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Standardising Data Entry Forms

10 bytes removed, 19:20, 31 January 2014
Version 6.0
{{note| To add, change, deactivate, or publish a Data Entry Form template, you must have access to the Form Template Design permission.}}
Data Entry Form templates are the data entry forms that are available from the Data Entry Form Template Selection window and are what you use to add a Data Entry Form to IMSMA. IMSMA includes default form templates for accident and victim, land, activity, assistance, location, education, and QM. If the default form templates do not include the information you need on the Data Entry Form or are in a format that is different from what you need, you can create and publish a new Data Entry Form template.
There are several steps to creating a Data Entry Form template:
1. <ol><li>Determine the layout of the Data Entry Form template. This includes the Data Entry Form template’s paper size, paper orientation, and margin sizes. </li>2. <li>Add report data fields to the Data Entry Form template. Report data fields include Date of Report, Report ID, and Reported By. </li> 3. <li>Add item attributes for which you would like to capture data to the Data Entry Form template. You can also add images, lines, text areas, and scribe panels to the Data Entry Form template.</li>4. <li>Arrange the elements on the Data Entry Form template. You can change the data element labels, move the data elements, and align the elements. </li>5. <li>Save the Data Entry Form template so that you can access it later to make additional changes. </li>6. <li>Publish the Data Entry Form template so that users can access the template. </li> </ol>
You can repeat these steps as necessary if you find that the Data Entry Form template needs to be updated.
As discussed above, each template should be reserved for one purpose to reduce the complexity and length of the template. In addition to using data elements for one item per template, information mangers should create one template for each item subcategory in a workflow. For example, an activity workflow could include separate templates for the different items, including a CHA and minefield, and activities such as a technical survey, clearance, progress report and completion survey.
While several of the templates may share similarities (for example, CHA and minefieldSHA), a separate template for each workflow step allows information managers to customise the templates to include only the information necessary for that step in the workflow. For example, all of the Land Classification values except for “Suspected Hazardous Area” “SHA” could be removed from the CHA SHA template, whereas all of the values except “Minefield” “CHA” could be removed from the minefield CHA template. This example is shown in the figure below.
[[Image:AdminGuide_IncludeRelevantInfoOnly.png|center|500px|''Example of How to Limit Templates to Include Relevant nformation Only'']]
| width="200pt" | '''Data Element'''
|-
| align="left" | Land || align="left" | Name,Land Classification,Status,Area Size,
Priority
| align="left" | Victim || align="left" | First Name,Last Name,Gender,Age,Date of Birth,Killed/Injured,
Victim Type
|-
| align="left" | Activity || align="left" | Name,Start Date,End Date,Type of Activity,Organisation,Status,Ordnance Found,Hours Spent,
Size of Area
| align="left" | Education|| align="left" | Start Date,End Date,Organisation,Education Detail ID,Education Type,% Male,% Female,Audience Number,
Audience Age Info
|-
| align="left" | Accident || align="left" | Date of Accident,
Accident Type
| align="left" | QM || align="left" | Start Date,End Date,Organisation,
Results
|}
Like the Data Inventory Manager, the Data Entry Form Template Designer provides the capability to modify the text of existing data elements. This includes creating and editing labels, changing fonts and sizes and editing pick list values. This functionality can be used to ensure templates are laid out correctly and represent a programme’s data needs. Using this functionality in the Data Entry Form Template Designer, however, should be limited to performing cosmetic changes only, and should not be used to change the meaning or substance of a text element. Cosmetic changes include:
Cosmetic change Example
* Abbreviating text “Number” to “No.”
* Adding instructions “Pick one of the following:”
Using the text changing functionality in the Data Entry Form Template Designer to change the substance or meaning of a text label or value can cause serious confusion and data quality problems. Examples of problematic or dangerous substantive changes to text during template design include changing:
Existing text Substantive change
* “Number of Mines” “Number of Clearance Teams Recommended”
* “% Female” “Number of Females”
By removing unnecessary or invalid choices from forms, information managers can improve the quality of data collected and entered into {{IMSMANG}}. For example, if a form is designed to be a Minefield form, then there is no need to keep other possible values for the “Land Classification ” that are not “Minefield.” In this case, values such as “SHA” and “Other” can be removed from the form, leaving “Minefield” as the only possible choice. This helps improve data quality while reducing the size and complexity of data entry forms.
===Use the Text Tool for Instructions and VersionningVersioning===__NOEDITSECTION__
Using the Text Tool in the Data Entry Form Template Designer, information managers can add text to data entry forms independently of other data elements. This allows information managers to add additional instructions to Data Entry Form templates to help improve the quality of data entry. These instructions can include simple statements such as “Choose only one” or longer sentences such as “If the reported date occurs before January 2010, enter the following...” The Data Entry Form Template Designer even supports paragraphs or lists of instructions as needed.
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