was built
  • Who built the well
  • Photo of the well

Monitoring forms

A monitoring survey can have one or more monitoring forms. Monitoring forms are used to collect data about the data point that change over time. Each monitoring form can focus on a different subject. You can always add another monitoring form to your survey later in your data journey. These can be filled in only to an existing data point, thus they are submitted after the registration form.

Looking at our example, we will create two monitoring forms. One form will hold questions about the functionality and the other about water quality:

  • Functionality form:
    • Is the well functioning
    • After how many stores does water start to flow?
    • How many people are at the well at the time of the visit?
  • Water quality form
    • Measure the level of fluoride in the water?
    • Is there any damage to the well?

Furthermore, monitoring forms do not have to be submitted at the same time. Some information you want to monitor more regularly, like every week, where other you might be interested in reviewing only once a year. This is possible with Flow's monitoring feature.

In our case, the functionality form will be submitted on a weekly basis and the water quality one on a monthly. The enumerator will see in the app when the last submission was made to each form making it easier for her to know which form she needs to fill in.

Capture data for monitoring surveys with Akvo Flow app

Akvo Flow app is the tool you capture your data with. Once your monitoring survey is ready for data collection and published you can assign it to the devices that will capture the data.

In the app you first need to select your monitored survey from the side menu. Monitoring surveys in Flow consist of one and more forms. Each monitoring survey has a registration form, where you capture the basic information about the subject of your data collection, and monitoring forms, that you can fill in multiple times over and again. Thus you can either create a new data point or add information to an existing data point.

Capture data for monitoring surveys with Akvo Flow app

Create new data points

Creating a new data point means submitting the registration form.

To create a new data point click on the '+' (plus) icon. Because you are working with a monitoring survey, you will see all the forms in the survey assigned to your device. If you are creating a new data point, then only the registration form will be the one you can select. With submitting the registration form a new data point is created. Only after submitting the registration form, you can collect data using the monitoring forms.

Capture monitoring data

Once you have created a new data point, you can start submitting the monitoring forms to it. After submitting the registration form you can immediately select the monitoring form and submit the data. In case you need to submit data to the monitoring form to an existing data point you first need to select the data point. Here are some tips to ensure you have selected the right data point. Now you will see the list of forms, but the registration form is disabled and the monitoring forms are selectable. Select your monitoring form and fill in the data.

When capturing data for monitoring forms you sometimes answer the same question in the same way every time you fill in the monitoring form for your selected data point. To make your data collection work more efficient, you can make use of the Pre-fill responses functionality available in the Flow app for monitoring forms. Read more here on how it works.

Download data points

Monitored data points can be downloaded to your device as long as datapoint downloading has been enabled in the online workspace. You can download data points submitted from other devices, and add new responses to them. This means that one device can create a new data point, add responses, and once the data is sent to the server, a different device can download the data point and keep adding data to it as long as the assignment specifies that the second device is allowed to download the datapoint.

To download data points captured to a monitored survey, click on the overflow icon in the upper right corner of your screen and select Download. To download data points, first make sure that you have a good wifi or 3G connectivity. Downloading a large number of data points can involve quite some data, which is why it is important to have a good connection. If no datapoints are downloaded, it is possible that the assignment has been setup to define the datapoints that can be downloaded to a particular device. Cross check in the online workspace or contact the organisation administrator to ensure that the device has datapoints assigned to it.

Downloading data points also updates their data point name, if you have changed which question build the name. To understand more on how updating data point names works, check this article.

Capture data for monitoring surveys with Akvo Flow app

Capture data for the right data point

As mentioned earlier, in order to submit monitoring data to an existing data point you need to be able to easily select it first. Many surveys have a vast number of data points registered, so it may be hard to find a specific data point in the list just by looking at the data point name. To minimize this problem, you can limit the number of datapoints which will be downloaded to a device. If, however, a device downloads a lot of datapoints, here is a list of ways to easily identify the data point you want to monitor:

  1. Sort your list of data points by distance
  2. Search by data point name or data point ID
  3. Use the map
  4. Check the data submitted in the registration form

It is very important that you make sure that you have selected the correct data point before you start monitoring it. We advise using a combination of the above mentioned ways.

Sort your list of data points by distance

By default, the list of data points is sorted by date. This means that the data point that was either updated the last or created as last is on the top of your list. You can also sort the list of data points by distance, with the nearest data point shown first. For this to work, the GPS of the device needs to be active. To sort the data points by distance click on the ‘more’ icon (three vertical dots) and select ‘Sort’. You can order the data points by date, distance, status (by the status of the form submission) and name (alphabetically).

Sort your list of data points by distance

Search by data point name or data point ID

If you know the data point name, or ID you can directly search for it in your list. If you click the ‘search’ icon and start typing, a list of filtered data points will be shown. The text you type is compared to both the data point name and the identifier.

Search by data point name or data point ID

Use the map

By clicking the ‘map’ tab, a map is shown with all the data points, centred on your present location. If you click a data point marker it will show the data point name and the identifier. If you click that text, the data point will be selected.

Use the map

Check the data submitted in the registration form

The data submitted in the registration form holds all the basic information about the data point that does not change over time. This information can give you more specific details which you can use to verify whether you have selected the proper data point or not before you start collecting data agains a monitoring form.

Select the data point from your list. Now you see the forms available for data collection under the 'Forms' tab and the 'History' tab is located next to it. The 'History' tab holds all the submitted forms for this data point. Click on the 'History' tab. The fist form in this list is always the registration form. Open the registration form and browse through the submitted answers. If you have internet connection available and there was a photo submitted in this form you can open it as well.

Check the data submitted in the registration form

View your monitoring survey data

Once data is submitted with the Akvo Flow app, you can view it in the online workspace. In the Data tab you can either view the data under the Inspect data tab or under the Monitoring tab. You can also check your submissions on the Map.

Monitoring tab

Monitoring tab shows you submissions grouped around data points. Where in the Inspect data tab you see all the submissions for a particular form, in the Monitoring tab you see the data points and then all the submissions made to each data point (similar to how you see the data points in the app).

Select your monitoring survey. In this tab you do not need to select the form, as data is shown grouped by data points. Once you hit Find a list of data points will show. You can see that each data point (one row = one data point) shows:

  • Data point name - based on answers to questions set to be used as data point name
  • Identifier - unique ID generated by Flow for each new data point
  • Last update - date when the last submission was made to the data point

When you click ‘view details’ on any one of the data points in the table, you will see the submissions that are part of a single data point. For each submission, the survey, submitter, device, and collection data are displayed. When you click ‘view details’ on a survey response, you will see the individual answers given to the questions in that response.

Monitoring tab

Inspect data tab

You can also view the data submitted to your monitoring survey using Flow's Inspect data tab. Here you see all the submissions made to one particular form. Once you select your monitoring survey you need to select if you want to see the submissions for your registration from or for one of the monitoring forms.

Map tab

When viewing the submissions on the map you need to select if you want to see submissions to the registration form or to the monitoring forms. When viewing the data for a data point the most recent submission to the monitoring form will show in the side panel. If this data point does not have a submission for the selected monitoring form, Flow informs you in the side bar.

Map tab

Exporting your monitoring survey data

To export data, go to the ‘Reports’ tab and under Export reports you can choose which export option will suit your needs the best. Here you can read more on the different export options in Flow.

Select your survey and then the form for which you want to export your data. Currently it is not possible to export a combination of registration data and monitoring form data. You can export the data from one form and then from the other one and use one of the options shared here to merge the two data sets.

Exporting your monitoring survey data

Working with monitoring survey data

Akvo's data platform guides you through all steps of your data journey, also when it comes to using the monitoring feature. You can find on Akvo Flow's support page articles focused on the Design and Capture stages. Akvo Lumen's support page guides you on how to Understand the data.

Connecting registration and monitoring data

To work with monitoring survey data you often need to connect the details about your data point to the monitoring data, or vice versa to see the latest status of each data point by brining in the latest monitored values to the basic data on your data points. You can best do this with Lumen's merging feature.

Connecting registration and monitoring data

Handling time

When monitoring, you want to see how a value changes over time. With Flow data, time is represented by the submission date of each submission made to your data point. In Lumen the submission date is shown in the column 'Submitted at'. Depending on how often you monitor you may need to adjust the submission dates to show only months or years or days. In this article we explain how to best handle time to easily analyse and visualise your monitoring data.

 Handling time

Visualising change over time

Monitoring form datasets hold all the data submitted over time for all your data points. You can visualise how a certain value changes over time for the entire dataset (see this article) or you can only look at a specific data point. Lumen provides multiple visualisation options that are easy to set up, interactive and sharable either in your reports or online on your website or other channels. Are you not sure which visualisation type to select or how to set up the best visualisation to show change over time? Get inspired by a few examples and read more on how to set them up with Akvo Lumen.

Visualising change over time