Visualization of Citizen Science Volunteers' Behaviors with Data from Usage Logs

Morais, Alessandra M. M.; Santos, Rafael

doi:10.1109/mcse.2015.86

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…LA have been used less frequently to understand participation and learning in informal learning settings ( Ferguson et al 2016 ). Such studies have examined learning at the workplace (e.g., Littlejohn 2017 ), interactions in technology-mediated social systems such as online forums (e.g., Kloetzer, Schneider, and Costa 2016 ), and a few CS projects examining adult participation ( Aristeidou et al 2017 ; Dittus, Quattrone, and Capra 2016 ; Morais, Santos, and Raddick 2015 ; Ponciano and Brasileiro 2014 ). In this paper, we use LA as a methodology that allows a fine-grained analysis of young people’s participation (aged 5−19) in Zooniverse projects as a first step towards understanding and improving their learning experiences in online CS.…”

Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their metrics (adopted also in this study) capture time potentially linked to a project, days actually linked to a project, active days, time devoted to tasks per day, and elapsed time between two active days. Morais, Santos, and Raddick (2015) highlighted the evolution in number of volunteers and classifications over time and showed that the majority of classifications in Zooniverse were completed in the first 600 days of the project, and sharply declined afterwards. They also explained “bursts” of activity and analysed volunteers joining or leaving a project in short intervals.…”

Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse

Herodotou

Aristeidou

Miller

et al. 2020

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

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Citizen Science (CS) is an increasingly popular activity enacted either in the field or online. Volunteers participate in research activities such as data processing and analysis by, for example, identifying plants and animals. In this paper we examine young people's participation in online CS projects hosted on the Zooniverse platform. This is an exploratory study, the first of its kind that focuses on young people, mainly 16-19 years old. It uses data analytics and visualisation techniques to capture participation in online CS, and in particular to answer the following questions: (a) What does young people's participation look like in CS projects? (b) What Zooniverse projects do young people choose to participate in? and (3) What Zooniverse projects do young people choose together? Findings revealed five distinct engagement profiles characterising young people's participation and identified certain projects as been more popular across participants. Implications for the design of online citizen science projects targeting young people are discussed.

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Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse

Herodotou

Aristeidou

Miller

et al. 2020

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

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“…At the same time, they have the opportunity to learn and generate knowledge (Franzoni & Sauermann, 2014), to enhance their scientific literacy and to enjoy the experience (Bonney et al, 2009;Cronje, Rohlinger, Crall, & Newman, 2011). For professional scientists, the participation of a large number of contributors potentially helps expedite research projects (Haklay, 2013;Morais, Santos, & Raddick, 2015) and reduce their overall cost (Nov, Arazy, & Anderson, 2014). In addition to benefits for researchers and citizens, citizen science represents a potential means to raise social innovation by addressing problems of social interest through new aggregations of collaborating individuals (Cappa, Facci, & Ubertini, 2015;Mulgan, 2006;Murray, Caulier-Grice, & Mulgan, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bring them aboard: Rewarding participation in technology-mediated citizen science projects

Cappa

Laut

Porfiri

et al. 2018

Computers in Human Behavior

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“…For example, to keep citizen scientists engaged with my research I constantly moderated the discussion forums of the website and provided regular feedback and research updates. Understanding the motivations, expertise and demographics of the target audience can facilitate project managers to identify the most efficient method to keep citizen scientists engaged (Morais et al 2015). In summary, iterative periods of design, evaluation, and revision are crucial to ensure citizen scientists achieve the project-specific education and research goals (Dickinson et al 2012).…”

Section: Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, understanding the characteristics of the citizen scientists can facilitate the most efficient approach to provide feedback and research updates to the volunteers (i.e. crucial processes to achieve and maintain sustainable engagement of citizen scientists) (Morais et al 2015). To prevent and filter poor quality data, researchers can train citizen scientists, design the project to produce spatial and temporal replications or weight the information collected by citizen scientists based on user-specific accuracy (Isaac et al 2014;Kosmala et al 2016).…”

Section: Introduction Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding distributions of invasive mammals in urban environments using remote cameras and citizen science

Anton¹

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<p>Preserving biodiversity in urban environments is crucial not only for preventing local extinctions of native species, but also for educating the public about the importance of species conservation. Invasive mammalian species can have negative impacts for both people and biodiversity in urban environments. Understanding the factors influencing the distribution of these invasive species is crucial to comply with the ethical, ecological, and practical concerns associated with their management. Remote cameras are an increasingly popular tool for investigating the distribution and abundance of mammals. Yet few studies have used these cameras in urban environments. The time and effort required to classify remote camera data is the main constraint of this monitoring technique. To determine whether employing citizen science could facilitate the use of remote cameras in urban environments, I investigated the engagement, accuracy, and efficiency of volunteers (i.e., citizen scientists) in classifying animal images recorded by remote cameras in Wellington, New Zealand. Classifications from citizen scientists were in 84.2% agreement with classifications of expert ecologists. However, accuracy varied significantly among species and volunteers. Aggregating multiple classifications per image and highlighting animal movement in the images improved the accuracy of citizen scientists. Additionally, weighting their classifications based on previous accuracy, self-assessed confidence, and the species reported reduced the number of volunteer classifications required to achieve levels of accuracy comparable to that of experts. These results illustrate that citizen science allows for accurate and efficient classifications of remote camera data from urban areas. Using the classifications provided by citizen scientists, I then evaluated the suitability of remote cameras to monitor invasive mammals in urban environments. Based on data collected from forest and residential areas of Wellington, New Zealand, remote cameras detected significantly more European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) and rats (Rattus spp.) than tracking tunnels. Cameras, however, missed recording house mice (Mus musculus) on some occasions where tracking tunnels detected them, and vice-versa. Overall, my results demonstrate that remote cameras are a more efficient multi-species monitoring tool than tracking tunnels. Independent of habitat type, cats (Felis catus), hedgehogs, and mice were the species most frequently recorded. Data from remote cameras subsequently helped quantify differences in the occupancy rates of species between residential and forested areas furthering our ecological understanding of the distribution of invasive species in peopled landscapes. To identify the underlying processes influencing the distribution and abundances of invasive mammals found in urban patches of vegetation, I also used remote cameras to investigate the influence of habitat quality, management efforts, interspecific interactions and seasonality on the occupancy and relative abundance of invasive mammals in 47 patches of forest within Wellington. My results indicate that distance to forest edge influences positively on the relative abundance of rodents and negatively on the relative abundance of common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), cats, European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), and hedgehogs. The cameras also revealed a positive interaction between the occupancy of ship rats (Rattus rattus) and the abundance of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), a positive influence of the nearby buildings on the occupancy of cats, and how management control reduces the occupancy of target species, particularly during spring. These results illustrate the importance of using season- and species-specific approaches to identify the most important factors influencing the distribution of invasive species in urban environments. Overall, my research highlights the benefits of engaging the public with scientific research, the advantages of using remote cameras to monitor mammals in urban environments and the importance of controlling invasive species at adequate spatial and temporal scales to ensure effective conservation management.</p>

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Visualization of Citizen Science Volunteers' Behaviors with Data from Usage Logs

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse

What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse

Bring them aboard: Rewarding participation in technology-mediated citizen science projects

Understanding distributions of invasive mammals in urban environments using remote cameras and citizen science

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