The ACCOMPLISH team organised an in-person focus group on August 12th in Wexford, bringing together volunteers who play a crucial role in our project. The purpose of this focus group was to gather insights that could help us enhance the project's effectiveness in terms of communication and coordination between the team and volunteers. Ten volunteers participated, with the majority coming from Wexford and a few dedicated individuals making the journey from Dublin.
The session commenced at 10 AM, with introductions and a brief overview of the project's progress since June. Notably, we have received 206 landslide reports so far, with July being the wettest month ever recorded in Ireland. This information presents intriguing possibilities for analysing the correlation between rainfall patterns and reported landslides.
The core of the session was a workshop designed to gather feedback. Volunteers were asked to respond to questions such as 'What are the barriers to participating in citizen science projects?' Their responses were collected on anonymous sticky notes within a time limit, fostering open and candid input.
These are the sticky notes for answering one of our questions, which was 'what are your motivations for participating in citizen science projects?'.
Linking Stinky Notes Together
After completing all the tasks, the volunteers were asked to link up the sticky notes that connected one to the next. For example, the volunteers said that the bad weather affects their ability to use the online app (Bad weather - difficulty using the app).
Katherine, one of our research assistants, will use the data for her undergraduate dissertation, which will also be used for the project report.
Concluding the focus group, we wrapped up with a productive feedback discussion led by our volunteers. This valuable input is set to shape the project's improvements.
A particularly noteworthy suggestion was to enhance our social media presence, prompting us to now be active on Instagram and Facebook under the handle @accomplish_pr across all platforms.
Furthermore, our online app garnered substantial feedback, which we're diligently addressing to enhance its functionality.
Our heartfelt thanks go out to all who participated in our in-person focus group in Wexford. Your presence enriched the experience, and we look forward to the positive changes ahead based on the insights shared.
On the 19th of August, we conducted an online focus group, offering an alternative for those unable to attend the in-person event. Zoom's whiteboard feature served as our canvas, enabling us to create digital sticky notes—a unique approach that mirrored our physical sessions' structure. With two dedicated volunteers onboard, the online session maintained the collaborative spirit of its offline counterpart.
During the final segment, participants undertook a crucial task—connecting these digital sticky notes. This process visually intertwined insights, with yellow sticky notes representing volunteers' feedback and red ones indicating suggested improvements.
The two focus group events went well and we can't wait to see the results with the data that we obtained from you guys!
School of History and Geography
DCU St Patrick's Campus
Email: accomplish.project@gmail.com
Web: accomplishproject.ie
Twitter: @ACCOMPLISH_Pr
Instagram: accomplish_pr
Facebook: Accomplish Project
