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Which tablet device to use for offline CAPI surveys?
Overview – To download this article in PDF, click here
Android tablets come in all sizes and features. From very cheap low end devices to full featured expensive high end devices. The following will detail some possible options for low, mid & high end devices. Tablets vary mainly in the following:
- Size (3.5″, 7″, 10″ and sizes in between)
- Screen quality
- GPS (yes/no)
- Cameras (No camera, forward facing or both forward and back facing)
- Battery power
- Storage
- CPU power
Tablet sizes
There is a big distinction between the smaller 3.5″ mini tablets and the other 7″+ tablets. The mini tablets while being less expensive usually come equipped with both GPS and 2 cameras almost as a standard. However, for the larger tablets the availability of GPS and cameras is very dependent on price. It’s therefore that if the project requirements can endure smaller 3.5″ tablets, it will provide for better cost/benefits. For obvious reasons, smaller tablets will have smaller screens.
Screen quality
When showing videos & photos, screen size and quality can make a big difference. 10″ high-end devices will obviously provide the best combination of screen sizes and quality. However, smaller 7″ devices are also adequate in size to display images and videos. As a rule of thumb, the lower end devices tend to have screens of less quality so if displaying media is a high priority screen quality should be given attention.
Cameras
There are 2 types of cameras. Forward facing and backward facing. The forward facing camera is used in video conferencing to shoot the face of the person using the tablet. The backward facing camera is the one you use to take pictures of places. Usually, on the lower end tablets, either no camera is present or a forward facing camera only is present. If you need to take pictures of places/people on a regular basis, it is advised to choose a device with a backward facing camera.
Battery power
Battery power in tablets is affected from 3 main components:
-
The battery size – the bigger the better
-
CPU strength – the slower the better
-
Screen size/usage – the smaller the better, the less time the screen is on, the better.
Battery power is as far as we know not directly related to the cost of the device. There are high end devices with small batteries and lower end ones with big batteries.
CPU & Storage
While CPU & storage plays a big role when choosing a tablet for consumer use, when choosing a tablet for tablet surveys this has almost no implications. Any CPU will run SurveyToGo surveys fine. As for storage, for surveys with no videos this has no implication at all and for surveys where you need to capture/display videos it might be a consideration but with careful planning most devices should suffice.
Semi Rugged device (3.7″)
| Device name | Price | Features | Comment |
| Motorola Defy Mini XT320 | ~$200 |
Possible low-end devices
| Device name | Price | Features | Comments |
| Archos 70 Internet Tablet 8 GB – Android 2.2 1 GHz | $170 | ||
| Lenovo Ideapad A1 22282MU 7-Inch Tablet | $199 | ||
| ViewSonic ViewPad 7e 4 GB | $170 | ||
| ViewSonic ViewPad 10s 16 GB |
Possible Mid-High range devices
| Device name | Price | Features | Comment |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus WiFi 16 GB | $350 | ||
| ViewSonic ViewPad 10s 16 GB | $250 | ||
| Motorola XOOM With Wi-Fi 32 GB | $350 | ||
| Acer ICONIA Tab A500-10S16u 16 GB | $300-$400 | ||
| ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 16 GB | $350 | ||
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi 16 GB | $350-$400 |
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How To: View Video Files Stored On You Android Device
Overview
Showing video files on your Android device is something that might come in hand.
In most cases, we would normally attach the video file to the questionnaire itself.
However, sometimes the video file is large, and we would like to prevent long downloading time for the questionnaire, therefore, we should store the video on the device itself.
This is possible by following the next steps:
- Step 1: Create an ‘Attachment Source’ through the survey’s root Advanced Tab.
- Step 2: Create an empty question, and configure it in its advanced tab.
Step 1: Create an ‘Attachment Source’ through the survey’s root Advanced Tab.
- Go to the ‘Advanced’ tab of the survey and click ‘Edit Attachments Sources’:
- Create an attachment source, adding the path’s of the video files into it:
- Please note that all letters within the path must be upper case.
- For example, this attachment source would display first eh file named: “CITYOFGOD1.AVI” in a folder called “VIDEO”, after it, it would display “CITYOFGOD2.AVI”.
- The second parameter is the order of the video (in case that you want to display several videos in the same question.)
Step 2: Create an empty question, and configure it in its advanced tab.
- Create an empty question.
- Go to its ‘Advanced’ tab, and configure it as the following:
- Now you would be able to view video files stored on your device.
If you wish to show attachments from an external SD Card, you should first find out it’s path on the device.
In order to find it’s path, you can add the following script, to any of the questions start scripts:
Prompt(SDCardDir);
This will prompt you with your SD Card directory, as each device and card has a different path.
After you achieve this path, you can repeat the process described above.
That’s it !
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How to: Synchronize a survey to the phone/tablet
Overview
After you create and save your survey, the next step is to see it working on the tablet or phone. This can be done very easily by following these steps:
-
Create a test survey – If you haven’t done this yet, you can view our online video to see how to do this.
- Target the survey to Android instead of windows. This is done from the Advanced tab of the survey:
- Put the survey in “Test” mode or “Production” mode:
- Next, you will need of course to install SurveyToGo on the Android tablet or phone – you can read a step by step instruction on how to do this here: https://manual.dooblo.net/2010/12/14/installing-surveytogo-for-android/
- Finally, simply login to SurveyToGo on the tablet or phone with your SurveyToGo credentials, make sure you are connected to the internet and wait a few seconds for the app to synchronize, that’s it! You should now be able to see your deployed surveys on your phone or tablet.
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How to: Installing and using SurveyToGo for Android
SurveyToGo for Android
We are very excited to release the version of SurveyToGo for Android.
We tried to make it as easy as possible to install the new SurveyToGo for Android and have managed to trim it down to these 2 steps:
- Step 1: Install SurveyToGo for Android on your mobile phone or tablet.
- Step 2: Get the latest SurveyToGo Studio and re-install it
After you do these 2 simple steps you will be able to target new and existing surveys to the Android platform.
Step 1: Install SurveyToGo for Android on your mobile phone or tablet
If you know how to use the barcode app on your phone, you can use the bar code below to install SurveyToGo on your Android phone:
Or simply open the Google Market:
Then, search for SurveyToGo:
And search for SurveyToGo. You should see it in the search results:
Tap on SurveyToGo and click the install button to install SurveyToGo for Android.
That’s it!
Step 2: Install SurveyToGo Studio
To install the SurveyToGo Studio version that supports creating surveys for Android, you will need to uninstall the current SurveyToGo Studio from your PC then use the following link to install the newest version of the SurveyToGo Studio.
- Uninstall SurveyToGo Studio by using the regular Windows Add/Remove Programs application.
- Click the following link to install the newest version of the SurveyToGo Studio:
http://stg.dooblo.net/ws/Android/surveytogo.msi - Follow the on-screen instructions to install the new version of the SurveyToGo Studio application.
Targeting a survey to the Android platform using the new SurveyToGo Studio
The new SurveyToGo Studio includes the ability to target new/existing surveys to the new Android platform. To target a new survey to the Android platform:
- Create a new survey
- On the survey name step of the wizard, select the “Target Android based devices” option:
To target an existing survey to the Android platform:
- Open the Survey
- Switch to the “Advanced” tab of the survey and select the “Target Android based devices”:
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SurveyToGo for Android version features
SurveyToGo for Android version features We are very excited to release the version of SurveyToGo for Android. As The android release has the following features:
| Topic | Feature |
Prior to December 2011 |
Release v1.0 (after December 2011) |
| SURVEY DESIGN | question types: | ||
| SURVEY DESIGN | Yes/No |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Multiple Choice |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Multiple Select |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Text |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Numeric |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Rating |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Scale |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Date/Time |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Stop Watch |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Multi Topics |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Empty |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Expression |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | MultiText |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | MultiNumeric |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Other specify support for answers |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Chapters for better question hierarchy management |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Full question text size & formatting options |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Answers text formatting options |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Answer Lists (Scales) for productivity |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Skip (entrance) rules, validation rules, jump rules |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Looping |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Question start & end scripts |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey initialization script |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Multiple questions per page |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Custom messages for certain survey events (end of survey etc.) |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey Scores |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey Attachments |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Question Attachments |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Randomization support for chapters, questions & answers |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Variable names & answer coding for later export |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Multi Language support |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Child Surveys |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey Custom Actions |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey Custom Logo |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey QA Score questions |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Printing of the survey |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Export of a survey |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | External list sources for long lists of answers |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | RTL (Right-To-Left) support |
No |
No |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Survey Modes: Draft, Test, Production and Closed. |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Auto-Preview of questions for the PDA & Laptop |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY DESIGN | Full emulator for PDA & Laptop surveys |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Portrait, landscape, square and VGA screen support |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Over-the-air installation |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Secure login |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Multiple surveys per surveyor |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Seamless Offline / Online support |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Backup option |
No |
No |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Auto-GPS Location Capture |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Capturing of Signatures, camera photos, videos & voice recordings |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Automatic interview duration capture |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Quota enforcement |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Attachment support |
No |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Serial Port interaction support |
No |
No |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Child Surveys |
No |
No |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Fast-Switch technology for quick switching between X simultaneous interviews |
No |
No |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | One-Tap question advancement |
Yes |
Yes |
| SURVEY MODULE FEATURES | Unbranding support |
No |
No |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Global and per surveyor quota management |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Live map: near-real-time on-map view of where all the surveyors are currently at (requires GPS) |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Live map: detailed on-map view of surveyor route, along with the places where interviews took place |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Operations Console enables you to view who did what where and when. Complete quality assurance control over each and every interview. Complete attachment management and history log of every stage in the interview life-cycle. |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Operations console supports printing an interview directly from the console |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Operations console supports internal discussion thread & interview statuses for workflow management |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Operations console supports “Responsibility lists” per user – a user can have one or more surveyors added to his responsibility list and then sees only their interviews. |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Operations Console shows all the surveyor sync-activity |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Export of survey results to SPSS, MS Excel, MS Word, MS Access & XML |
Yes |
Yes |
| OPERATIONS FEATURES | Command line export utility for scheduled batch exports of survey results |
Yes |
Yes |
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