Building community in a citizen science project: fostering social interaction for meaningful engagement
Guest post and video by Sadie Coffin, 2025 Association for Advancing Participatory Science and NASA Fellow. Originally published in the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences blog on February 28, 2025.
When we first launched Redshift Wrangler, I focused on making the science understandable and engaging, but what I hadn’t anticipated was how important social interactions would be in keeping volunteers engaged. What kept people coming back was a sense of community, and one of the most important ways I’ve learned to foster community on our project is by making communication a two-way street. I started to realize this when I saw that volunteers who posted on our Talk boards or joined our office hours were more likely to stick with the project longer. When I responded to questions quickly and shared updates on how volunteer classifications contributed to our research, I noticed that some volunteers became more invested and actively involved in the project. Volunteers are more likely to stay engaged when they feel seen and included, when they see their contributions valued, and when they have opportunities to connect with both the researchers and other participants. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned about volunteer engagement is that creating a collaborative and supportive environment where volunteers are active members of your scientific community is essential to getting the science done.
In this blog post, I’ll dive deeper into the lessons I’ve learned from both my own experiences and the experts I’ve been learning from, including videos from the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series. These clips and insights contain valuable ideas in how to approach communication and interaction for more meaningful interactions and a more engaged community of volunteers. I’m going to share a few that have been especially useful to me.
Fostering social interaction among volunteers and project teams
Early in the project, our Zooniverse Talk Forums were more active, but mostly limited to questions about individual objects. Our volunteers classified spectra but rarely posted about themselves or their experiences. We took inspiration from other successful projects to find new ways of communicating and building a deeper connection with our volunteers, including interacting with them more directly and encouraging them to share their own thoughts and experiences. Building a strong community should make volunteers feel like collaborators, not just participants. We introduced:
An Introductions/Welcome board for volunteers, where we encouraged volunteers to introduce themselves and share their stories. To set the tone, we started with the members of our research team, each introducing ourselves and mentioning our role on the project as well as personal interests to spark casual conversations.
A newsletter shared over email, social media, and our Talk boards to provide updates about our project, our team’s work, and discoveries made so far while reinforcing the important role of the volunteers in our research process.
Zoom office hours, where we established direct interactions between volunteers and members of our research team. These calls provide an informal space for volunteers to ask questions, share feedback, and feel more connected to the research team and each other.
Through these efforts, we saw shifts in the volunteer experience and we started to see a more active community. Dedicated volunteers not only classified more objects but also engaged more frequently in discussions on the Talk boards or in Zoom sessions. Volunteers started sharing more about their personal experiences, and our team gained valuable insights into their motivations and challenges. During the CitSci2020: Dive Into Project Design series event, one of Becky Rother’s key takeaways was that when research teams engage directly in discussions (ie. on the Zooniverse Talk boards) it makes volunteers feel heard and valued, and acknowledging contributions reinforces that citizen science is a collaborative effort. On Redshift Wrangler, we try to follow this approach and use our Talk boards to establish two-way communication. We discuss our research and things we find interesting in the project, invite volunteers to talk about themselves and share their own insights, and actively respond to their comments and questions.
Staying on top of these interactions can be challenging, and I’m still learning how to keep discussions going without overwhelming myself as the main facilitator. Early on when we had a large influx of questions, our team managed this by dividing responsibility, with each member answering comments on different days. Now, we have a steadier flow of discussions, and we even have a volunteer moderator who helps keep things running smoothly. I’ve also learned useful lessons from other citizen science experts (special shout-out to Rob Zellem from Exoplanet Watch, who shared some great tips at the NASA Cit Sci Community Meeting) about how to set boundaries to sustain my own engagement while protecting my time. Some of the key points that have stuck with me as our project has grown:
Don’t feel pressured to respond immediately to every question or comment.
Encourage your volunteers to support each other and foster community so you’re not the only point of contact.
Establish clear project norms with a code of conduct and well-defined goals (our code of conduct is modeled after the example from the Zooniverse team, which can be found in their Zooniverse Talk Community Standards board)
Other citizen science project leaders have shared valuable insights about fostering community while setting sustainable boundaries. For example, in the CitSci2020: Dive Into Project Design series event, Becky Rother from Zooniverse emphasized the importance of making research teams more visible and approachable with tools like discussion boards and video content, while Darlene Cavalier mentioned that SciStarted has had success with Zoom events to help volunteers connect with scientists in real time. In Redshift Wrangler, we created a welcome video featuring members of our research team explaining the background material from our About page, and we receive positive feedback about establishing our Zoom office hours, but I’d like to explore even more ways to enhance volunteer interactions. I’m still learning from the advice of experts like Becky (Zooniverse), Darlene (SciStarter), and Jennifer (AAPS) in this webinar and others in the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series.
In Redshift Wrangler, I’ve noticed that people return to the project when they feel welcomed and valued. Another useful lesson came from Corey Jackson’s research on Zooniverse participants, which he shared during the Women in Astronomy Citizen Science series event in 2024. His findings showed just how much visibility and representation matter, and when volunteers see themselves as part of the community, they’re more likely to stay engaged. I recognized these patterns in my own project: some of our most dedicated volunteers aren’t just here for the science, they’re also drawn in by the conversations, the shared learning, and the chance to contribute meaningfully. I’ve seen this firsthand in the way experienced volunteers help answer newcomers’ questions on our Talk boards, return to office hours to discuss their latest classifications and ask new questions, and share interpretations or observations on the data beyond what we ask in the task.
This post reflects on some of the strategies I’ve implemented so far and what I’ve learned about sustaining engagement in my own project. Drawing on insights from the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series webinars (especially the Women in Astronomy Citizen Science event), there are so many simple strategies I’m still eager to apply, including: normalizing mistakes, encouraging people to share their failures as well as their successes, and emphasizing learning over expertise to make projects feel more welcoming to all participants. The speakers in this webinar offer so many valuable insights into creating more inclusive and supportive spaces for participants and fostering belonging.
Advice I’d Give Myself
Looking back, I wish I had thought more in the beginning about volunteer needs and worked on our project design with community in mind. If I could give my past self advice, it would be:
Be more specific about your audience and content you’re making for them. Who do you really want to reach, and what do they need? Instead of trying to attract everyone, focus on who your project naturally draws in and then identify and remove barriers for those groups (Women in Astronomy Citizen Science, and see our Identifying your Core Audience Guide for more).
Make social interactions a priority from the beginning. Volunteers are more likely to stay engaged when they feel part of a community and when their contributions are visible, valued, and acknowledged.
Remember project design is an iterative process. You should be open and ready to learn as you go and adjust your approach based on feedback from volunteers and what’s working or not working.
I’m still learning so much from my volunteers and experts in citizen science alike, and I expect that will always be the case! But recognizing that citizen science engagement is an ongoing process, not a one-time design/setup/decision, has been one of my most valuable lessons, and focusing on our community rather than reaching “the public” has helped me connect with our volunteers more meaningfully.