Improving the efficacy of web‐based educational outreach in ecology

Abstract

Abstract. Scientists are increasingly engaging the web to provide formal and informal science education opportunities. Despite the prolific growth of web-based resources, systematic evaluation and assessment of their efficacy remains limited. We used clickstream analytics, a widely available method for tracking website visitors and their behavior, to evaluate .60,000 visits over three years to an educational website focused on ecology. Visits originating from search engine queries were a small proportion of the traffic, suggesting the need to actively promote websites to drive visitation. However, the number of visits referred to the website per social media post varied depending on the social media platform and the quality of those visits (e.g., time on site and number of pages viewed) was significantly lower than visits originating from other referring websites. In particular, visitors referred to the website through targeted promotion (e.g., inclusion in a website listing classroom teaching resources) had higher quality visits. Once engaged in the site's core content, visitor retention was high; however, visitors rarely used the tutorial resources that serve to explain the site's use. Our results demonstrate that simple changes in website design, content and promotion are likely to increase the number of visitors and their engagement. While there is a growing emphasis on using the web to broaden the impacts of biological research, time and resources remain limited. Clickstream analytics provides an easily accessible, relatively fast and quantitative means by which those engaging in educational outreach can improve upon their efforts.

Plant‐O‐Matic: a dynamic and mobile guide to all plants of the Americas

“…The application currently collects anonymous analytics on users to inform future application development. There is currently a lack of information regarding the efficacy of educational technology, particularly mobile applications, for engaging broader audiences in the natural sciences (Goldsmith et al 2014). As such, we hope that Plant-O-Matic ultimately serves not only as a guide for plants, but also as a guide for how to build next generation mobile applications.…”

“…Moreover, they are frequently designed to leverage the capabilities of the mobile device, including access to a camera, location services (i.e., information from cellular, GPS, and Wi-fi services to determine your location), accelerometer, Bluetooth, and the Internet. This creates new opportunities for collecting, organizing, and sharing information (Goldsmith 2015). In short, mobile applications have the potential to revolutionize how we carry out our research, as well as how we communicate the results of that research.…”