10:00 AM - 10:15 AM
[U06-05] Assessing impact by engaging communities in research
★Invited Papers
Keywords:informal education, transdiscplinary, community engagement, co-creation
Many funders ask to hear about the impact of our work, whether that be the number of visitors to our website, how many students we engaged with during classroom visits, or evidence that an end-user we engaged with has changed their policy or habits. All of these metrics and evidence bases rely on us informally educating end-users (which can include the public) about our work. Often, this is done in a unidirectional way by providing summaries or updates about our work either virtually or in person by means of social and traditional media, websites, or public talks. Without following up with individuals, it is hard to know what our audiences have learned and difficult to generate some of the metrics previously mentioned.
One way to address these challenges is to adapt our communication methods from unidirectional to bidirectional. While this shift is already occurring as participatory science, community and citizen science, and co-production become more popular, these frameworks are not necessarily applicable to all projects. In such cases, hearing community values and concerns about your topic, addressing the noted values and concerns, and reporting back may be more appropriate. This could alleviate what is being asked of end-users while still ensuring a solution tailored to their values, interests, and issues. Additionally, co-creating summary outputs allows end-users to demonstrate what outputs are most useful to them and allows evaluation of what they have taken away from your project. This talk will discuss the larger trends of including end-users through the scientific process and explore both of these less intensive end-user involvement practices. It will also briefly touch on some of the ethical and equitable considerations about whose voices are being heard and included in this type of work. Finally, I will mention how this trend of place-based, community-involved research can benefit from collaborations with other communities and researchers located elsewhere, including across borders.
One way to address these challenges is to adapt our communication methods from unidirectional to bidirectional. While this shift is already occurring as participatory science, community and citizen science, and co-production become more popular, these frameworks are not necessarily applicable to all projects. In such cases, hearing community values and concerns about your topic, addressing the noted values and concerns, and reporting back may be more appropriate. This could alleviate what is being asked of end-users while still ensuring a solution tailored to their values, interests, and issues. Additionally, co-creating summary outputs allows end-users to demonstrate what outputs are most useful to them and allows evaluation of what they have taken away from your project. This talk will discuss the larger trends of including end-users through the scientific process and explore both of these less intensive end-user involvement practices. It will also briefly touch on some of the ethical and equitable considerations about whose voices are being heard and included in this type of work. Finally, I will mention how this trend of place-based, community-involved research can benefit from collaborations with other communities and researchers located elsewhere, including across borders.