“I want to be a captain! I want to be a captain!”

Eveleigh, Alexandra; Jennett, Charlene; Lynn, Stuart; Cox, Anna L.

doi:10.1145/2583008.2583019

Cited by 82 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…While points and rankings were considered to be key features for enjoyment by Foldit players, they were perceived as creating competition but not fun by GZ participants. This finding is consistent with previous studies which found that the same competitive mechanisms can be rewarding for some and demotivating for others (Eveleigh et al 2013;Bowser et al 2013;Preist et al 2014). For example, previous results found that when leaderboards were used by participants to compare with what others were doing, they were motivating for high-scoring participants, but off-putting for low-scoring participants who felt they could not catch up (Preist et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In their recent study of the relationship between crowdsourcing, motivation, and engagement in Eyewire, Tinati et al (2017) found that despite the use of gamification in the citizen science task, intrinsic motivations including aiding a beneficial cause, advancing scientific knowledge, and learning were the most highly rated reasons to participate. However, the use of gamification within citizen science has also been shown to be task and domain specific (Eveleigh et al 2013 andTang 2015), and may have negative effects on sustaining engagement. When Tinati et al (2017) used the term despite (emphasis in original) to indicate that intrinsic motivations were the most highly rated reasons to participate, in spite of the use of games, they may refer to the normative desirability of using games in science questioned by some critics, who have warned against the use of the crowdsourcing model of research with its potential to cause harm to participants and manipulate the participant into continued participation (Graber and Graber 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Getting it Right or Being Top Rank: Games in Citizen Science

Ponti

Hillman

Kullenberg

et al. 2018

CSTP

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The use of games in citizen science is growing, but can create tension as gaming and science can be seen as incompatible areas of activity. For example, the motivations for winning a game and scientific pursuit of knowledge may be seen as contrary. Over a one-year period, we conducted a virtual ethnographic study of the public forums of two online citizen science projects, Foldit and Galazy Zoo, the first a project in which gaming is an explicit design feature and the second in which it is not. The aim was to provide a nuanced view of how participants topicalize and respond to tensions between gaming and science. Thematic analysis of discussion forum posts suggests that participants in the two projects respond differently to the tension. By unpacking participant responses to the tension between games and science, our study highlights that citizen science projects using games are not just about fun. To enroll and retain volunteers, these projects also must recognize and manage the implicit normative scientific ideals that participants bring with them to a project. We further conclude that ideals of science embraced by citizen scientists appear to influence the reasons why they participate, either emphasizing equality, like in Galazy Zoo, or meritocracy, like in Foldit.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting it Right or Being Top Rank: Games in Citizen Science

Ponti

Hillman

Kullenberg

et al. 2018

CSTP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Note that we have presented parts of our interview dataset at workshops and conferences Kloetzer et al, 2013;Eveleigh et al, 2013;Eveleigh et al, 2014]. However this is the first time we have presented our analysis of the full dataset, with the goal of building a model of motivation, learning and creativity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivations, learning and creativity in online citizen science

Jennett¹,

Kloetzer²,

Schneider³

et al. 2016

JCOM

Self Cite

135

109

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Online citizen science projects have demonstrated their usefulness for research, however little is known about the potential benefits for volunteers. We conducted 39 interviews (28 volunteers, 11 researchers) to gain a greater understanding of volunteers' motivations, learning and creativity (MLC). In our MLC model we explain that participating and progressing in a project community provides volunteers with many indirect opportunities for learning and creativity. The more aspects that volunteers are involved in, the more likely they are to sustain their participation in the project. These results have implications for the design and management of online citizen science projects. It is important to provide users with tools to communicate in order to supporting social learning, community building and sharing. AbstractCitizen science; Informal learning; Public engagement with science and technology Keywords

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“…However, the expectation that gamification is always positive is unrealistic, and it may appeal more to particular groups, such as millennials (Bowser et al 2013). The effect of gamification on volunteer engagement is challenging to generalize when participants react both positively and negatively (Eveleigh et al 2013, Massung et al 2013. Thus, while gamification is probably 1 in a set of components designed to attract and sustain participation, further research is required (Greenhill et al 2014).…”

Section: Participant Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen meets social science: predicting volunteer involvement in a global freshwater monitoring experiment

et al. 2019

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FreshWater Watch is a global citizen science project that seeks to advance the understanding and stewardship of freshwater ecosystems across the globe through analysis of their physical and chemical properties by volunteers. To date, literature concerning citizen science has mainly focused on its potential to generate unprecedented volumes of data. In this paper, we focus instead on the data relating to the volunteer experience and ask key questions about volunteer engagement with the project. For example, we ask what factors influence: a) volunteer data submission following a training event and b) the number of water quality samples volunteers subsequently submit. We used a binomial model to identify the factors that influence the retention of volunteers after training. In addition, we used a generalized linear model (GLM) to examine the factors that affected the number of samples each citizen scientist submitted. In line with other citizen science projects, most people trained did not submit any data, and 1% of participants contributed 47% of the data. We found that the statistically significant factors associated with submission of data after training were: whether training was given on how to upload data, the number of volunteers that attended the training, whether the volunteer was assigned to a research team, the outside temperature, and the average engagement of others in the training group. The statistically significant factors associated with the quantity of data submitted were: the length of time volunteers were active in the project, whether training took place as part of a paid work day, the difficulty of the sampling procedure, how socially involved volunteers were in the project, average sampling group size, and engagement with online learning modules. Based on our results, we suggest that intrinsic motivation may be important for predicting volunteer retention after training and the number of samples collected subsequently. We suggest that, to maximize the contribution of citizen science to our understanding of the world around us, there is an urgent need to better understand the factors that drive volunteer retention and engagement.

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“I want to be a captain! I want to be a captain!”

Cited by 82 publications

References 9 publications

Getting it Right or Being Top Rank: Games in Citizen Science

Getting it Right or Being Top Rank: Games in Citizen Science

Motivations, learning and creativity in online citizen science

Citizen meets social science: predicting volunteer involvement in a global freshwater monitoring experiment

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