2004 Handheld Software: Assignment Management & Short Form Questionnaire

1. 2004 Handheld Software: Assignment Management & Short Form Questionnaire Jean Sebold Decennial Development Team Leader Technologies Management Office Feb. 28, 2005

2. Introduction • Overview of Handheld Computer (HHC) System used in the 2004 test • Assignment Management System • functionality • Challenges • Lessons learned • Short Form Questionnaire • functionality • Challenges • Lessons learned • Q & A

3. Census 2004 NRFU Test • - 1000 enumerators • - 2 sites: 1 urban/ 1 rural • - test started April 2004 and ended July 2004 • Goals included: • Automating the Non-response Follow-up (NRFU) questionnaire in both English and Spanish • Developing an Assignment Management System (AMS) to manage the enumerator workload • Transmitting data to/from the device via a 56K modem • Allowing the user to capture GPS coordinates • Displaying TIGER map files using a COTS product, ArcPad • Encrypting Census data on the HHC • … ALL ON A HAND-HELD COMPUTER!!

4. 2004 Test – Telecommunications/Data Transmission Infrastructure

5. Development Environment • - Visual Studio .NET • - C# Programming Language • AMS • NRFU Questionnaire • - SQL Server CE • Shared DB among AMS & NRFU Inst • - XML • All transmitted files were in XML format

6. What is the Assignment Management System (AMS)? • A Control System that is on the Handheld Device and used by enumerators to access and manage their assigned workload. • Contains a Quality Control component as well as a ‘Training’ application/DB that can be refreshed as needed

7. 2004 Functionality of AMS • Provides the capability to store and display an enumerators workload • Provides the ability to add/remove cases from the enumerator’s workload • Displays case status codes • Ability to access the Address Reference list • Provides workload counts (ex. Interviewed, not started, transmitted, etc) • Displays mail messages sent from the offices • Provides sort, search & filter capability

8. 2004 Functionality of AMS – Cont’d • Provide the capability to invoke the questionnaire for each case • Ability to collect GPS for each structure containing a living quarter • Ability to add living quarters not identified in the enumerator’s assignment area • Allows Data entry (notes, contact info.) for each case • Provides the ability to restart a case • Allow the enumerator to perform either a preset or immediate transmission

9. 2004 HHC Transmission process • - Enumerator plugs in modem & initiates a dial-up transmission – selects either immediate or preset • - An xml file is created that includes completed work to be sent to the HQ control system • - The device dials & authenticates to the telecommunications system • - The completed work is uploaded to the control system • - Any software updates are sent to the device • - Any new assignments or cases that need to be removed are downloaded to the device • - The device disconnects from the server • - Software updates are applied • - New assignments, mail messages, and adjustments to the workload are made • - Cases that have been transmitted are marked as ‘transmitted’ and an entry is made to the transmission log

10. 2004 Challenges for AMS • 1. Address Reference List– a complete list of all addresses & surnames in an area including HUs that have mailed the questionnaire- used in apartment mixups & adding HUs • Challenges – • - If an enumerator is assigned cases from multiple areas (language specialist), they would receive all addresses for all areas assigned - The surnames need to be updated as Late Questionnaires are received in the Data capture center • 2. Lack of Institutional Experience in the HHC Environment

11. 2004 Lessons Learned for AMS • 1. Transmission application • Problems: -Too many steps (23 steps); the process is too complex -Not enough messaging • -Too many moving parts • Plan for 2006: -Make transmission application stand alone from ‘Start’ menu; more user friendly; not as many steps -added a more robust messaging system that displays more meaningful messages to the user

12. 2004 Lessons Learned for AMS • 2. Crew Leader (CL) Management • Problem: CL needed some automated tools to manage their crew from the field • Plan for 2006: Add a CL assignment management system that will allow the CL to perform the following: - Access reports of enumerators within their crew - Allow CL to make assignments/reassignments from the HHC - Allow the CL to review/accept/reject work of their crew before the cases are sent to the operational control system (OCS)

13. 2004 Lessons Learned for AMS • 3. # of cases on HHC • Problem: Cases remained on the enumerator’s HHC for the life of the operation • Plan for 2006: Cases will be removed from the HHC after a confirmation is received that the case was received in HQ processing without errors.

14. What is the Short Form Questionnaire? • The automated questionnaire used by enumerators to collect census data in the Non-Response Follow-Up (NRFU) operation. • Also referred to as the ‘instrument’ • Contains a Quality Control component

15. 2004 Short Form Functionality • - Provides the ability to toggle from English to Spanish at any point within the questionnaire • - Structured as a person-based questionnaire • - Allows enumerator to add/delete people to the HH roster • - Provides some basic edits (ex. Age/DOB) • - Assigns each case with a status code. The enumerator is not allowed to set the status codes; the questionnaire assigns the code based on the provided responses • - Allows the enumerator to access/add to the shared case notes • - Collects additional information that is used for evaluation purposes. (Ex: attempt history)

16. Questionnaire Challenges • - Screen size (2” x 3”) • - Consistent look & feel • - Usability – no scrolling, limited use of the virtual keyboard • - Lack of experience developing for a HHC • - No industry standard questionnaire development tools (ie, Cases, Blaise)

17. Questionnaire Form Design Title Bar TextPanel Custom Controls Response Pane Command Bar

18. Controls used for Usability • 1. Tagged text into 5 categories: • - normal text • - spoken: bold • -parenthetical: gray • -Action blue italic • -instruction: underlined • 2. Hidden ‘Don’t Know/ Refused’ : • - used the ‘context menu’ function • - available on every screen and grayed out when not required for a screen

19. Controls used for Usability (cont’d) • 3. ‘More’ button: - Used on the text/response panes when the text does not fit on the screen - The button grays out when it is the last screen - A ‘More’ left/right button appear when the user advances to the next screen • 4. Hyperlink: - Used for responses that have sub-categories - Click on the blue arrow to display the sub categories • 5. Number control: • - Customized to limit the number selection depending on the data being entered. Ex.restricts from entering February 31st

20. Lesson Learned • - not to underestimate the level of effort involved in developing the Questionnaire! Spec Automated Spec Paper Questionnaire

21. Additional Functionality for 2006 • - Automated Address Canvassing operation • - Crew Leader Functionality • - Automated payroll application • - Provide a topic-based questionnaire

22. Q & A???