Course description

This is a free course of approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. It is aimed at anyone who will spend time interacting with citizen scientists - for example, recruiting people to participate in your project, blogging, or acting as a group leader or discussion forum moderator. You will need to have an overview of citizen science, but no in-depth knowledge is required.

Millions of people choose to contribute to science as citizen scientists, and have a variety of motivations to do so. Once in the project, they require feedback and communication, and, often, a space in which to discuss the project and the wider issues with their peers - and with you. Depending on the project, they may also need specific tools or learning opportunities. This course will introduce you to a variety of means to promote effective communication between everyone involved in the project, to community building, and to a deeper understanding of the citizen scientist's perspective and their needs.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• understand some concerns and barriers citizen scientists may face when they sign up to a project, and ways you may be able to overcome them;

• plan how to enable communications and discussions to take place in citizen science;

• analyse your own citizen science project to choose the best platform for learning, feedback and community building.