Paper at ASCILITE 2016: International Conference on Innovation, Practice and Research in the Use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education, Adelaide, 30th November, 2016.

1. Image: https://pixabay.com/en/grandstand-toys-males-child-330930/ (CC0)
Dr. Enda Donlon,
Prof. Mark Brown & Dr. Eamon Costello
Power of the Crowd:
The Promise and Potential of Crowdsourcing for Education
Adelaide, Australia
30th November 2016

2. Dublin City University…
• 16,500 FTE students
• 1400 FTE staff
• DCU Connected
• 5 Faculties
- Science & Health
- DCU Business School
- Engineering & Computing
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- DCU Institute of Education

3. Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act
of a company or institution taking a function once
performed by employees and outsourcing it to an
undefined (and generally large) network of people
in the form of an open call. This can take the form
of peer-production (when the job is performed
collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by
sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the
use of the open call format and the large network
of potential laborers.
Jeff Howe, 2006,
http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2006/06/cro
wdsourcing_a.html
Crowdsourcing
“Simply defined, crowdsourcing
represents the act of a company
or institution taking a function
once performed by employees
and outsourcing it to an
undefined (and generally large)
network of people in the form of
an open call
[...]
The crucial prerequisite is the
use of the open call format and
the large network of potential
laborers.”
- Jeff Howe, 2006
http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2006/06/crowdsourcing_a.html
Image: Joi Ito https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/15785885631 (CC BY 2.0)

4. Crowdsourcing is not new
Hossain & Kauranen (2015)
1884: Oxford English
Dictionary uses 800
contributors to
catalogue words
1936: Kiichiro Toyoda
crowdsources logo for
car company (27,000
submissions)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/audience-crowd-people-persons-828584 (CCO)

5. Estellés-Arolas and González-
Ladrón-de-Guevara (2012)
40 definitions: 8 attributes common to any crowdsourcing
initiative
1. the crowd
2. the task at hand
3. the recompense obtained
4. the crowdsourcer or initiator of the crowdsourcing
activity
5. what is obtained by them following the crowdsourcing
activity
6. the type of process
7. the call to participate
8. the medium
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/people-crowd-concert-show-691777 (CCO)

6. Crowdsourcing in Education - why?
- access to a potentially global range and diversity of locations,
opinions and problem-solving options; provides a means of
voicing opinions that otherwise would not be shared; brings
together communities of interest and concern (Paulin &
Haythornthwaite, 2016)
- assimilate many small contributions into resources of high quality
(Cornelli & Mikroyannidis, 2012)
- offers new ways of envisioning student involvement in the
classroom (c/f students as producers) (Hills, 2015)
- dissemination, negotiation and evaluation of scholarship
(Veletsianos, 2013).
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/mass-people-supporters-1355493 (CC0)

7. http://project252.donenda.com
@proj252
#proj252
Case Study 1

8. 26 X 2 = 52
26 Letters, 52 Weeks, 1 Year

9. Irish Times: 14 April 2015 (http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/our-top-50-education-apps-1.2170272)

10. Open Participation

13. @proj252
Regular updates (new letter, last day,
milestones (100, 500, etc.)
Automated tweets when new submission
approved - automatically tagged with
#proj252, #edchatie, #edchat, #ukedchat,
#aussieed
Open Attribution

14. 677
Contributions
96
Contributors
(+ 29 anonymous)
26
Mean / Letter

15. 69627
contribution views
(4th Jan 2016)
137012
contribution views
(16th Oct 2016)
111+
countries
Open to All

16. Usage Keywords
Open Tagging

17. Open Across Education Levels

18. http://project252.donenda.com

19. Case Study 2
http://studentsuccess.ie
@FLSuccess

20. The aim of the Student Success Toolbox is to support transitions from thinking
about study to the first weeks to increase retention and completion rates
particularly for flexible learners (undergraduate adult, part-time and
online/distance students).

21. Tool 7
Study Tips
for Me

22. Formally launched September 2016
33 Study Tips and growing

23. Crowdsourcing:
What have we learned?
- Enables access to a diverse range of contributions and
a wide geographical base
- Social networking tools and web-based platforms can
enhance the collation and dissemination of contributions
- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
- Peer review and quality assurance remains a challenge
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/fireworks-pyrotechnics-crowd-people-918892/ (CC0)

24. Crowdsourcing and Openness - Next?
Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2916) Opening
up education– a support framework for higher education institutions. JRC,
European Commission

25. Go raibh
maith
agaibh!