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Cultivating citizen scientists:How does working singly or in pairs, and the type of feedback influence motivation and contribution?
Human-ComputerInteractionLaboratory
Yurong He, Carol Boston, Jennifer Preece, Anne Bowser, Dana Rotman, Derek Hansen
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Citizen science Scientists invite citizens to voluntarily contribute to scientific projects
http://www.birdsleuth.org/about-us/
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Citizen science challenges
MOREVolunteers !
Data !
[e.g., Crowston, 2013; Wiggins, 2013]
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Previous research
This study
Existing volunteers
Potential volunteers
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Does cultivating citizen scientists work?
1. Class context
2. Supporting their preferred way of working
3. Providing researchers’ feedback
in our way
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Science, Technology, and Society
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=544955375545022&set=pb.115969965110234.-2207520000.1369064903.&type=3&theater
(74 freshmen)
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One-month citizen science project simulation:
A field experiment
Week 1 & 2: Learn it!
What is citizen science?
Week 3 & 4: Do it!Collecting data for “Tree and
Bird Observation on Campus”
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Easy: tree Difficult: bird Paper form Digital photo
Collecting scientific data
How?What?
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Way of working in week 3 &4 :• Working in a pair• Working alone
Researchers’ feedback in week 4:• Positive feedback• Positive directive feedback
[Zhu et al. 2013]
Independent variables
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Volunteers’ motivation• Survey
Volunteers’ data quantity• Number of words on paper form• Number of photos
Dependent variables
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Motivation
[Guay et al. 2000]
Intrinsic motivation
e.g. “I engaged in this activity because I think that this activity is interesting”
Identified regulation
e.g. “I engaged in this activity because I believe that this activity is important for me”
External regulation
e.g. “I engaged in this activity because I am supposed to do it”
Amotivation e.g. “There may be good reasons to do this activity, but personally I don’t see any.”
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Motivation results
• Week 3: Working in a pair
“interesting” “important to me”
• Week 4: Positive directive feedback
“don’t see any good reasons” lower
higher[Intrinsic motivation]
[Identified regulation]
[Amotivation]
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Data quantity results
Week3:
No difference between working alone and in a pair
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Variables
(Easy) (Difficult)
Paper form Photo Paper
form Photo
Pair ND (no difference) ND ND More
Positive directive Feedback More More More ND
Interaction Yes N N Yes
Data quantity resultsWeek 4:
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Data quantity results
Tree & Paper form Bird & Photo
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Interview result
Working in a pair: Working alone:
Reasons for…
“ If someone was there, it was a lot more appealing and more fun.” (P19)
“Some of the other people in the class don’t take it as serious as I might like to. It’s kind of de-motivational being with others” (P7)
“Not lonely, there is somebody you can discuss with when you are observing [trees and birds]” (P17)
“Cause you can think about it more, you don’t have to always communicate your thoughts” (P26)
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Implication for citizen science
• Volunteers’ ways of working on citizen science
• Difficulty of citizen science tasks • Type of feedback
Acknowledgement
NSF : grant # 0968546.
Contact Me:[email protected]://biotrackers.net/
