Evaluation of Citizen Science Projects
The videos and other material on this page will give you an introduction to evaluation. There are many different types of evaluation and ways to go about it and you might want to combine some methods. Remember, evaluation does not have to be scary and can be a very interesting and rewarding part of your project! The recommended reading and videos in this module will take you about 1 hour to complete.
Evaluation of Citizen Science Projects Overview
In this short video, Dr. Hilary Geoghegan introduces us to evaluation of citizen science projects and shows how the important steps in evaluation.
Recommended reading
These publications provide overviews and guidelines for evaluation in citizen science and public engagement activities.
Tweddle, J.C. et al. 2012. Guide to citizen science: developing, implementing and evaluating citizen science to study biodiversity and the environment in the UK. Natural History Museum and NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology for UK-EOF. Download it here
Research Council UK. 2011. Evaluation: Practical Guidelines - A guide for evaluating public engagement activities. Download it here
Video lecture
Evaluation in a new light (11 min)
Dr Cindy Regalado Part 1 Evaluation in a new light
Video lectures
Evaluation in practice 1 (11 min) & 2 (15 min)
Dr Cindy Regalado Part 2 Evaluation in practice
Dr Cindy Regalado Part 2 Evaluation in practice
Activity
Create an evaluation plan
Using what you have learnt in this module, create an evaluation plan. Remember to start with the simple questions from the lecture. If you are involved in a citizen science project, you can create your evaluation plan with that project in mind. If you are not involved in a project, you could use one of the Zooniverse projects that you tried out in the first module.
Further learning
Further reading
Phillips, T. B., et al. 2014. User’s Guide for Evaluating Learning Outcomes in Citizen Science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Download it here
Patton, M.Q., 2005. The challenges of making evaluation useful. Ensaio: avaliação e políticas públicas em educação, 13(46), pp.67-78. Download it here
Further learning
Introduction to Citizen Science & Scientific Crowdsourcing, UCL, extensive free online course about citizen science. You can find it here
Other modules
There are five modules in this course. You can follow them in order or pick the ones that interest you.
Introduction to Citizen Science - an overview of the activities and practices that are included in citizen science
Environmental Citizen Science - zooming in on environmental applications and activities
Information Technology in Citizen Science - focusing on the importance of data management and IT platforms
Understanding Participant Motivation - addressing the common question of why people participate in citizen science
Evaluation - this module