1. Citizen Inquiry: From Rocks to Clouds Maria Aristeidou, Eileen Scanlon, Mike Sharples Institute of Educational Technology The Open University

2. Outline Citizen Inquiry Inquiring Rock Hunters ▫The story ▫The results ▫Now, what? Let’s mission ▫Communities of Practice ▫Community of Citizen Inquiry ▫Next steps

3. Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps Citizen Science Inquiry- based Learning Citizen Inquiry People: Engage with online scientific inquiries Design and run their own investigations Do personal meaning-making activities Share knowledge and receive feedback Use technology that supports the investigations and the collaboration Become critical of the scientific information they receive

4. Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps 24 participants (Expert and Amateur) Geologists Online platform nQuire 12 Rock Investigations Discussion and feedback on chat and forums Data collection: ▫Questionnaires, System Usability Scale, published investigations, Online focus group discussion, online and face-to-face interviews the story

5. Inquiry Results Inquiry Diagram nQuire Forum

6. Investigations: ▫5 beginners, 7 intermediates, 0 experts ▫Themes: general, specific, specialised, located-based ▫7 complete, 7 incomplete ▫Feedback: 3 investigations but no follow-up discussion nQuire platform: ▫SUS score: not very usable (60.8%) ▫BUT easy to use with the tutorial ▫Most used tools: image up-load tool, maps, notebook. Mentoring: ▫Beginners ask, experts respond, intermediates inactive Collaboration ▫Forum and chat – forum is preferred (lack of time) ▫Beginners and experts more active ▫3 follow-up discussions Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps the results

7. Inquiring Rock Hunters - Interaction cycle

8. Active contribution of specific members only Non-help seeking within the community No response to the feedback Platform is abandoned Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps now, what? Need to improve the sense of community in Citizen Inquiry

9. Communities of Practice “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, 1998). Elements: Domain, community, practice Knowledge exchange, interpretation and critique Collaborative achievement Life-cycle stages: potential, coalescing, maturing, stewardship and transformation Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps

10. Community of Citizen Inquiry Domain: Weather Community: People interested in weather (experts and amateurs) Practice: Group investigations, discussion, resources Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps My mission “How can we create an active and sustainable community of practice for citizens to engage in successful online scientific investigations?”

11. Next steps Literature review on online communities Tips for successful – sustainable communities Inception of the weather community idea Design of the technology usability and sociability Creation of an intentional community Let’s mission! Citizen Inquiry IRH: The story IRH: The results IRH: Now, what? Communities of Practice Community of Citizen Inquiry Next Steps

12. Thank you!!!