Providing Open Learning Materials to Study How to Use GIS

Abstract:

Analysis of geospatial data using GIS (Geographical Information Systems) has been applied to various fields including geosciences. To enable effective applications, it is necessary to foster researchers who can operate and utilize GIS, and universities have been contributing to GIS education. Many universities offer lectures about GIS for students, whereas university courses to practice various ways of GIS operation are relatively limited. Although online courses provided by GIS software companies are useful for self-learning, such courses usually require payment for access and/or software packages. Therefore, we launched a project to provide free e-learning materials to study GIS operation, using open-source GIS software and open geospatial data. The materials are designed for junior and senior undergraduate students in Japanese universities, and cover various topics from basic to advanced. However, everybody including workers and citizens can access and utilize the materials for self-learning. The materials are distributed through a web site with GitHub pages, and users can learn various types of GIS operation step by step. The materials are becoming popular in Japan, and recent access to the web site is more than 60,000 views per month. The recent increase in the access may partly reflect the COVID-19 pandemic that increased demand for online educational resources. The materials were also utilized in some university courses. In such cases we conducted questionnaire surveys, and the collected opinions of students were considered when the contents of the materials were updated for improvement. We found that feedback from students is highly important for providing effective e-learning materials, particularly to understand which parts of materials need improvement.