Yes! This is my soapbox. When I introduce educators to iNat, we always start with the data, regardless of grade level. It answers the questions of “what is iNaturalist” and “why are we doing this” in an experiential way that you just don’t get when you start with how to make observations.
Was just looking through this thread and didn’t see it linked, but I’m guessing you’re referencing this thread.
I’m a little late to the discussion but I looked over the responses and didn’t see this mentioned - I would require students to not opt out of the community ID. In other words, they must be opted in to the community ID.
It’s frustrating to come across a mis-identified observation when the user is no longer using the site (and therefore isn’t going to correct their ID). There seem to be a lot of misidentifications from students, so having them all opt in to the community ID at least allows other people on iNat to correct misidentifications.
I did see this mentioned in the other comments, but I completely agree that I would assign the extra credit much, much earlier in the semester. The last two weeks before finals are crazy and I’m guessing that will lead to a bunch of “panic observations”.