Open science practices

2. Public engagement and volunteer management

This module equips learners with strategies for effective community engagement and volunteer coordination in citizen science projects. It covers the volunteer lifecycle—from recruitment to retention—and provides tools and insights for managing volunteer motivations, experiences, and communications. Additionally, this module emphasizes the importance of public outreach, offering guidance on how to communicate and engage with various stakeholders to maximize the impact of citizen science initiatives.

Module description:

What?	How?	Why?
Volunteer management	Introducing the notion of volunteer management and the volunteer literature	Demonstrating that there is already a lot of knowledge about how to engage with volunteers
The volunteer’s journey	The stages of volunteer’s journey and ways to maximise volunteers’ experience	Demonstrating that the volunteer experience has many stages with different concerns
The motivations of volunteers	Types of motivations; demography and attributes of volunteers; recruitment techniques or awareness of opportunities	Enabling learners to describe their (potential) volunteers and plan the recruitment process
Checklist for project organisers and managers	Key recommendations for project organisers based on the volunteer’s journey	Enabling learners to use the checklist for project organisers
Volunteer management	Best practices for onboarding, communication, retention, and acknowledgment	Enabling learners to plan ahead for retention and sustained participation
Communication and public outreach	Issues and tools for communication and public outreach in relation to citizen science projects	Encouraging learners to design and initiate outreach activities in relation to their project (before, during, after)

Slide (available in slide deck)