iPad Application Required for Data Collection in the UK

[Hartshon]

Hi,
I am a PhD research student within the UK and am looking for someone who can advice/develop a small application that can be used to collect data. I am running as study for 6 months were I recruit a small group of students and track their experiences over time. I would like to develop an iPad application that would pop up every week and be a short questionnaire that participants would complete. The data would be entered into the form and then automatically emailed to me. The idea is that the form/questionnaire would be very short and easy to complete, with minimum effort.
Can anyone advice me how I could develop such an application? I have only a few weeks to develop this and have a small research budget so could contract this out to a developer. However, I do not have any contacts.
I appreciate any advice or recommendations.
Thanks,
Jenny

 

[hpulmer]

Hi,
I am a PhD research student within the UK and am looking for someone who can advice/develop a small application that can be used to collect data. I am running as study for 6 months were I recruit a small group of students and track their experiences over time. I would like to develop an iPad application that would pop up every week and be a short questionnaire that participants would complete. The data would be entered into the form and then automatically emailed to me. The idea is that the form/questionnaire would be very short and easy to complete, with minimum effort.
Can anyone advice me how I could develop such an application? I have only a few weeks to develop this and have a small research budget so could contract this out to a developer. However, I do not have any contacts.
I appreciate any advice or recommendations.
Thanks,
Jenny

Is it necessary that the questionaire pops up weekly?
Wouldn't it be enough to have the questionaire available on their iPads and tell/instruct them to fill it up weekly?

Is it every week the same questionaire or changing weekly?

I think you could manage it using existing Apps/webapps...

☠ stay safe ☠ stay legal ☠

 

[Hartshon]

The questionnaire needs to act as a prompt to the user. The main challenge is to get all the users to report their experiences every week. Often just telling the users to complete a questionnaire every week is not enough. The participants of this study are medical students and they will be very busy, so a reminder or prompt needs to be sent to them on a weekly basis and their experiences will be captured over the 6 month time frame. In addition, I need to make sure everyone has completed the questionnaire every week, so I need to have the data captured and sent to me - also on a weekly basis. The questionnaire will be very short - maybe one page, as it has to take the user only a few minutes to complete.
Yes, the questions will remain the same every week.
I am looking at the use of users recording audio notes and emailing them to me on a weekly basis - by using Evernote. This would support the short weekly questionnaire prompt.
If you have any ideas please let me know?
Thanks,

 

[thewitt]

There are dozens of form builder apps in the store. I use FormEntry all the time.

As for getting your users to fill out the survey, send them an email reminder and incentivize them with weekly drawings for coffee and donuts at the Student Union or something...

 

[twerppoet]

Hmmm, donuts. . . I like that even better than my suggestion, in the other thread. A little unintentional overlap happening.

http://www.ipadforums.net/new-membe...sistance/85686-new-member-phd-researcher.html

 

[hpulmer]

How about using Google Documents, creating a form which you can then email to the participants?
They would be able to reply with their entries to the email you send on a weekly basis...

☠ stay safe ☠ stay legal ☠

 

[Hartshon]

Hi all... thanks for your suggestions. I think you are right - I do not really need to expense of creating a new app as I can achieve the same thing using an online survey. I did check out FormEntry - but as some students may not be using their iPads all the time decided to go for an online survey so am using Qualtrix to send an email reminder.
As the study is 6 months one of the plans it to keep the student participants motivated - which will be quite a challenge. I am considering offering incentives in terms of free applications and subscriptions. Some offered to begin with and some offered at the end (as a prize draw). Obviously cash incentives work the best!
If you have any other suggestions let me know.
Thanks for your help.