CosmoQuest: Designing for Longterm Engagement

The CosmoQuest virtual research facility is designed to provide members of the public opportunities to learn and do science that parallel the facilities in real world research facilities. It is our hope that by providing a... [ view full abstract ]

The CosmoQuest virtual research facility is designed to provide members of the public opportunities to learn and do science that parallel the facilities in real world research facilities. It is our hope that by providing a rich environment, we can promote long-term engagement, including social engagement. CosmoQuest's site can loosely be categorized into five areas: science programs, popular media, online classes, and content for educators. In this talk, we consider how community members move within the first four of these content areas, and study what site usage patterns correlate with long-term engagement.

Currently, CosmoQuest’s citizen science programs focus on mapping geological features on rocky bodies in the Solar System. Initial checks into volunteers’ behavior show that participants tend to focus their efforts on a favorite world, although we are going to test if volunteer behaviors can be effected through direct intervention and badges. These results will be discussed in this talk.

Just as real-world research centers provide classes, seminars, and colloquium to help students and professionals develop, CosmoQuest produces a variety of programs designed to advance the knowledge of community members. Video content is produced using Google Hangouts-on-Air and is streamed live and archived on YouTube.com/astrospherevids. Weekly content includes: Astronomy Cast (basic astronomy), the Google Lunar XPRIZE Team Hangouts (interviews with GLXP team members), Learning Space (content for educators), the Weekly Space Hangout (space science news), and the Virtual Star Party. Additional, audio-only, content is supplied by a community of volunteers and distributed through the “365 Days of Astronomy” podcast. Small classes (limited to 8 participants) are also offered for a fee through the CosmoAcademy program. We will examine audience overlap between these learning opportunities and look to see how participation affects behavior and retention.

Finally, we will consider how forum participation relates to use of the rest of CosmoQuest.