Question

zooniverse is an initiative across multiple universities that runs many online citizen science projects.
in the plant letters project, volunteers transcribe scanned images of letters to botanists at the botanic garden in the university of coimbra, portugal.
each letter is transcribed by multiple volunteers, so that mistakes made by a single volunteer won’t be in the final transcription.
this screenshot shows the letter transcribing interface: image of the interface with handwritten text and a text box containing “some of the specimens were”.
the university could have run this project in portugal with local volunteers, but they chose to run it online.
which of these does not describe a benefit of running plant letters as an online citizen science project?
choose 1 answer:

• online volunteers will generally be of a higher quality than local volunteers
• they can find volunteers from anywhere in the world and increase interest in their mission beyond the local area
• if they discover errors later in transcription, it is easier to redo the project online than in person
• there are potentially many more volunteers on the internet than locally

Explanation:

To determine the non - benefit, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: There's no basis to claim online volunteers are of higher quality than local ones. Quality isn't determined by location.
• Option 2: Online projects can reach global volunteers, increasing mission impact. This is a benefit.
• Option 3: Online is easier for disseminating training materials. This is a benefit.
• Option 4: The internet has more potential volunteers than local areas. This is a benefit.

Answer:

A. Online volunteers will generally be of a higher quality than local volunteers