Workshop Report WG 2: Systematic review of training needs and recommendations

Workshop Report WG 2: Systematic review of training needs and recommendations

Coverpicture_WG2Riga.png


Photo by CA15212

 

We are pleased to finally share our report “Training needs and recommendations for Citizen Science participants, facilitators and designers” with the community. We hope our approach to structure the training needs and the suggested training recommendations will be a useful framework for citizen science training developers. As a supplement to the report, we have gathered some resources and invite the citizen science community to further contribute to this list. Just add the details into the form and your entry will we added to the resource list.
Here some further details about the report:

Workshop Date: 12-13th November 2018
Location: Riga, Latvia
Organizers: Gunta Kalvāne, Yaela N Golumbic, Julia Lorke, with planning support from Silvia Winter
Participants: Claire Ramjan, Esra Per, Juhani Kettunen, Kamel Labibes, Luciano Massetti, Osnat Atias, Sebastian Höfner

 

Objectives

The aim of this workshop was to understand what the training requirements for project designers, facilitators and participants are, and to develop recommendations for designing and running future citizen science training for these three target audiences.

Summary of workshop days

DAY 1:

  • A brief presentation of case studies by all workshop participants.
  • Separation into three groups, to define and discuss training needs and recommendations for three target audiences: project designers, facilitators and participants.

DAY 2:

  • Sharing of insights from the three groups.
  • Developing a structured approach to systematically describe and address training needs.

Our structured approach

To develop a comprehensive description of training requirements we systematically discussed the training needs and challenges for each of the three target audiences. Building on these, we established training recommendations to address the needs and challenges identified for each audience.

Summary of the report

Training needs are defined in three broad categories:

  • ‘Core’ needs: related to the holistic and epistemological nature of the project.
  • ‘Operational’ needs: concerned with the project’s processes and organisational aspects.
  • ‘Engagement’ needs: related to the experiential needs of those involved in the project.

For each category, we define the needs and provide audience-specific considerations. 

Training challenges are briefly discussed, starting with audience related challenges and moving towards project-related ones. Training recommendations are described for each audience, with reference to each of the three needs’ categories. 

Lastly, a collection of existing resources for designing citizen science training is provided. We invite the community to add to the resources list by entering information in a google form.

You can download the report https://nhm.openrepository.com/handle/10141/622589.