Monitoring and evaluating a knowledge management initiative: using the EthnoCorder mobile application to collect and use field data

Abstract

EthnoCorder is a mobile application that records and organizes videos, photos, and audio files and can be used as part of a survey. EthnoCorder was first used to support a food security project in Burundi in 2010 and is currently being considered as a tool to enhance results monitoring by UNICEF in Nepal. After a brief description of EthnoCorder, this article presents how the usefulness and impact of EthnoCorder has been continuously monitored and evaluated. Approaches have included regular piloting and user testing, survey questions, and listening to informal feedback from beneficiaries, donors and partner organizations. The article also argues that the impact of EthnoCorder speaks through its effect on the design of the development programs it supports and by clearly improving the capacity of organizations to collect and analyse field data that can be used for monitoring and evaluation. In the evaluation of the software, along with user and partner feedback, a focus on the fit between individual user, task, and technology has been useful; this process also focuses on how the tool contributes to truly enhanced flows of information among stakeholders in a program.

Notes

1. iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Computers. The iPhone is Apple's first Internet-enabled smartphone.

2. See http://ethnocorder.com.

3. ‘iTouch is a patented technology that adds Internet functionality to some Logitech brands of mice and keyboards through the use of software and iTouch Web site. The iTouch (a registered trademark) allows users with already established Internet service providers to access and navigate the Internet with the press of a single button. The iTouch, when used with features accessed via the iTouch Web site, lets you open e-mail, search, organize personal information sources and shop online. The iTouch software can also be used to directly launch applications’ (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/iTouch.html).

4. For more about Most Significant Change, see also http://mande.co.uk/special-issues/most-significant-change-msc/.

5. For more information, visit Health Channel Burundi at http://helpchannelburundi.org.

6. For more information, see also a recent article in the IIED Participatory Learning and Action, issue 63, page 83. http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/14606IIED.pdf.

7. Clips used for reporting purposes were carefully selected and went through a thorough consent process before they were made public. An example of a clip showing a survey respondent responding to a video of a focus group discussion participant is posted here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzp_lXuW780&context=C3c036c9ADOEgsToPDskLo_hWn7j-1rP3mEf2PUWvY The clip was used in the reporting on the project to emphasize to the donor the importance of re-capitalization of small farms in Burundi.

8. The EthnoCorder User Manual documents EthnoCorder's features, which are a product of the formative evaluation process. See http://ethnocorder.com/docs.