Pennsylvania CAPI Training Workshop (Harrisburg, PA) July 12-15, 2011

The NASS Pennsylvania Field Office held a successful CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) Training Workshop on July 12-15, 2011 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. With CAPI, NASDA enumerators use an automated data collection tool, such as an iPad, to display NASS survey questionnaires and enter data during their visits with agricultural producers.


The CAPI project is one of the ongoing enhancements in how NASS and NASDA enumerators collect survey data as technology and computer systems continue to advance. CAPI is being implemented in 9 states during this fiscal year: Indiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
 

CAPI has great potential to increase NASS’s efficiency in data collection. Key entry requirements will be reduced, the enumerators will key the information directly into the Electronic Data Reporting (EDR) system, reducing data errors and increasing data quality. Response rates will improve because the data collection timeframe will be increased allowing enumerators to collect data up to the last day of the survey collection cycle. NASS Field Offices will have the information the day it is collected giving the statisticians more time to edit the data and ask the enumerators questions pertaining to the data. Printing and postal costs will be reduced since the survey questionnaire and data will be delivered online.

Staff from NASS Headquarters who led the training were Pam Hird, CAPI Project Manager, Ramonia Davis and Tremayne Wilson. NASS PA Field Office Director Kevin Pautler and Deputy Dan Capstick participated in the workshop sessions. PA Field Office staff Pam Kanagy, Jackie Weaver, and Sherry Deane assisted in the training and did a great job setting up the iPads for enumerators to use. In addition, NASDA’s NASS Program Director Charlie Ingram participated in the workshop and spent time visiting with the NASDA Supervisors and Enumerators. There were 6 NASDA Field Supervisors and more than 40 Enumerators who attended the training.

Workshop participants learned how to use the many iPad features and tools, enter data into questionnaires, and conducted practice exercises for several surveys. There was also discussion about security of the technology (no data stored on iPad, passcode protected, machine encrypted) to maintain confidentiality of survey data.

Overall, the Enumerators embraced and liked the CAPI iPad system. Even those who claimed to be inexperienced with computers and internet technology said it was surprisingly simple and easy to use! Both the NASDA and NASS teams are excited about using the CAPI iPad technology for data collection work later this summer.

 

After the CAPI training session on July 12, NASDA’s NASS Program Director Charlie Ingram visited the Pennsylvania Field Office to meet with the NASDA Office Supervisor and Enumerators who were making survey calls.