Today, I am on my way to Uganda again to set up the test of the alternative methods of sanitary pads. I will be training the research assistants for this part of the test. Maryalice Wu of the ATLAS lab at the University of Illinois accompanied me on my last trip to show everybody how to use the iPad software for the test.
Maryalice Wu trains research assistants in Kamuli.
I was up late last night getting everything ready. I have had tremendous help from both Maryalice and her colleage, Dawn Owens-Nicholson. The iPad technology allows us to load up the survey all the way from Illinois. Then, the RAs go out into the field and use the iPads to record the answers of each girl. After each interview—or at the end of the day—the responses are “synced” to the computer in Champaign-Urbana and can be checked for missing values. Then instruction can be sent to us on the ground, so we can make any necessary adjustments. The whole dataset then can be analyzed by the Illinois and Oxford teams. It is just amazing.
The research assistants love the iPads. It makes doing research so much easier—not shuffling through papers to skip to the next question.
