Welcome to CommCare Fundamentals- an overview to what CommCare is and how it works!
If you are new to CommCare, this should also give you a good understanding of how CommCare works. In order to become receive any type of CommCare certification, you must demonstrate an understanding of the learning objectives in this section.
When you complete this section you should be understand and explain the following:
- The purpose of CommCare
- The structure of a CommCare application
- General principles of data in CommCare - what types are generated and how it moves
- Case management
- Mobile and Web Users
CommCare- What is it?
1- Explore this:
You can get a good overview of what CommCare is by reading through the public CommCare site.
2- Watch these videos:
3- Read this:
CommCare is a mobile case management tool for tracking clients through a continuum of care. It aims to help frontline workers more accurately track and support the registration, follow-up, and completion of care for clients in their communities. It runs as a mobile application on a mobile phone and is built on a decision & logic-processing platform that can support workers to deliver care, as well as provide critical data-quality checks at the point of service.
There are two pieces to CommCare:
- CommCareMobile is the mobile-device part of CommCare. This could be a phone, tablet, or someone entering data using a computer. Someone using CommCare Mobile could be a field worker, a community health worker, an agricultural extension agent, or a surveyor.
- CommCareHQ is the website/portal where data can be accessed, applications designed and edited, and mobile workers managed. A person using CommCareHQ could be a supervisor, researcher, project manager, or data analyst.
CommCare can be used for a number or purposes or combination of purposes. The main uses include:
- Data collection
- Decision support
- Job aid
- Counseling tool
CommCare is developed by a company called Dimagi. CommCare is Dimagi's flagship project, but Dimagi also works on a number of other mobile-based, open source technologies.
What does it mean that CommCare is "open source"?
The CommCare software is "open source," which means that the source code is openly available on the Internet to be downloaded, modified, or distributed. Details about how to access the source code are here. However, it is not a simple task to set up and run the software on a local server, which is why we strongly recommend using the CommCareHQ server. The open nature of the code makes it easier to integrate with other systems and understand the way that CommCare functions.
More About CommCare
Review each of the following sections to learn more the main features and principles of CommCare:
It is critical that you understand all of the material in these sections before going on to other CommCare tutorials.
Getting Started
Once you've completed CommCare Fundamentals you are ready - Now that you understand the core concepts of CommCare, it's time to Get Started.