No Illusions about newcomers

Have asked course manager for a short summary of what they are asked to do.

That is good. I have become increasingly curious.

Louisa - so glad that you are also enjoying iSpot - many of us were newcomers and have learned from iSpot. I donā€™t think iSpot was ever meant to be for experts only -
BUT it is gratifying when one has commented that the comments are also heeded -
This observation from the SA Community shows what happens when there is interaction following a post

Jane has produced some amazing follow-up. There are Ā± 800 species of Erica in southern Africa, So finding a name by a non-expert, even if not newcomer, is quite daunting.
@dejayM Hope youā€™ll see this and the possible ID I have eventually chosen, but not added.
@miked wondering what the AI folk (boffins) would suggest?

First published in Contr. Bolus Herb. 19: 291 (2000)
Any suggestions/comments? Or must I keep searching one-by-one.
M

As far as AI goes, it needs large numbers of examples of each species i.e. thousands of photos of each from different angles/lighting conditions etc. I suspect these simply do not exist for most of the ZA Ericas. Also of course the photos need to be correctly identified in the first place otherwise it just introduces noise which reduces the overall quality of the identifications. I have large heaps of photos of certain taxa (not ZA Ericas) and in the past have tended to weed/delete them to just leave one or two example images of each taxon but now perhaps it is better to have lots of pictures incase they are needed for generating AI ID systems.

Yes - deleting sounds great at first - I was advised to do this years ago, when my old hard drive was overflowing. So sorry now.

A lot of new users are posting observations (many of whom seem to be OU students) - and quite a few are not getting the process right, from what little Iā€™ve seen. It underlines for me the value of a friendly welcome message with a few ā€˜getting startedā€™ tips. If Amadan has already drafted something, could that not be used even as a temporary measure?

I agree, we can help. Thatā€™s why I have asked (above) miked for the course criteria given to the students. When we know what they are required to do we can give appropriate feedback. In the meantime we ā€œwelcomeā€ and offer what seems appropriate, but itā€™s not ideal.

Here are some of the words about the activity that the students are given. This is just the introduction, it goes on to talk about planning, preparation health and safety etc in carrying out the bioblitz, it also mentions the pollinator activity that they do in the spring also on iSpot. One thing that springs to mind is that it does not mention guide books, keys or other methods of identification, not sure if they are covered elsewhere in the course as this activity is at the very beginning of the course. Perhaps these are things that might be mentioned to students if they are interested:

" As you study S295 you will learn about the diversity of life and how organisms interact with each other and with their environment. You will also develop some of the key skills needed to investigate the biology of organisms in the field. One such skill is identifying organisms. In this activity you will use an internet tool designed to help you develop your plant and animal identification skills. You will also learn how knowing a name can add value to any biological investigation. Good identification skills will be particularly helpful in Investigation E: Pollinators, which you will carry out at the end of the module.

It is often surprising to find that in the places where one lives and works, there is a huge variety of plants and animals that are passed by unnoticed. Many species are overlooked because they are so commonplace but others are not noticed because they actively avoid humans. However, by going out and actively searching for plants and animals it is possible to make many fascinating discoveries, as you may discover in Activity 3.1, where you will carry out a bioblitz.

A bioblitz is an intense survey over a set time period to find and identify as many species as possible. Usually they occur at a particular location, but in this exercise a record will be kept of all the different species of plants and animals that S295 students find within their local areas.

To help identify the plants and animals you find you will use iSpot. This is a website, developed by The Open University, which enables people with little or no knowledge of plant and animal identification to access the help and expertise of a knowledgeable online community of naturalists.

The data collected by all S295 students will be collated on iSpot so that you will see the variety of different species found. You will also share information about one of the species you find with other students."

The course looks interesting! But it doesnā€™t tell us anything about how students are ā€˜preparedā€™ when the first approach using iSpot. Presumably the course tutors (or whatever they are called) offer some guidance - they could do worse than reading the Gremlins thread!!

Thanks Mike and to the course organisers for providing this information.

This seems relevant*: ā€œYou will also develop some of the key skills needed to investigate the biology of organisms in the field. One such skill is identifying organisms. In this activity you will use an internet tool designed to help you develop your plant and animal identification skills.ā€*

Many of us have developed some skills in ID so thatā€™s a good start. I assume that the internet tool mentioned is iSpot.

As SurreyBirder says it doesnā€™t tell us how they are prepared ā€¦ it could be that making ā€˜successful posts on iSpotā€™ is a major part of the challenge they will be judged upon.

A measurable criterion I can see is "over a set time period to find and identify as many species as possibleā€.

We regulars, if I may use that term, on iSpot cannot help with ā€˜findingā€™ but Identifying is what we love to do.

So we have a range of options available, all of them dependant on the quality of the evidence in the post i.e.text and photos.

At one end of the range is that we tell them the answer (if we know it). Thatā€™s what Plantnet does. This is classic didactic teaching.

Then thereā€™s using iSpotā€™s own resource of observations; for example a link to a suitable identified observation so they can compare. The ifocus projects are there for different groups of organisms.

Similarly iSpot has some keys so that may be a direction offered; I would choose that when following the key is likely to be successful.

Referring them to other on-line keys and websites is another option but that may stray outside the remit. Still it may be whatā€™s needed.

Then thereā€™s leading them to the answer by posing relevant questions and being prepared to return to the post (easy enough with our Changes Tracker) to see how they are getting on.

A particularly difficult comment for us to make is when the posterā€™s suggested ID is wrong. Of course, goes for all posters not just the S295 student). Here Plantnet for example may be a helpā€¦ if Plantnet is right we can explain why; and if it also gets it wrong can explain why. That could be quite encouraging for the poster.

If they are judged on the number of posts that get a (correct?) ID, then however it arrives might be considered a success.

All except the first (which includes any Automated Identification comments) requires the poster to continue to be involved and that is by no means always the case for several good reasons.

Having proofread my piece I see that my suggestions are not really any different for OU students to other posters.

So, like all volunteers, Iā€™ll carry on doing what I can with the time that I have - as long as it is fun for me too.

Thereā€™s a big difference between learning to ID species and just learning to post stuff on iSpot as a way of reaching an ID. I agree with all that JoC says - but Iā€™m not sure that I have the motivation to do anything other than offer an opinion on the evidence presented. I think that it is the job of the course tutors to decide what approach to press on the students. It takes a long time to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to identify many groups of animals/plants. Just one example, with hoverflies, there are a few easy species but many more where you need to know what to look for - e.g. a view of the hind femora in Syritta pipiens.

There are probably well over 80 UK s295 observations without IDs or reasonable responses.
Some have IDs without agreements, most have one thing in common, largely ignored by us
Another thing the IDd ones might have in common is AI, perhaps someone should go through them, perhaps the studentā€™s themselves could be tasked with analysing how well AI works (goshā€¦)
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They can all be found (6 yearā€™s worth?) in one sweep using the Explore Community (filter) which I might have mentioned somewhere.
There needs to be a small team of s295 iSpot monitors (mentors?) I may have also mentioned this beforeā€¦
It is a great waste of opportunity

It would help matters if a few more s295 observers would respond to comments. I know some people can make identifications from incredibly sparse information, and it is a wonderful skill. I need a little more help!

Seconded!
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Plus padding characters demanded

Do you think that is all the errant tags for s295, I will add them to the project now as they have had time to generate most mistakes! If you look back at past s295 projects and see the ā€˜wrongā€™ tags on those there is always a variety - evolution in action.

Have now added the extra tags and it has not increased numbers all that much and in previous years I occasionally corrected the tags if there were not too many error ones of a particular type.

I have just found another, there are now at least six variants. You can leave messages for them to CHANGE the damned thing but will they see the messageā€¦
Two have responded to me recently
I formed a project yesterday that revealed at least 120 Observations with NO likely Banner, maybe 50 from this year
The whole process needs overhauling. It needs iMentors, seriously, Every observation needs a response from us, whether or not THEY are interested.
To be frank it is a distraction we could do without, they are all hell bent on Species Observations - nothing else will do!