Importing Questions

When to Import Questions

If your data is in the “Common Data Format” (i.e. collected with Kobo or SurveyCTO) it is helpful to import the questions for the Data Collection Tool before importing the data. Because the data has been collected outside of Kinaki, instead of creating the questions for the Data Collection Tool one-by-one as we have reviewed for other data collection methods, we import them to Kinaki.

If you are using an Excel file in the “Kinaki Data Format” importing questions is not necessary. Because of how this file is formatted, the questions can be easily identified by Kinaki and the questions will be imported during the data import process.

Note: Questions only need to be imported to Kinaki once – before you import your data – but do not need to be imported for subsequent data collection cycles because they will already be recorded in Kinaki.

Let’s review how to prepare the file with Questions to import to Kinaki

Note: If you are using the Kinaki Data Format, you can skip the rest of this article and skip to Importing Data.

Importing Questions: Preparing the File

If you used Kobo, or another software that uses XLS form format, to collect your data you will want to export the XLS form with questions to import to Kinaki.

In Kobo, this is done on the “Project Summary” page under “Forms”. Follow the detailed instructions on the Knowledge Hub page or watch video number one on the Kobo Tutorial page in the Knowledge Hub.

Importing questions is an important step if you’re using Kobo because you will upload the full question statements to Kinaki so it will be clearer what questions you’re using in this Data Collection Tool. If you skip this step and just import the data, Kinaki may only upload the Question and Answer IDs (what is in your data file headings) which makes it more difficult to understand in your Data Collection Tool and can lead to difficulties when you want to analyze the data.

If you are using SurveyCTO, follow the Knowledge Hub tutorial on Importing Questions from SurveyCTO.

Note: If you are using another software that uses XLS form format, you can use the same approach for uploading the questions as you would for Kobo. For any other data where you do not have the XLS form, start my importing the data.

Importing Questions: Step-by-Step import process

Below are the general steps for importing questions to Kinaki once the files with your questions are ready:

Selecting the type of file to be imported:

  • On the “Collect Data” page, select the appropriate Data Collection Tool from the selector. This should be a new Data Collection Tool that does not yet have questions added to it.
  • You will likely be uploading questions from KoBo/ODK/SurveyCTO (XLS Form Format), click the box labelled “KoBo Toolbox / ODK” and then “Select”.

Importing the Questions:

  • Now you’ll be taken to the “Questions” page.
  • To import your questions, ensure you have the correct Data Collection Tool selected from the selector on the top menu
  • Select “Import Questions from Excel” (1)
  • A drop down menu will appear where you can select again whether you will be using the “KoBo/ODK Fomat” or the “Kinaki Format” – select the appropriate option (2).
  • Next, you can choose the file with the questions that you want to import (3)
  • Then match the languages (or their codes) (4) from the form to your project languages and select “Ok” and “Save Questions” (5)
  • Kinaki will show you how many questions are being imported and their names, if something doesn’t look right, make sure you are importing the correct file. If the number of questions looks as you expect, select “Save Qs” (6)
  • Kinaki will confirm that you want to continue with the upload (this is a safeguard to make sure you are uploading the questions to the correct Data Collection Tool).(7)

Depending on how many questions you are importing, it may take some time for them to appear in Kinaki.

Now your questions have been added to the Data Collection Tool! Review the questions that have been added on the “Questions” page.

Next, we will import the data into Kinaki!

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