Table of Contents
Step 1 | An Introduction to Developing a Volunteer Water Monitoring Program
Step 2 | Setting Goals and Objectives
Step 3 | Understanding Elements of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) Protocols
Step 4 | Recruiting, Training, and Retaining Volunteers
Step 5 | Collecting Reliable Data
Step 6 | Data Collection, Analysis and Data Management
Step 7 | Evaluating the Success of Your Program
Additional Resources
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Using volunteers to collect water quality data can be an immense asset to your organization’s efforts to improve and protect water quality. Volunteer monitoring programs raise citizen knowledge and awareness of factors affecting lake and stream quality and serve as an opportunity for citizens to better understand watershed and ecosystem health, allowing participants to make more informed choices.
Volunteer monitoring programs are cost effective and can provide large amounts of reliable data for educational purposes, to contribute to communities, and to extend state agency collection efforts. However, they are not free sources of data. These programs require funds to operate and dedication and effort from the hosting organization and the volunteers. A considerable amount of planning, implementation, and long-term management is necessary to ensure that a program is successful. Frequently, groups will partner with local and state agencies in the development and implementation of their technical components, which helps to insure data usability and credibility. Often, volunteer data supplement information collected by state and local agencies. Developing sound Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures are essential, and are a must if data will be used for regulatory purposes. These procedures, often incorporated into a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP), govern how volunteers are trained, how samples are collected and analyzed, and how information is stored and disseminated. Educational TechnologyThis course contains active links that will open websites and documents in a new web browser window. Some documents are in Adobe Acrobat format. It is recommended that you have the latest version of Adobe Reader (X or higher) installed on your computer. This course will include videos and presentations that can be maximized on your screen for easier viewing.
There are also embedded YouTube videos throughout the course. If you're experiencing technical difficulties with a video, refresh the page and play the video again. You can also right-click ("Ctrl" click on a Mac) to open the video directly from YouTube. Course Purpose This introductory course is designed to guide you through the basic process of developing a volunteer monitoring program as well as introduce you to available resources online that offer more in-depth information. This course will help you develop goals and objectives, QA/QC procedures, recruit and train volunteers, prepare to collect data, provide examples for analyzing, interpreting and managing your data, and help you evaluate the success of your program.
Course Completion ExpectationsDeveloping a Volunteer Water Monitoring Program is intended to be a self-paced course. Each step has a recommended time for completion. The time allotted includes the information contained in the module, outside readings, and quizzes. It is expected that you will complete all of the steps within the module. Throughout the course there are many assignments which ask you to reflect on the topic and think about ideas for your program. These self-assignments are not required but recommended.
Learning ObjectivesAfter completion of this module, you should be able to:
Developing a successful program can take a significant amount of time and energy to develop and refine; therefore, it is essential before you begin to have a clear understanding of water quality or quantity concerns in your area and be familiar with the process of developing a program. This module will guide you through the steps you should take when developing a program. You will also hear from a member of the coordination team from the Michigan state-run volunteer monitoring program, the Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps), as well as citizens who have been long term volunteer monitors. This module will only cover basic components necessary when developing a volunteer monitoring program; however there are extensive resources available online which can further guide you in the process. Some of these resources which contain more in-depth information will be listed within each step of the module. Use the Table of Contents to Get StartedUse the Table of Contents sidebar to move through the 7 sections of this module. The 7 sections are listed below:
United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Water Resources Database is an excellent resource and contains links to a wide range of water quality databases and publications.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Office of Water has extensive water quality information and resources on their website. The USEPA also has a website with an assortment of links directly related to volunteer water monitoring. USDA National Facilitation of Extension Volunteer Monitoring Efforts developed the Guide for Growing Extension Volunteer Monitoring Programs which is a series of ‘chapters’ which brings together resources produced from a variety of volunteer monitoring sources into a comprehensive set of documents Cornell University Citizen Science Toolkit has an extensive amount of information regarding citizen science for program administrators who are using public participants in scientific research. It includes information from development to evaluation and includes additional resources and links to other manuals and guides. The site is currently administered by the Department of Program Development and Evaluation at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. |
Welcome
Welcome to the online module, Developing a Volunteer Water Monitoring Program. This module was developed with funding from the Great Lakes Regional Water Program through a grant from the National Institute on Food and Agriculture. It is being hosted by Michigan State University. This course will focus on the basic elements necessary to start and run a volunteer lake or stream monitoring program.
- Home
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Steps
- Step 1 | An Introduction to Developing a Volunteer Monitoring Program
- Step 2 | Setting Goals and Objectives
- Step 3 | Understanding Elements of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) Protocols
- Step 4 | Recruiting, Training and Retaining Volunteers
- Step 5 | Collecting Reliable Data
- Step 6 | Data Collection, Analysis and Data Management
- Step 7 | Evaluating the Success of Your Program
- Acknowledgements