4.

2 Using ODK Collect

This guide provides surveyors, mappers and field supervisors with the skills to:
• Complete the initial setup for ODK Collect
• Use ODK Collect for data collection surveys

Overview
Open Data Kit Collect (ODK Collect) is a data collection application on Android. ODK Collect can re-
place form survey from paper to digital. Therefore, this application will help the mapping and data collec-
tion activities in the field which also allow to save the location and photo information at once.

Resources and Training Materials

This section features a selection of resources targeted at project managers, trainers, or even self-learners
on the topic(s) outlined above.
The following section is designed to serve as a self-paced guides for project managers, supervisors, or
others in setting up the application.

Initial Setup for ODK Collect

1. Set the URL Server If you are not using a server, skip to step 2. Set the Image Size
To take the form survey from the server for the first time, the user needs to set the URL server. There are
the steps:
• Open ODK Collect and press the three point button in the upper right corner, select General Set-
tings → Server
Option to fill the URL address menu in ODK Collect
Option to fill the URL address menu in ODK Collect
• Type the URL address server in URL → OK
Step to fill the URL address in ODK Collect
Step to fill the URL address in ODK Collect
2. Set the Image Size
In addition to the location point, you can also take a picture as additional information. If you will be collect-
ing images as part of your data collection surveys, you can set the picture resolution as desired. But, the
picture resolution will also affect the amount of your phone memory or file which will be uploaded to the
server later. It is recommended that you choose the smallest resolution of the image during initial setup.
You can follow this step:
• Open ODK Collect and press the three point button in the upper right corner, select General Set-
tings → Form Management.
Option menu to set image resolution
Option menu to set image resolution
• Select Image Size then select the Very Small (640px) option.
Image Size menu to set the image resolution
Image Size menu to set the image resolution

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ODK Collect basic operations
1. How To Get a Blank Form Survey From Server If you are not using a server and surveys were man-
ually uploaded to the device, skip to step 2. Fill the Survey Form
Before you fill-out the form survey that you made before, you need to download the blank survey form
from specified server. You can follow this step to take a blank survey from the server:
• Press Get Blank Form and wait for the form to download from the server and make sure your inter-
net is active.
Get blank form options to take form on a server
Get blank form options to take form on a server
• Select the available form, tick the check box or if you want to select all the form, you can Select All.
If your form does not appear, can press Refresh to reload the page.
Page display on Get Blank Form menu
Page display on Get Blank Form menu
• After select the form, you can press Get Selected to download the selected form.
Page display on the Get Blank Form to get the survey form
Page display on the Get Blank Form to get the survey form
2. Fill the Survey Form * To fill the form, back to the start page and select Fill Blank Form menu. And
then select one form blank that you want to fill in the survey form list.
Fill Blank Form options for filling out the survey form and blank survey form list
Fill Blank Form options for filling out the survey form and blank survey form list
• Swipe to right or left on the screen to move the next/previous page. Questions that have a red star
in the top left are required and you can not go to next question if the answer is empty.
Examples of mandatory question (red star)
Examples of mandatory question (red star)
• You can take photos directly by choose Take Picture option or select a photo from your photo gallery
by select Choose Image.
Take photo display in ODK Form
Take photo display in ODK Form
• To add object location points include OSM object tag, you can use additional application, that is
OpenMapKit (OMK). You can immediately switch to OMK application by press Launch OpenMap-
Kit on the form. You can learn about using OMK application in section 4.3 Using the OpenMapKit.
Launch OpenMapKit button on the survey form
Launch OpenMapKit button on the survey form
• At the end, you can name the form, tick check Mark form as finalized and at the end choose Save
Form and Exit to finalize the final form survey.
Finalization of page views on the survey form
Finalization of page views on the survey form
3. Edit the Completed Survey Form The saved form automatically save in ODK Collect. (Note: we do
not recommend editing forms collected via OpenMapKit due to potential data error.) If you want to edit
the completed form, you can follow this step:
• You can back to start page and choose Edit Saved Form.
Edit Saved Form for edit the saved form
Edit Saved Form for edit the saved form

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 • Select the form that you want to edit by press the form and you can edit the form.
Edit save form page to select the form that you want to edit
Edit save form page to select the form that you want to edit
• Then, press floppy disk icon
Edit save form page to select the form that you want to edit
Edit save form page to select the form that you want to edit

Transferring Completed Forms

After completing data collection, all forms will need to be transferred from the data collection device to a
central storage location for data cleaning and processing.
1. Manual Download
If you do not have access to a server, forms can be manually downloaded from devices. To do so, plug
the device into a computer.
• Go File Manager or File Explorer on your smartphone and open your internal storage. Then open
ODK folder. This folder contains all the survey result file which stored on ODK Collect application.
Then select the ‘instances’ folder which contains the files from the survey results.
Instances folder in ODK folder and the survey result in instances folder
Instances folder in ODK folder and the survey result in instances folder
• Copy the ‘instances’ folder to your computer. Rename the folder by date and surveyor.
2. Upload Survey Forms to Server
After you fill and save the form, the next step is upload form survey to server. You can follow this step to
upload form to server:
• To upload the form return to the server, you can choose Send Finalized Form.
Send Finalized Form to upload a survey form to the server
Send Finalized Form to upload a survey form to the server
• Form survey is saved on that page and ready to send. You can choose Select All to select all forms
first.
• Make sure you are connected on the internet. Then press Send Selected and wait until the process_
upload_ the form is complete.
Survey forms that are ready to send in the Send Finalized Form
Survey forms that are ready to send in the Send Finalized Form
• All forms that have been successfully uploaded will be stored in View Sent Form menu and the icon
turn into green.
View Sent Form and survey form that have been successfully uploaded to the server
View Sent Form and survey form that have been successfully uploaded to the server
• After upload the form, you can delete the form in Delete Saved Form menu.
Delete Saved Form menu for delete the form
Delete Saved Form menu for delete the form
• You can delete the the filled form in Saved Forms option and delete the blank form in Blank Forms
option. You should choose the form that you want to delete or Select All for delete all form.
Delete Saved Form option
Delete Saved Form option

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 • You need to confirm to delete the survey form by choose Delete Forms
Delete confirmation dialog box
Delete confirmation dialog box
3. Upload Survey Form to Google Drive
After you upload all the survey form to server, you may want to save and upload the survey result file in
.zip format in Google Drive folder that was created by your mapping supervisor. This is the step:
• Go File Manager or File Explorer on your smartphone and open your internal storage. Then open
ODK folder. This folder contains all the survey result file which stored on ODK Collect application.
Then select the ‘instances’ folder which contains the files from the survey results.
Instances folder in ODK folder and the survey result in instances folder
Instances folder in ODK folder and the survey result in instances folder
• Before you move instances folder to your computer, you need to convert the folder to .zip format
by pressing the instances folder and select Compress. You can change the .zip file name.
The step for convert to .zip format
The step for convert to .zip format
• After you move .zip file to your computer, you can upload the file to Google Drive that already set by
your mapping supervisor.
The .zip file that ready to move to computer
The .zip file that ready to move to computer
• You can upload the file to Survey Result folder (or another name that your mapping supervisor
made) by click right on your mouse then choose Upload Files and choose the file that you want
to upload.
The folder on Google Drive for upload .zip file
The folder on Google Drive for upload .zip file