This course has been designed for anyone running a citizen science project who will be interacting with citizen scientists - this may mean as a researcher or practitioner, but also if you're a group leader or discussion forum moderator. It will take approximately 1 hour 45 minutes to complete. 

First, we'll look at some different reasons why people choose to do citizen science, and how we can use this knowledge to understand more about their needs.

Second, we'll look at the most crucial aspect of your work with citizen scientists, namely communication, which can mean you talking to them or, better still, two-way dialogue! We'll see some examples of how, and with what tools, this can be done effectively.

Third, we'll see how various citizen science projects have built a community. Communities may be online or face-to-face, and they become an increasingly important aspect of a volunteer's experience with citizen science as time goes on. The best platform for citizen scientists to talk to each other will depend on the nature of your project, so you'll get a chance to consider what would work best for you.

Fourth, we'll look at some of the common ups and downs of participating in citizen science: problems and concerns you may wish to address, but also the potential a citizen scientist has to learn, teach others, take ownership of their work and make a difference.

The course will end with a 10-question quiz, for which you will need a mark of 50% to pass the course.

There will be a section on Further Reading, following up all the links and references made in the course, and some further suggestions for topics you may have found interesting.

Note: When we say "volunteer" in the course title, we mean the participant, citizen scientist or community scientist: someone who is carrying out citizen science. "Volunteer" is simply the shortest word, but not all participants will feel that it describes them: much like the term "citizen science", there is no name that fully represents every project or person. Similarly, we assume during much of this course that you will be in some kind of leadership role, but not all citizen science projects have or want a leader. In such a case, this course may assist the group to agree on some ground rules or communication and data storage methods.

Last modified: Wednesday, 1 December 2021, 6:25 PM