Presentation delivered by @donenda, @mbrownz & @eam0 at "The Next Generation: Digital Learning Research Symposium 2016" at The Helix, Dublin.

1. Harnessing the Crowd
Framing a Research Agenda
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/audience-crowd-event-cheer-945449/ (CC0)
Dr. Enda Donlon Prof. Mark Brown Dr. Eamon Costello
@donenda @mbrownz @eam0
#nextgendl
1st Nov 2016

2. Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act
of a company or institution taking a function once
performed by employees and outsourcing it to an
undefined (and generally large) network of people
in the form of an open call. This can take the form
of peer-production (when the job is performed
collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by
sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the
use of the open call format and the large network
of potential laborers.
Jeff Howe, 2006,
http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2006/06/cro
wdsourcing_a.html
Crowdsourcing
“Simply defined, crowdsourcing
represents the act of a company
or institution taking a function
once performed by employees
and outsourcing it to an
undefined (and generally large)
network of people in the form of
an open call
[...]
The crucial prerequisite is the
use of the open call format and
the large network of potential
laborers.”
- Jeff Howe, 2006
http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2006/06/crowdsourcing_a.html
Image: Joi Ito https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/15785885631 (CC BY 2.0)

3. Crowdsourcing is not new
Hossain & Kauranen (2015)
1884: Oxford English
Dictionary uses 800
contributors to
catalogue words
1936: Kiichiro Toyoda
crowdsources logo for
car company (27,000
submissions)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/audience-crowd-people-persons-828584 (CCO)

4. Image: https://pixabay.com/en/grandstand-toys-males-child-330930/ (CC0)
why
Crowdsourcing
as a
Research Topic
?

5. Evolving Definition
“The term ‘crowdsourcing’ is a term in its
infancy, which, as new applications appear, is
undergoing constant evolution” (Estellés-Arolas
& González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, 2012, p. 198).
“As the crowdsourcing phenomenon is
emerging, the related terminology is also
evolving” (Hossain & Kauranen, 2015, p. 3)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/definition-word-dictionary-text-390785/ (CC0)

6. Overlapping Terms (Doan et al,
2011)
… peer production … user-powered systems …
user-generated content … collaborative
systems … community systems … peer
production … user-powered systems … user-
generated content … collaborative systems …
community systems … social systems … social
search … social media … collective intelligence
… wikinomics … crowd wisdom ...smart mobs
… mass collaboration … human computation ...
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/question-mark-pile-question-mark-1495858/ (CC0)

7. Hossain and Kauranen (2015): idea generation,
microtasking, citizen science
Abraham et al. (2016): open source software
Armstrong et. al (2012): clinical research
Orozco (2016): ‘lawsourcing’
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/army-blade-compact-cut-equipment-2186/ (CC0)
Evolving Applications

8. Evolving Technologies
“advanced internet technologies have
made crowdsourcing practicable for an
immeasurably wider audience, at a larger
scale, for a greater number of products and
services, and at greatly enhanced speed”
(Saxton, Oh & Kishore, 2013, p4)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/board-circuit-control-center-binary-1607174/ (CC0)

9. Evolving Pedagogies
Shift from Students as Consumers
to Students as Creators [Key
Trend]
“A shift is taking place in the focus of
pedagogical practice in universities and
institutions of technology in Ireland as
students across a wide variety of
disciplines are learning by making and
creating rather than from the simple
consumption of content.” (p.6)
Hills (2015): “crowdsourced content
creation with the student as producer
model” (p. 7)

10. “ … more open practices, such as pre-
publishing book chapters, open reviews
and open research methods. The latter
can include the use of approaches such as
crowdsourcing and social media
analysis, which rely on openness to
succeed…” (Weller, 2014, p.7)
dissemination, negotiation and evaluation of
scholarship (Veletsianos, 2013).
Evolving Scholarship
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/laptop-computer-open-technology-768694 (CC0)

11. Crowdsourcing: a Research Agenda
“Crowdsourcing is one of the emerging
phenomena that has seen its wide applications
in practice and is yet to receive intense
attention …” Zhao & Zhu, 2014, p. 417
“This technique of innovation has had huge
success in business and industry, but has yet
to show impact in education in great ways …”
(Foulger, 2014, p. 110)
Image https://pixabay.com/en/student-typing-keyboard-text-woman-849825/ (CC0)

12. Crowdsourcing in Education - why?
access to a potentially global range and diversity of locations,
opinions and problem-solving options; provides a means of
voicing opinions that otherwise would not be shared; brings
together communities of interest and concern (Paulin &
Haythornthwaite, 2016)
assimilate many small contributions into resources of high
quality (Cornelli & Mikroyannidis, 2012)
“demonstrable advantage of such open approaches to data
gathering for specific projects is leading to this being an
increasingly popular methodology” (Weller, 2011, p. 61)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/mass-people-supporters-1355493 (CC0)

13. http://project252.donenda.com
@proj252
#proj252
Case Study 1

14. 26 X 2 = 52
26 Letters, 52 Weeks, 1 Year

15. Open Participation

16. @proj252
Regular updates (new letter, last day,
milestones (100, 500, etc.)
Automated tweets when new submission
approved - automatically tagged with
#proj252, #edchatie, #edchat, #ukedchat,
#aussieed
Open Attribution

17. 677
Contributions
96
Contributors
(+ 29 anonymous)
26
Mean / Letter

18. 69627
contribution views
(4th Jan 2016)
137012
contribution views
(16th Oct 2016)
111+
countries
Open to All

19. Open Across Education Levels

20. http://project252.donenda.com

21. Case Study 2
http://studentsuccess.ie
@FLSuccess

22. The aim of the Student Success Toolbox is to support transitions from thinking about
study to the first weeks to increase retention and completion rates particularly for flexible
learners (undergraduate adult, part-time and online/distance students) as this is a
significant problem in the Irish Higher Education sector. The project provides flexible
learners with a suite of digital tools to help them assess their own readiness, provide
feedback and lay the foundation for successful programme completion.

23. Tool 7
Study Tips
for Me

24. Formally launched September 2016
33 Study Tips and growing

25. Thank You!
Go raibh maith
agaibh!