Using Shared Embedded Assessment Tools to Understand Participant Skills: Processes and Lessons Learned

This paper describes the collaborative process for how a group of citizen science project leaders, evaluators, and researchers worked together to develop, validate, and test embedded assessments of two different volunteer science inquiry skills. The development process for creating these embedded assessments (activities integrated into the learning experience, allowing learners to demonstrate competencies) is articulated, as well as challenges encountered in assessing two science inquiry skills common in citizen science projects: 'notice relevant features' and 'record standard observations'. The authors investigate the extent to which the assessments were successful at achieving four criteria identified as ideal for shared embedded assessments of volunteers’ skills, namely: broadly applicable, authentic, performance-based, and integrated.