Volunteer engagement in short-term virtual citizen science projects
Volunteer engagement in short-term virtual citizen science projects
Virtual citizen science (VCS) projects have proven to be a highly effective method to analyse large quantities of data for scientific research purposes. Yet if these projects are to achieve their goals, they must attract and maintain the interest of sufficient numbers of active, dedicated volunteers. Although CSCW and HCI research has typically focussed on designing platforms to support long-term engagement, in recent years a new project format has been trialled -- using short-term crowdsourcing activities lasting as little as 48 hours. In this paper, we explore two short-term projects to understand how they influence participant engagement in the task and discussion elements of VCS. We calculate descriptive statistics to characterise project participants. Additionally, using calculation of correlation coefficients and hypothesis testing, we identify factors influencing volunteer task engagement and the effect this has on project outcomes. Our findings contribute to the understanding of volunteer engagement in VCS.
Social Computing, Online Communities, Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science
Reeves, Neal
80e12072-7fc9-47ab-850e-649b7c0a7271
Simperl, Elena
40261ae4-c58c-48e4-b78b-5187b10e4f67
November 2019
Reeves, Neal
80e12072-7fc9-47ab-850e-649b7c0a7271
Simperl, Elena
40261ae4-c58c-48e4-b78b-5187b10e4f67
Reeves, Neal and Simperl, Elena
(2019)
Volunteer engagement in short-term virtual citizen science projects.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3 (CSCW), [177].
(doi:10.1145/3359279).
Abstract
Virtual citizen science (VCS) projects have proven to be a highly effective method to analyse large quantities of data for scientific research purposes. Yet if these projects are to achieve their goals, they must attract and maintain the interest of sufficient numbers of active, dedicated volunteers. Although CSCW and HCI research has typically focussed on designing platforms to support long-term engagement, in recent years a new project format has been trialled -- using short-term crowdsourcing activities lasting as little as 48 hours. In this paper, we explore two short-term projects to understand how they influence participant engagement in the task and discussion elements of VCS. We calculate descriptive statistics to characterise project participants. Additionally, using calculation of correlation coefficients and hypothesis testing, we identify factors influencing volunteer task engagement and the effect this has on project outcomes. Our findings contribute to the understanding of volunteer engagement in VCS.
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Reeves and Simperl Efficient but Effective
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Accepted/In Press date: 31 July 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 November 2019
Published date: November 2019
Keywords:
Social Computing, Online Communities, Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science
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Local EPrints ID: 437359
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437359
PURE UUID: aa3c7e65-ba01-4301-831e-6983b0c18baa
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Date deposited: 24 Jan 2020 17:33
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:14
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Author:
Neal Reeves
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