Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work
Workers’ level of skill on online labor platforms varies greatly. To manage quality, requesters often decompose complex jobs into simple, repetitive, micro-tasks that pay in average $0.10 per task. Within the current system, workers waste a significant amount of time on finding micro-tasks while req...
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Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utveckling
2017
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ndltd-UPSALLA1-oai-DiVA.org-liu-1434192018-02-23T05:13:17ZScaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of WorkengStreuer, MonikaLinköpings universitet, Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utvecklingKarlsruhe Institure of Technology2017Economics and BusinessEkonomi och näringslivWorkers’ level of skill on online labor platforms varies greatly. To manage quality, requesters often decompose complex jobs into simple, repetitive, micro-tasks that pay in average $0.10 per task. Within the current system, workers waste a significant amount of time on finding micro-tasks while requesters still criticize the performance, struggle with decomposing complex work into micro-tasks, allocating these tasks appropriately and reintegrating the outcome to a final result. This paper explores how we can apply scaffolding approaches — examples, rubrics, task rationale, and step-by-step instructions — to improve work quality and enable workers to perform more complex tasks. In a between-subjects study, novice workers from a micro-task market performed tasks (writing product reviews and designing a slide deck) selected from a professional contractor market. Participants received either the original or a scaffolded task description. Blind-to-condition experts judged the performance of submissions. We found that scaffolding the crowd led workers to perform significantly better than workers without scaffolding. Moreover, a follow-up analysis shows that scaffolding micro-task workers results in work that is on par with workers from the high-pay contractor platform. Concluding, it is being discussed if, how and by who scaffolding in a crowdsourcing environment can and should be implemented. Student thesisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesistexthttp://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-143419application/pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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Economics and Business Ekonomi och näringsliv |
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Economics and Business Ekonomi och näringsliv Streuer, Monika Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work |
description |
Workers’ level of skill on online labor platforms varies greatly. To manage quality, requesters often decompose complex jobs into simple, repetitive, micro-tasks that pay in average $0.10 per task. Within the current system, workers waste a significant amount of time on finding micro-tasks while requesters still criticize the performance, struggle with decomposing complex work into micro-tasks, allocating these tasks appropriately and reintegrating the outcome to a final result. This paper explores how we can apply scaffolding approaches — examples, rubrics, task rationale, and step-by-step instructions — to improve work quality and enable workers to perform more complex tasks. In a between-subjects study, novice workers from a micro-task market performed tasks (writing product reviews and designing a slide deck) selected from a professional contractor market. Participants received either the original or a scaffolded task description. Blind-to-condition experts judged the performance of submissions. We found that scaffolding the crowd led workers to perform significantly better than workers without scaffolding. Moreover, a follow-up analysis shows that scaffolding micro-task workers results in work that is on par with workers from the high-pay contractor platform. Concluding, it is being discussed if, how and by who scaffolding in a crowdsourcing environment can and should be implemented. |
author |
Streuer, Monika |
author_facet |
Streuer, Monika |
author_sort |
Streuer, Monika |
title |
Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work |
title_short |
Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work |
title_full |
Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work |
title_fullStr |
Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scaffolding Crowd Work : An Empirical Analysis of its Effects on Quality of Work |
title_sort |
scaffolding crowd work : an empirical analysis of its effects on quality of work |
publisher |
Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utveckling |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-143419 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT streuermonika scaffoldingcrowdworkanempiricalanalysisofitseffectsonqualityofwork |
_version_ |
1718615029806268416 |