Understanding learning opportunities in citizen science: a triangulated approach

Citizen science (CS) projects have strong educational potential, because their participants have the opportunity to develop scientific skills and literacy as well as acquire content knowledge. This study aimed to understand the alignment between learning opportunities proposed by CS project coordinators and participants’ perceived learning. Expected learning envisioned by project coordinators was examined using two data sets: one from X social media platform (N = 118 general analysis, N = 25 case study), and from CS project descriptions (N = 94 general analysis, N = 11 case study). The self-perceived learning of participants was studied using an online survey (N = 610 general analysis, N = 135 case study). Given the diverse datasets, a triangulated approach was implemented to identify and synthesise any overlaps and discrepancies between project coordinators’ and participants’ perspectives on learning opportunities. Our results highlight the gap between the project coordinators’ perspective on learning opportunities and citizen scientists’ perceived learning. There were significant differences regarding what is proposed by coordinators in online channels, with the learning perceived by participants such as understanding the scientific process. Our findings highlighted that communication is critical for CS coordinators in promoting participation and matching the learning expectations of participants.