Designing online experiments: Citizen science approaches to research

In this workshop we will host presentations from researchers performing online experiments and spend a half day helping attendees create experiments using the Volunteer Science platform. Current approaches to online science use new information technologies to collect and processes data and engage citizen scientists across the globe. Programs like Zooniverse, Fold.It, and SciStarter demonstrate the power of recruiting online volunteers as participants and contributors to research. Platforms like Project Implicit and Volunteer Science confirm that a wide range of social scientific research can be conducted with volunteers in online laboratories. In this workshop, a group of scholars with wide-ranging experience in this area will discuss existing and emerging approaches to online experimentation. Participants will learn about designing and running online studies and will be given access to the Volunteer Science research platform (volunteerscience.com) where they will work with researchers to develop, test, and deploy their own online studies.