The Goal

We are in the design and planning phase of a new climate change-related citizen science web prototype (related to "UN Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts"). The prototype will be a mobile-friendly website that allows citizens to take and submit photos and other “ground truth” observations to the Trusted Authorities, during /after floods. This information can be used to help the authorities assess and predict the flood or disaster scope and impact.

We intend to train "citizen scientists" (users) on safely taking and submitting flood disaster observations using our citizen science web application prototype. What is the best approach and method to conduct the training?

• Focus on what is relevant to them
• Be clear what on what objectives your citizen science tutorial is focused on achieving
• Choose appropriate methods to educate your target citizen scientist audience.

Based on the information we'll provide, students will develop a training requirements action plan and supporting materials, which can include ready-to-use templates, processes, strategy, and high-level training design that will support the training of users (citizen scientists). The training should also focus on ensuring that citizens scientists can safely take and submit observations that are scientifically accurate/useful. This can be achieved by addressing issues such as conflict of interest and personal biases, following guides, tools, and templates that have been developed to promote research integrity from start to finish. Examples of things to consider include:

• The role of experiential learning in training citizen scientists
• Completed life cycle journey map
• Strategy and templates which will improve training results
• Interviews and questionnaire/Quiz to assess trainee readiness and knowledge
• High-level design of training materials

Your Contribution

Use your skills and creativity in all aspects of the training requirements design process: research, analysis, iteration, presentation and evaluation. You will be able to improve our understanding of the best approach, methods, and tools to train citizen scientists/users on safely taking observations using our citizen science web application prototype.

At the start of the project we will provide a walk-through of our prototype site and content. We will also provide a wealth of background material on the application, its use case, goals and objectives, and even detailed low-level fidelity wireframes. and other recommendations behind the proposed citizen science web application features.

We will avail ourselves to meeting with students participating in this study once a week or as necessary to provide guidance and suggested research.