Ideas from experience of social learning on iSpot for FutureLearn - what iSpot is, what worked well for encouraging participation, what worked less well, and models of social participation to inform the design of social learning environments, such as MOOCs. Presentation given to a FutureLearn partners meeting, OU London office, Mon 24 June 2013.

1. iSpot: Informal Social Learning
FutureLearn Partner Meeting
24 June 2013
Doug Clow

2. • What iSpot is
• What worked
• What didn’t
• Models of social participation
(cc) kqedquest http://www.flickr.com/photos/kqedquest/4288564951/

3. what iSpot is

5. Take a photo

8. iSpot ecosystem

10. • 25,000 registered users & rising daily
• 180,000 observations with 300,000 images
• 225,000 identifications, 750,000 agreements
• > 5,000 different wildlife species spotted
• 96% observations receive a name, most in <1h

11. what worked

12. • Easy to do
• Easy to learn what to do
• Only positive interactions
• No downvoting
• Progress is ‘safe’
• Nothing for griefers to do
• Expert opinion rises above
non-certified
• Helpful tone set

13. Roles for power users
•Help the newbies
•Reasons to stay
•Build on existing
communities
•System scales,
stays responsive
Active curation
•Team
•Mentors
•Experts
•Power users

14. Links with events and mass media:
•News about moth => traffic spike
•SpringWatch => registration spike
•Saving Species => sustained participation
Reputation system
•Show expertise
•Engage experts
•Encourage development

15. what didn’t work (so well)

16. • Face to face activities
(without a lot of work)
• Complex interface
• System downtime
• Data loss (recovered!)
• Linked formal course
• 10 observations dump
• Insufficient sign-ups
• Some still highly active

17. models of social participation

18. Reader to Leader
(Preece & Shneiderman, 2009)

19. Fairy ring:
•Rhizome grows beneath
•Mushrooms pop up
•Infer existence from
ring, even when no
mushrooms
(cc) BazzaDaRambler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bazzadarambler/6887267858/
(cc) Mick E. Talbot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25258702@N04/4936236972/

20. GIVE / RECEIVE
EXPERTISE
BROWSE
UPLOAD
COMMENT
IDENTIFY
JOINT-DECISION
COLLABORATION
PEER-TO-PEER
SHARE CONTROL
CONTENT AND
COMMUNIITY
RECIPROCITYRECIPROCITY
PERSONAL
INTEREST
PERSONAL
INTEREST
REAL WORLD
DRIVERS
REAL WORLD
DRIVERS
ENTHUSIASMENTHUSIASM

21. Mode 0: Lurking
- legitimate peripheral participation
Mode 1: Contributing
– dumping, peripherating, posting
Mode 2: Engaging
– relating
Mode 3: Co-constructing
Mode 4: Moderating
– stewarding, tending, policing,
enforcing, maintaining, gardening
(cc) Mick E. Talbot http://www.flickr.com/photos/25258702@N04/4936236972/

22. For more high-level participation (Co-constructing):
• Make it easy to learn (LPP)
• Make it easy to participate
• Make it clear what you want
• Reward/reinforce it
• Conservation activity!
• Build on existing community

23. • iSpot Team:
Jonathan Silvertown, Doug Clow, Richard Greenwood, Richard
Lovelock, Mike Dodd, Martin Harvey, Donal O’Donnell, Jenny
Worthington, Marion Edwards, Jon Rosewell, Janice Ansine, iSpot
Mentors
• Photos not otherwise credited:
Mike Dodd, Jonathan Silvertown, Martin Harvey
doug.clow@open.ac.uk
http://dougclow.org
@dougclow