Participatory data collection and management in low-resource contexts: a field trial with urban refugees

As access to and control of data becomes increasingly democratized, understanding the potential and constraints for low resource contexts has important implications for system design as well as practice. Our research pushes the bounds of current system deployment by proposing and testing an ICT-based participatory data management system to transform participants from data providers to data consumers. This tool begins with participatory design, which engages participants in deciding which types of data to collect. Then, it involves training them in data collection, analysis and management. This enables participants to gain basic data science skills to make informed decisions. Our study uses mixed methods to explore the feasibility and effects of this system with urban refugees living in Rwanda. The quantitative results indicate refugees' perceived effectiveness in using the system to build communities is directly influenced by system usability assessments, which in turn are influenced by education levels but not ICT self-efficacy. Qualitative results highlight the community-based interactions experienced by all participants and highlight important differences in pursuing projects with urban versus camp-based refugees.

[1]  Mun Y. Yi,et al.  Predicting the use of web-based information systems: self-efficacy, enjoyment, learning goal orientation, and the technology acceptance model , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[2]  Sonia Livingstone,et al.  Balancing opportunities and risks in teenagers’ use of the internet: the role of online skills and internet self-efficacy , 2010, New Media Soc..

[3]  Clare Daley,et al.  Exploring community connections: community cohesion and refugee integration at a local level , 2007 .

[4]  A. P. Rovai Building Sense of Community at a Distance , 2002, Distances et médiations des savoirs.

[5]  Olivia Velez,et al.  Design and Usability Testing of an mHealth Application for Midwives in Rural Ghana , 2011 .

[6]  Johanne M. Pelletier,et al.  Anticipating social equity impacts in REDD+ policy design: An example from the Democratic Republic of Congo , 2018, Land Use Policy.

[7]  Kerry Taylor-Leech,et al.  Navigating the multilingual field : Language choice and sociolinguistic fieldwork , 2016 .

[8]  Stephen Berman,et al.  Designing and Implementing an Early Childhood Health and Development Program in Rural, Southwest Guatemala: Lessons Learned and Future Directions. , 2017, Advances in pediatrics.

[9]  Jerome Lewis,et al.  Supporting Collaboration with Non-Literate Forest Communities in the Congo-Basin , 2017, CSCW.

[10]  M. Beiser,et al.  Social Support and the Significance of Shared Experience in Refugee Migration and Resettlement , 2003, Western journal of nursing research.

[11]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Open data kit: tools to build information services for developing regions , 2010, ICTD.

[12]  S. Owen,et al.  Development and Validation of the Computer Self-Efficacy Scale , 1989 .

[13]  Crista E. Johnson,et al.  Building community-based participatory research partnerships with a Somali refugee community. , 2009, American journal of preventive medicine.

[14]  J. B. Brooke,et al.  SUS: A 'Quick and Dirty' Usability Scale , 1996 .

[15]  Heike Winschiers-Theophilus,et al.  An insider perspective on community gains: A subjective account of a Namibian rural communities' perception of a long-term participatory design project , 2015, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[16]  Alistair Sutcliffe,et al.  Designing for User Engagement: Aesthetic and Attractive User Interfaces , 2009, Designing for User Engagement.

[17]  S. Bailur THE COMPLEXITIES OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN ICT FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: THE CASE OF "OUR VOICES" , 2007 .

[18]  Massimo De Marchi,et al.  Towards a more Liveable and Accessible Cycle Path Network in Padova: a Participatory Mapping Process , 2018 .

[19]  Jennifer Baranoff,et al.  Lantern: Empowering Refugees Through Community-Generated Guidance Using Near Field Communication , 2015, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[20]  K. Maton,et al.  Empowering Community Settings: Agents of Individual Development, Community Betterment, and Positive Social Change , 2008, American journal of community psychology.

[21]  Dhaval Vyas,et al.  Designing for the Marginalized: A Step Towards Understanding the Lives of Refugees and Asylum Seekers , 2016, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[22]  Carleen F. Maitland,et al.  Crossing Borders, Organizations, Levels and Technologies: IS Collaboration in Humanitarian Relief , 2010, AMCIS.

[23]  Caroline C. Krejci,et al.  Coordination in humanitarian relief chains: Practices, challenges and opportunities , 2010 .

[24]  Deborah Compeau,et al.  Computer Self-Efficacy: Development of a Measure and Initial Test , 1995, MIS Q..

[25]  M. Weinstein,et al.  Introduction to Community-Based Participatory Research , 2019 .

[26]  Robert LaRose,et al.  Internet Self-Efficacy and the Psychology of the Digital Divide , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[27]  Peter C. Wright,et al.  Experience-Centered Design: Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue , 2010, Experience-Centered Design.

[28]  Debora Shaw,et al.  Handbook of usability testing: How to plan, design, and conduct effective tests , 1996 .

[29]  Kimberly M Fornace,et al.  Use of mobile technology-based participatory mapping approaches to geolocate health facility attendees for disease surveillance in low resource settings , 2018, International Journal of Health Geographics.

[30]  A. Harmer,et al.  According to need?: needs assessment and decision-making in the humanitarian sector , 2003 .

[31]  K. Jacobsen,et al.  The dual imperative in refugee research: some methodological and ethical considerations in social science research on forced migration. , 2003, Disasters.

[32]  Elisa Pascucci,et al.  The humanitarian infrastructure and the question of over-research: reflections on fieldwork in the refugee crises in the Middle East and North Africa , 2017 .

[33]  James T. Miller,et al.  An Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale , 2008, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[34]  Lucy Williams,et al.  Social Networks of Refugees in the United Kingdom: Tradition, Tactics and New Community Spaces , 2006 .

[35]  C. Beckford A Glass Half-Full - How An Asset Approach Can Improve Community Health and Well-being , 2010 .

[36]  Graham Thornicroft,et al.  Mental disorders among Somali refugees: developing culturally appropriate measures and assessing socio-cultural risk factors. , 2006, Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology.

[37]  Dale A. Koike,et al.  Review of Taylor-Leech, Kerry & Donna Starks, eds. (2016) Doing Research within Communities. Stories and Lessons from Language and Education Field Research , 2017 .

[38]  Carleen F. Maitland,et al.  Mobilizing Assets: Data-Driven Community Development with Refugees , 2017, ICTD.

[39]  Jihad Makhoul,et al.  Developing a logic model for youth mental health: participatory research with a refugee community in Beirut. , 2011, Health policy and planning.

[40]  T. Piazza,et al.  Towards the co-production of fisheries knowledge for co-management using mobile technologies , 2017 .

[41]  Karen E. Fisher,et al.  Syrian Youth in Za'atari Refugee Camp as ICT Wayfarers: An Exploratory Study Using LEGO and Storytelling , 2018, COMPASS.

[42]  Andrea H. Tapia,et al.  Humanitarian Interorganizational Information Exchange Network: How Do Clique Structures Impact Network Effectiveness? , 2014 .

[43]  Edward Cutrell,et al.  mClerk: enabling mobile crowdsourcing in developing regions , 2012, CHI.

[44]  Tim Davies,et al.  Researching the emerging impacts of open data: revisiting the ODDC conceptual framework , 2016, J. Community Informatics.

[45]  Khorshed Alam,et al.  The digital divide and social inclusion among refugee migrants: A case in regional Australia , 2015, Inf. Technol. People.