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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.

Dr Hilary Geoghegan Evaluating citizen science projects short overview OpenUpSci
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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)
OpenUpSci | Dr Cindy Regalado Part 1 Evaluation Introduction
Play Video

Dr Cindy Regalado Part 1 Evaluation in a new light

Download the annotated slides here

Video lectures

Evaluation in practice 1 (11 min) & 2 (15 min)
OpenUpSci | Dr Cindy Regalado Part 2 Evaluation in Practice
Play Video

Dr Cindy Regalado Part 2 Evaluation in practice

Download the annotated slides here

OpenUpSci | Dr Cindy Regalado Part 3 Evaluation in Practice
Play Video

Dr Cindy Regalado Part 2 Evaluation in practice

Download the annotated slides here

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

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