‘Badges for Natural History’ will recognize and reward the knowledge and skills of the new generation of naturalists that are making a great contribution to our understanding of the world’s biodiversity. These badges will be issued first by a group of eight projects from across the globe. Badge earners will be able to move their badges between sites as they share their knowledge and experience of natural history across the world.
Recent advances in robotics open opportunities for research and developments in related fields: including the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. This presentation reports on an emerging collaboration at the University of Sydney between the Centre for Social Robotics and the Digital Cultures program.
COMUNICATO STAMPA ANTOITALIA del 29 09 2010.
ANTOITALIA SI AGGIUDICA IL MANDATO PER LA VENDITA DELLA CERTOSA DI PONTIGNANO, PRESTIGIOSO COMPLESSO IMMOBILIARE SULLE COLLINE DEL CHIANTI, PROPRIETA DELL UNIVERSITA DI SIENA.
La vendita avverra per asta pubblica. Il bando di asta sara pubblicato nei prossimi mesi.
Prezzo di partenza fissato a 68 milioni di Euro.
Recent advances in robotics open opportunities for research and developments in related fields: including the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. This presentation reports on an emerging collaboration at the University of Sydney between the Centre for Social Robotics and the Digital Cultures program.
COMUNICATO STAMPA ANTOITALIA del 29 09 2010.
ANTOITALIA SI AGGIUDICA IL MANDATO PER LA VENDITA DELLA CERTOSA DI PONTIGNANO, PRESTIGIOSO COMPLESSO IMMOBILIARE SULLE COLLINE DEL CHIANTI, PROPRIETA DELL UNIVERSITA DI SIENA.
La vendita avverra per asta pubblica. Il bando di asta sara pubblicato nei prossimi mesi.
Prezzo di partenza fissato a 68 milioni di Euro.
Where are we going and how are we going to get there?David De Roure
Keynote from JISC Projects start-up meeting
Information Environment 2009-11 & Virtual Research Environment http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/inf11/inf11startup.aspx
Description of the way in which the software sustainability institute engages the software in research community. It covers why, how, the programmes, how to select people, activities those selected do, benefits, recommendations and more.
PATHS at the Language Technology Group, Computer Science and Software Enginee...pathsproject
Presentation given by Mark Stevenson, University of Sheffield, at the Language Technology Group, Computer Science and Software Engineering Department, Melbourne University.
CSTA2015 Blocks-based Programming: Toolboxes for Many OccasionsJosh Sheldon
An overview of 4 blocks-based programming environments from MIT's Center for Mobile Learning, specifically GameBlox, TaleBlazer, and StarLogo Nova from the Scheller Teacher Education Program & Education Arcade and MIT App Inventor from the eponymous group.
Presentation of project outcomes during a 'breakfast meeting' at the University of Oslo. More information at the project site: bit.ly/visualnavigationproject
A speculation on the possible use of badges for learning at the UK Open Unive...Jon Rosewell
There has recently been a flurry of interest in supporting the idea of using ‘badges’ to recognise learning, particularly due to the Mozilla Open Badges project (http://openbadges.org/) and the funding channelled through the 2012 Digital Medial and Learning Competition (http://www.dmlcompetition.net/). Badges offer the potential of rewarding informal learning and reaching non-traditional learners.
This paper speculates on ways in which badges for learning could fit into the offering of the UK Open University, and exposes some of the tensions that badges raise.
[Paper presented at European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) conference, Cyprus, 27-28 Sept 2012]
Making your data work for you: Scratchpads, publishing & the biodiversity dat...Vince Smith
This is a derivative of a talk I gave at the Linnean society on 20th Sept. 2012. This version was given at the i4Life Environmental Genomics workshop on 25th Sept. and refocused to look at the dark taxa problem and developing published descriptions of molecular sequence clusters.
PhDO consists of networking events: both for individuals in the creative sector, and for people working in research and development. The network aims to develop realistic insights in the process of preparing, applying, setting up & carrying out research in the Creative Sector. At the same time, it will provide a podium to present research results to a relevant audience.
Invited talk given to the National Acquisitions Group conference, 5 September 2012.
Focusing on the reasons for building the Digital Library, making the case, and the social/organisational and technological aspects of digital preservation. Not covered are aspects such as collection development, audience engagement, and resource discovery.
Presented by Peter Burnhill, Director of EDINA, at PARSE.insight workshop on Preservation, Access and Re-use of Scientific Data, Darmstadt, Germany, 22 September 2009.
This presentation to the 2015 i3 Conference in Aberdeen describes two weeks of ethnographically-inspired, synchronous usability testing which will have been conducted on a prototype for a new library search tool at a small university in the United Kingdom. Phase one of testing is complete and the presentation covers the design process, initial analysis and reflection on the methods, as well as the demands placed on the research design by the practitioner setting.
As befits its title, Technologies in practice (TM129) takes a practical focus to learning, with up to 50% of study time having a practical aspect. The tutorial program should support this and in the past some tutors have found innovative ways of bringing practical demonstrations or exercises into their face-to-face sessions, for example demonstrating a robot vacuum cleaner or setting up an ad-hoc network of students’ laptops.
Producing online tutorials with an equivalent practical focus is a challenge. For TM129 we have developed a set of labcasts which deliver practical-focused synchronous tutorial events to all students, with one demonstration for each of the three blocks of the course: Robotics, networking and Linux. These labcasts are practical demonstrations which explore equipment and techniques which extend the coverage of the module. They move beyond video by the use of ‘widgets’ and a chat window which provide opportunities for students to engage actively with the demonstration. We will briefly outline these activities and present some student evaluation results.
We discuss how we plan to extend these activities into remote practical activities using OpenSTEM lab facilities. These will allow students to undertake further practical work where the student directly controls the practical activity.
We will present a framework of possible use-cases for remote practical activities, considering group size, synchronicity and locus of control; discuss some of the technological and pedagogical implications; and review progress towards delivering engaging practical activities at a distance.
A talk delivered at The Open University STEM Teaching Conference 6 Feb 2020
OpenStudio and Digital Photography: creating and sharing better imagesJon Rosewell
OpenStudio was created for the Open University course 'T189 Digital Photography: creating and sharing better images', and continues to be used in the current version TG089 run in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society. I will discuss the pedagogy of the course, the role of OpenStudio within it, and how OpenStudio is perceived by students.
More Related Content
Similar to Badges for Nature (HASTAC/DML proposal)
Where are we going and how are we going to get there?David De Roure
Keynote from JISC Projects start-up meeting
Information Environment 2009-11 & Virtual Research Environment http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/inf11/inf11startup.aspx
Description of the way in which the software sustainability institute engages the software in research community. It covers why, how, the programmes, how to select people, activities those selected do, benefits, recommendations and more.
PATHS at the Language Technology Group, Computer Science and Software Enginee...pathsproject
Presentation given by Mark Stevenson, University of Sheffield, at the Language Technology Group, Computer Science and Software Engineering Department, Melbourne University.
CSTA2015 Blocks-based Programming: Toolboxes for Many OccasionsJosh Sheldon
An overview of 4 blocks-based programming environments from MIT's Center for Mobile Learning, specifically GameBlox, TaleBlazer, and StarLogo Nova from the Scheller Teacher Education Program & Education Arcade and MIT App Inventor from the eponymous group.
Presentation of project outcomes during a 'breakfast meeting' at the University of Oslo. More information at the project site: bit.ly/visualnavigationproject
A speculation on the possible use of badges for learning at the UK Open Unive...Jon Rosewell
There has recently been a flurry of interest in supporting the idea of using ‘badges’ to recognise learning, particularly due to the Mozilla Open Badges project (http://openbadges.org/) and the funding channelled through the 2012 Digital Medial and Learning Competition (http://www.dmlcompetition.net/). Badges offer the potential of rewarding informal learning and reaching non-traditional learners.
This paper speculates on ways in which badges for learning could fit into the offering of the UK Open University, and exposes some of the tensions that badges raise.
[Paper presented at European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) conference, Cyprus, 27-28 Sept 2012]
Making your data work for you: Scratchpads, publishing & the biodiversity dat...Vince Smith
This is a derivative of a talk I gave at the Linnean society on 20th Sept. 2012. This version was given at the i4Life Environmental Genomics workshop on 25th Sept. and refocused to look at the dark taxa problem and developing published descriptions of molecular sequence clusters.
PhDO consists of networking events: both for individuals in the creative sector, and for people working in research and development. The network aims to develop realistic insights in the process of preparing, applying, setting up & carrying out research in the Creative Sector. At the same time, it will provide a podium to present research results to a relevant audience.
Invited talk given to the National Acquisitions Group conference, 5 September 2012.
Focusing on the reasons for building the Digital Library, making the case, and the social/organisational and technological aspects of digital preservation. Not covered are aspects such as collection development, audience engagement, and resource discovery.
Presented by Peter Burnhill, Director of EDINA, at PARSE.insight workshop on Preservation, Access and Re-use of Scientific Data, Darmstadt, Germany, 22 September 2009.
This presentation to the 2015 i3 Conference in Aberdeen describes two weeks of ethnographically-inspired, synchronous usability testing which will have been conducted on a prototype for a new library search tool at a small university in the United Kingdom. Phase one of testing is complete and the presentation covers the design process, initial analysis and reflection on the methods, as well as the demands placed on the research design by the practitioner setting.
Similar to Badges for Nature (HASTAC/DML proposal) (20)
As befits its title, Technologies in practice (TM129) takes a practical focus to learning, with up to 50% of study time having a practical aspect. The tutorial program should support this and in the past some tutors have found innovative ways of bringing practical demonstrations or exercises into their face-to-face sessions, for example demonstrating a robot vacuum cleaner or setting up an ad-hoc network of students’ laptops.
Producing online tutorials with an equivalent practical focus is a challenge. For TM129 we have developed a set of labcasts which deliver practical-focused synchronous tutorial events to all students, with one demonstration for each of the three blocks of the course: Robotics, networking and Linux. These labcasts are practical demonstrations which explore equipment and techniques which extend the coverage of the module. They move beyond video by the use of ‘widgets’ and a chat window which provide opportunities for students to engage actively with the demonstration. We will briefly outline these activities and present some student evaluation results.
We discuss how we plan to extend these activities into remote practical activities using OpenSTEM lab facilities. These will allow students to undertake further practical work where the student directly controls the practical activity.
We will present a framework of possible use-cases for remote practical activities, considering group size, synchronicity and locus of control; discuss some of the technological and pedagogical implications; and review progress towards delivering engaging practical activities at a distance.
A talk delivered at The Open University STEM Teaching Conference 6 Feb 2020
OpenStudio and Digital Photography: creating and sharing better imagesJon Rosewell
OpenStudio was created for the Open University course 'T189 Digital Photography: creating and sharing better images', and continues to be used in the current version TG089 run in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society. I will discuss the pedagogy of the course, the role of OpenStudio within it, and how OpenStudio is perceived by students.
Quality assurance of MOOCs: The OpenupEd quality labelJon Rosewell
The OpenupEd quality label is a quality enhancement approach to e-learning, tailored specifically to MOOCs. I will briefly introduce the OpenupEd quality label, show how it relates to other e-learning quality frameworks, and outline the ways in which it can be used, ranging from informal self-assessment to a full external review. Which of the benchmarks could contribute to enhanced design of MOOCs? Are the benchmarks sufficiently detailed? Do they capture all important aspects?
Quality frameworks for e-learning (SIEAD 2018, Brazil)Jon Rosewell
A contribution to INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION (SIEAD-BR 2018) 22nd October 2018.
"Contributions from Open and Distance Education to Higher Education Quality: present and future"
"Contribuições da Educação Aberta e à Distância para uma Educação Superior de Qualidade: presente e futuro"
In this presentation I will suggest using a quality framework to help you think about and improve quality of e-learning. I start with some general observations about quality and the need for quality frameworks. I then discuss two specific frameworks: the well-established E-xcellence benchmarks for e-learning, and the OpenupEd framework which as been specifically aligned at MOOCs. Finally I return to some more practical advise, particularly about thinking about the learning design of a course at an early stage.
The Open University, eSTEeM Conference, 25 April 2017
Summary
Find out how the OpenSTEM lab can be used to support remote access to tutor-led practical work in robotics and other technologies.
Abstract
As befits its title, Technologies in practice (TM129) takes a practical focus to learning, with up to 50% of study time having a practical aspect. The tutorial program should support this and in the past some tutors have found innovative ways of bringing practical demonstrations or exercises into their face-to-face sessions, for example demonstrating a robot vacuum cleaner or setting up an ad-hoc network of students’ laptops.
Producing online tutorials with an equivalent practical focus is a challenge. The creation of the OpenSTEM lab provides an opportunity to meet this challenge. Part of the HEFCE and OU funding for the OpenSTEM lab has provided five large ‘Baxter’ robots which will be accessible remotely as well as two which will be used at residential school. The lab also provides racked equipment bays for smaller remote access experiments, such as those being developed for the electronics curriculum. For a large population module such as TM129, this infrastructure provides an opportunity to roll-out practical-focused synchronous tutorial events to all students, provided the activities are well designed and scripted so that they can be delivered by a number of tutors.
In this presentation I will review the possible use-cases for remote practical activities, discuss some of the technological and pedagogical challenges, and review progress towards delivering engaging practical activities at a distance.
Assessing with confidence
Jon Rosewell, The Open University
Confidence-based marking (CBM) is an assessment method which asks the student not only to provide the answer to a question, but also to report their level of confidence (or certainty) in the correctness of their answer. They need to consider this carefully because it affects the marks they are awarded: a student scores full marks for knowing that they know the correct answer, some credit for a tentative correct answer but are penalised if they believe they know the answer but get it wrong. There are several motivations for using CBM: it rewards care and effort so engendering greater engagement, it encourages reflective learning, and it promises accuracy and reliability.
CBM has had niche success in the past in the context of medical training and recently may have a found a new niche in the context of regulatory compliance; these are both areas where assessment of competency and mastery is expected. However, CBM has not been widely adopted in other areas of education.
In this talk I will review the CBM landscape and ask why CBM is not used more widely. What are the benefits claimed and how robust is the evidence? How should CBM be presented to the students? Do they need training to understand how the system works? Is it a fair method of assessment? Does it disadvantage any category of student? How does it fit with ideas around ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘reflective learning’?
Confidence-based marking could offer both the student and teacher greater insight into a student’s understanding than the standard fare of e-assessment, the multiple-choice quiz. It is a technique that we should therefore keep under consideration.
Robot explorers: Gender and group attitudes to STEM: a pilot evaluation of an...Jon Rosewell
Gender and group attitudes to STEM: a pilot evaluation of an outreach robotics activity.
Alice Peasgood, Jon Rosewell, Tony Hirst
Abstract
Women are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in higher education (HE), although attitudes and participation in STEM are less polarised at younger ages. Outreach activities that aim to inspire and enthuse school-age students may help girls to consider study and careers in STEM subjects.
The Royal Institution run extra-curricular ‘masterclasses’ that aim to inspire school students in mathematics. Our session in a series of secondary maths masterclasses uses a hands-on robotics activity based on the theme of ‘robot explorers’. Students work in small groups to solve the challenge of programming a small mobile robot to navigate by applying their maths and programming skills. This pilot study looked at the possible influence of gender and friendship groups on attitudes to STEM in the context of that activity.
Those attending the masterclass series were Year 9 students nominated by East London schools. Students completed a short evaluation sheet for the session and reported whether they knew others in their group. An observer noted whether boys or girls used the computer, held the robot, and similar measures. All data was collected anonymously and the study was approved by the OU Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/2016/2238/Rosewell/1).
Preliminary results suggest that girls enjoyed the class more than boys. Girls also showed a greater increase in level of interest in robotics, although from a lower level than boys. There is a suggestion that individuals who found themselves in a group in which they had no friends reported a lower score for enjoyment.
The importance of friendship to the enjoyment and learning experienced in small group activity should be considered in the design of extra-curricular activities if they are to meet their stated aim of enthusing young students.
Opening up multiple choice - assessing with confidenceJon Rosewell
This presentation presents a new online question style, Open CBM (Certainty/Confidence Based Marking).
This achieves an open style of question (similar to a free-text or numeric question) where the student doesn't pick from possible answers, but retains the robust and easy implementation of a multiple choice (MCQ) question.
It achieves this by appropriating the technique of certainty/confidence-based marking (CBM). In CBM, a student both selects an answer and also their level of confidence: they score full marks for knowing that they know the correct answer, some credit for a tentative correct answer but are penalised if they believe they know the answer but get it wrong.
An Open CBM question is presented in two stages. Initially, the question is presented with no answer options visible; instead the student must set their confidence level that they know the answer. Only then are the possible answers are revealed and the student answers as a normal MCQ. The marking scheme follows standard CBM practice. Mechanically the question remains a simple MCQ: answer matching is trivial and robust, questions are easy to implement, and existing question banks can be reused. However, to the student, the question is effectively transformed from closed MCQ to an open question. They need to formulate an answer first before they can decide their confidence in their answer, so they must decide their answer in the absence of any positive or negative clues, reducing the chance of misconceptions, or working backwards.
Next steps for excellence in the quality of e-learning (EADTU Paris masterclass)Jon Rosewell
Overview of Excellence NEXT project for quality assurance in e-learning, presented as part of masterclass at EADTU conference, Paris, 2013. [http://conference.eadtu.eu/]
A presentation on 'MOOCs and Quality Issues' given at a workshop organised by the QA-QE special interest group of the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) [http://qaqe-sig.net/?page_id=8]
Next Steps for Excellence in the Quality of e-LearningJon Rosewell
The development of e-learning has progressed to a stage where it is becoming part of mainstream provision in higher education. Therefore the issue of assessing and sustaining the quality of e-learning must now come to the fore. Quality assessment in higher education is well-established in relation to learning and teaching generally, but what methods can be used to establish quality in the domain of e-learning?
The E-xcellence methodology for assessing quality in e-learning (EADTU 2009) is securing recognition by European and international learning organisations. It was designed to be applied to the design and delivery of e-learning in both distance learning and blended learning contexts. It supports a range of uses, from accreditation by external agencies to process improvement through internal review.
The methodology presents principles of good practice in six domains of e-learning: strategic management; curriculum design; course design; course delivery; student support; and staff support. A total of 33 benchmark statements cover these domains, and are supported by a handbook for practitioners and guidance for assessors. The handbook includes principles for quality e-learning and exemplars of good practice. Amongst the tools is an online ‘QuickScan’ self-evaluation questionnaire based on the E-xcellence benchmarks which is highly valued as a focus for collaborative review of e-learning programmes.
The e-learning landscape has changed since the E-xcellence methodology was first developed. In particular, the use of Open Education Resources (OECD 2007) and the application of social networking tools (Mason & Rennie 2008) were not explicitly considered in the original benchmarks. Accordingly, the E-xcellence NEXT project was instigated to produce and evaluate a revision of the benchmark criteria, associated handbook and exemplars. This paper describes the project process and initial recommendations.
A consultation exercise was carried out among E-xcellence participants. Feedback from this was brought to participatory workshops at a European Seminar on QA in e-learning in June 2011. Following this exercise, the benchmark statements were revised and are now available in beta version.
The project resources (Quickscan and manual) are being used for a series of self-evaluation and assessment seminars held at European higher education institutions. Feedback from these assessment seminars will be used to finalise materials for publication late in 2012. At that point the E-xcellence Next project will offer to the higher education community a set of self-evaluation and quality assessment tools which are fully updated to encompass social networking, Open Educational Resources and other recent developments in e-learning.
Can computer-marked final assessment improve retention?Jon Rosewell
Distance learning modules (particularly low-cost introductory and enrichment modules) may show poor retention compared to traditional campus courses. The perceived difficulty of exams and end-of-module assessments (EMA) appears to deter some students from submitting. In contrast, interactive computer-marked assignments (iCMA) are typically attempted by most students.
Can retention therefore be improved by changing the format of part of the final assessment to an iCMA?
Robotics and the meaning of life is a 10-point, 10-week general-interest Open University module. The assessment comprised a mid-module iCMA and a final written EMA. The iCMA (a Moodle quiz) provided detailed feedback only after the submission deadline. The EMA included short-answer questions, a programming question and an essay. The EMA was script-marked and feedback limited to overall score and performance profile provided well after the end of the course.
The intervention simply replaced the script-marked short-answer questions by a second iCMA covering the same content with similar questions. The programming and essay questions were retained unchanged as a written, script-marked EMA.
The hypothesis to be tested was that retention would increase: students would be more likely to submit the final iCMA, their confidence would increase, and they would be motivated to submit the written EMA.
Quantitative data were gathered for patterns of submission, course completion and pass rates for two presentations (124 and 220 students); data were also available for thirteen previous presentations (1814 students). Structured interviews were carried out to probe student preferences, confidence and engagement.
More students submitted the iCMA (86%) than the EMA (81%). Although they had the same deadline, 91% of students submitted the iCMA before the EMA. They submitted the iCMA well in advance of the deadline (median 4 days 15 hrs) but kept the EMA open as long as possible (median 18 hrs before deadline; 11% submitted in the final hour). These patterns strongly suggest that students were more confident with the iCMA than the EMA. Completion rates were the highest recorded: 88% and 89% compared to 79% for pre-intervention presentations. Overall pass rates were also improved (83% and 85% c.f. 76%). This can be ascribed to improved submission rates alone: the pass rate and mean scores among those who submit were unchanged giving confidence that the assessment difficulty was unaltered.
Student interviews suggested that students did attempt the final iCMA before the EMA and had greater confidence in obtaining a good mark for the iCMA than the EMA. Students valued the mix of assessment methods and felt it produced a robust result; although some expressed concern over the correctness of computer marking, they appreciated the detailed feedback it provided.
This intervention suggests that a change of assessment format can improve student engagement and pass rates without compromising rigour.
QA in e-Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER)Jon Rosewell
Introductory slides for a workshop on updating the e-learning quality assurance benchmarks of the E-xcellence NEXT project http://www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellencelabel
Exploring Web 2.0 to support online learning communities: where technology me...Jon Rosewell
A presentation to kick off a workshop at ICL2009 conference, given by Giselle Ferreira, Wendy Fisher, Jon Rosewell & Karen Kear, The Open University. http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/terg/
Equitability and Dominance in Online Forums: An Ecological ApproachJon Rosewell
Participation in online forums varies greatly: a few students post many messages, some post a few, and many only read. A rough ‘rule of thirds’ has been suggested (eg Mason 1989), but it is possible that this rule of thumb hides interesting structure.
However, similar patterns can be seen when analysing the abundance of species in ecological communities, so maybe indices of ecological diversity could also provide a useful characterisation of an online community. Such indices can unpick both ‘species richness’ (here number of participants) and equitability / dominance.
To explore this, 36 forums containing 27,000 messages were analysed to see if an ecological approach to online communities could offer useful insights.
Equitability and Dominance in Online Forums: An Ecological Approach
Badges for Nature (HASTAC/DML proposal)
1. Building Citizen Science:
A Natural History Badge Ecosystem
Jon Rosewell, iSpot, The Open University Jeff Holmes, EOL, Harvard University
2. Building Citizen Science
“Our knowledge of the living world is so
incomplete, that we are at risk of losing a great
deal of it before it is even discovered.”
E.O. Wilson
21. Phase 1
1. iSpot (& iSpot SA)
• Implement OBI for existing badge design
• Drupal & PHP
2. Encyclopedia of Life
• Implement curator badge in OBI
• Ruby on Rails
3. India Biodiversity Portal
• Design badges, implement in OBI
• Java (Jetty & Grails)
22. Phase 2
1. iNaturalist
2. Mushroom Observer
3. INBio
4. Atlas of Living Australia
All to participate in badge design, but delay
implementation until lead project have
blazed trail
23. Timeline
• April-June Initial design & prototyping
• July Technical workshop
• Aug-Oct Implementation on lead sites
Design on Phase 2 sites
• Nov Plenary meeting
• Dec-March Full implementation
26. • Skills
– identification
– data contributor
– curation
• Strong geographic focus
• Possible badges for ‘first observer’
27.
28. INBio / Cyberhives
• Earn points for contributions:
– Postings in forums
– Participation in training sessions
– Uploading and sharing images
– Survey contribution
– Uploading and sharing documents
– Participation in webinars with experts
– Field trips to wild areas
– Final presentation of research project
• Tariff: 1 = 10pts, 10 = 20pts, 30 = 30pts
29. India Biodiversity Portal
• Badges:
– contribution to observations
– curation of species pages
– peer assessment on competence in ecology
and environmental policy
“We believe the Open Badges program for India will truly
empower learners and provide opportunities and livelihoods.
We think there is an unmet need for naturalists and the
badges program can fill this need very nicely.”
Good morning, my name is Jeff Holmes from the Encyclopedia of Life project and I’m here with Jon Rosewell, from the iSpot, based out of the Open University in the UK. We’re here to make a pitch for Building Citizen Science through the use of badges.
In his 2007 TED Prize talk, the biologist E.O. Wilson made it clear that our need for better knowledge of the world’s biodiversity is pressing. He lamented this fact that, “our knowledge of the living world is so incomplete, that we are at risk of losing a great deal of it before it is even discovered.”
Out of his TED wish, the Encyclopedia of Life was born with a goal to aggregate and make freely available knowledge about all species
Over the last five years, EOL has grown to almost 1 million species pages and from the original 5 cornerstone institutions, now includes regional partners in 5 locations around the world.
Over this same period, other ambitious projects were starting up with an aim to support and strengthen the efforts of citizen scientists and… In 2011, the Encyclopedia of Life, iSpot, and 6 other organizations from around the world met at the Open University to begin a collaboration around building citizen science.
A key challenge to citizen science is that making it fun and motivating requires regional localization or grassroots efforts At the same time, there needs to be incentive for people to contribute to small projects at the local level We see badges as an important mechanism to motivate users, and help validate data through the recognition of “informal expertise” Badges for learning would reward participation and engagement and allow users to carry their skills from one project to another, encouraging wider participation and the building of truly global data sets.
I’m going to turn it over to Jon Rosewell, from iSpot, who will show how an aspiring young naturalist named Alice takes a learning journey that will deepen her knowledge about life on Earth and our understanding of global biodiversity.
I’m going to start by showing how one of our projects, iSpot, which already has a well developed badge system, encourages people like Alice. Alice has spotted a bird she doesn’t recognise and taken a photograph of it.
She uploads her photograph to create an observation on iSpot. If she can, Alice adds an initial identification, others in the community can suggest an alternative. But how does Alice know which identification to trust? At this point badges come into play. Every iSpot member is accompanied by badges which reflect their expertise. In this case several people have agreed with the identification. Bob is a beginner – shown by a single bird icon; others have more icons showing more expertise. Charlie is special – he is an expert member – his gold badge is vouched for by a natural history society. So you can judge the quality of the identification by the badges of those who support it.
Alice now has a reliable name for her plant/animal; this is the key that unlocks learning about that species and its ecology. On iSpot it provides other observations of the same species; and creates links to information elsewhere on the web such as the Encyclopedia of Life or distribution data from the UK National Biodiversity Network. Alice can now take her first steps on a learning journey.
As Alice makes identifications that the community agree with, her expertise grows and this is reflected in additional badges as she passes milestones. She can offer agreements and identifications to other users, and engage in comment and discussion around observations. These contributions are also reflected in badges. Alice may also start to collect observations of plants; but Alice’s new expertise in identifying birds doesn’t mean she is an expert in plants. iSpot therefore tracks expertise separately in eight different biological groups: plants, birds, invertebrates and so on.
iSpot is an informal learning community but we do recognize people’s achievements in more formal learning. For example, students on some Open University modules get a distinctive badge on iSpot We’ve seen expert badges. They are vouched for by one of our partner natural history societies, and the affiliation badges link back to the society’s web site. We hope that some iSpot members will be encouraged to join these natural history societies and become part of the community of amateur naturalists. In the UK especially, our knowledge of national biodiversity is largely provided by expert amateurs. So iSpot supports people as they embark on learning journey about natural history, helping to foster a new generation of naturalists. I know that the same vision underpins all the projects who are collaborating in this bid.
This describes what we currently have on iSpot – we’d now like to move iSpot and our collaborator sites to the Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure. Firstly, our badges become portable – users can start displaying them on Facebook and other social networking sites. It also means that a user who is active on both iNaturalist and iSpot can display their iNat badges on their iSpot profile and vice versa; and the same for our other collaborators. To make sense of that, we need to redesign our badges so that there is coherence and consistency across our projects – we want them to make sense to anyone viewing them. It also opens opportunities for badge exchange. Currently we issue iSpot expert badges on behalf of natural history societies – in the long term they could be responsible for issuing badges; we would just accept them. Equally, badges issued on iSpot could have value elsewhere. EOL (Encyclopedia of Life) have a curator role which will be badged. EOL are planning to accept iSpot expert badges as equivalent: an iSpot expert will get curator privileges on EOL.
This shows how EOL will accept an iSpot expert badge and use it to give curator privileges.
This isn’t going to be easy! There isn’t going to be a single badge for ‘Natural History’ because that covers too much ground. We are going to need a set of badges – and they will need to be coherent and make sense to users while still matching the different activities in our projects. I’m going to unpick these in some more detail.
The collaborators in our proposal all share the theme of citizen science for biodiversity – but they focus on and reward a range of different skills.
Also, we’ve seen that skill in identification is restricted by biological group.
We may also need to issue badges for some defined area – perhaps continents or bio-geographical regions.
We also know from experience that we need to retain strong branding for the issuer. These are the partner badges you can already see on iSpot which recognise the hugely import contribution of our expert community who volunteer on behalf of their natural history societies. The badges we issue will need to retain a strong branding – we think that this is really important to maintain the social dynamic of our sites.
Given all this variation, our badges will have to be designed as composites. This means we can have many different badges but they are easily understood. We still need some professional graphic design! They’ll have a difficult job. I’ve said that our badges must still be branded by the issuer But on the other hand we want some consistency across our collaborators so that there is some common understanding of levels and domains, so some common elements of design are also required. And they need to be small enough to work in crowded interfaces!
Our plan of work is to initially focus implementation work on three projects which cover on a range of technologies: iSpot has an existing badge design which can be reimplmented in OBI EOL requires some badge design and provides a use-case for badge exchange IBP requires extensive badge design and implementation.
Our remaining projects will participate in badge design but will hang back from implementation – they share some technology with leaders so should be able to follow the bleeding edge.
This gives an outline of how we plan to carry this out. We are planning one early workshop among the lead sites focussing on technical issues. We will hold a meeting for all project participants about half way through – that will share experience and finalise badge design before full roll out in remaining months of project. We will maintain a project blog to share progress and we will keep the project moving by weekly email / Skype discussion.
This is an exciting time, a renaissance of citizen science. Badges for learning would reward participation and engagement, and our international collaboration will allow our users to carry their skills from one project to another, encouraging a global community of citizen scientists. Thank you.