Early this month, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) initiated the pilot study of the Access to & Use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by Households & Individuals Survey 2013 that targets 11,000 randomly selected households, throughout the eleven governorates of the Sultanate of Oman.
The actual field work will start today 30th July 2013 and will continue until end of October, 2013. The survey will start with Muscat Governorate, Al Dakhliya, Al Sharqiya North and Al Sharqiya South.
Through conducting the pilot survey, the ITA aims to test the usability of the data collection and smart devices used to collect the data, the effectiveness of the questionnaire, the reasons for non-responding, and the best time to conduct the survey (Morning or Evening) and also to make sure that all survey standards are applied before going live to the field.
Commenting on the pilot survey training, Shariffa Al Meskary, Director of International Relations & Information Department at ITA, said “A group of specialized statisticians and surveyors successfully conducted a training session on pilot survey, field work and for supervisors. The training aimed to achieve the following objectives: reviewing the questionnaire with the supervisors and survey team, who will be in charge of the data collection. During the training, the emphasis was to specifically focus on the numerators who will carry the field work in 11,000 households around the Sultanate. The session also discussed the questionnaire (structure and questions), administration of the questionnaire, and the sampling procedures. Numerators also had a special session on testing the software on the smart devices to be used for the data collection.”
Al Meskary added: “In addition to the training sessions, a small group of supervisors went to the field to conduct the pilot survey which was held in the selected residential area “Muscat – Al Maabaylah Al Janubiyah” where a number of households randomly selected for the purpose of testing the challenges and feasibility of the survey questionnaire and mobile application.”
