Abstract
As cloud based services move towards becoming the dominant paradigm in many areas of information technology, GIS has also moved into ‘the Cloud’, creating a new opportunities for professionals and students alike, while at the same time presenting a range of new challenges and opportunities for GIS educators. Learning for many students in the geospatial science disciplines has been based on desktop software for GIS, building their skills from basic data handling and manipulation to advanced spatial analysis and database storage. Cloud-based systems challenge this paradigm in many ways, with some of the skills being replaced by clever and capable software tools, while the ubiquitous nature of the computing environment offers access and processing from anywhere, on any device. <br><br> This paper describes our experiences over the past two years in developing and delivering a new course incorporating cloud based technologies for GIS and illustrates the many benefits and pitfalls of a cloud based approach to teaching. Throughout the course, students were encouraged to provide regular feedback on the course through the use of online journals. This allowed students to critique the approach to teaching, the learning materials available and to describe their own level of comfort and engagement with the material in an honest and non-confrontational manner. Many of the students did not have a strong information technology background and the journals provided great insight into the views of the students and the challenges they faced in mastering this technology.
Highlights
Existing courseware in Geospatial Science equips students with a sound knowledge of geospatial science theory and methods and develops strong skills in range of software packages
Geospatial technologies are rapidly moving to cloudbased solutions and service offerings (Muzafar et al 2011), often coupled with open source software solutions to geospatial science problems
This paper describes our experiences in developing and implementing a new course that sought to extend the skills and knowledge of geospatial science students by introducing cloudbased and open source solutions for Geospatial Information Science (GIS)
Summary
Existing courseware in Geospatial Science equips students with a sound knowledge of geospatial science theory and methods and develops strong skills in range of software packages. Geospatial technologies are rapidly moving to cloudbased solutions and service offerings (Muzafar et al 2011), often coupled with open source software solutions to geospatial science problems This is seen as the natural step in the evolution of information technology services and products. Sui (2014) suggests we are moving to a new era of open GIS, inspired by the open source community and by the shift in sentiment of governments toward open data, culminating in the signing of the Open Data Charter at the 2013 G8 conference (Eaves 2013) Despite this enthusiasm for open systems, only a few university curricula include open source for GIS (Mitasova et al 2012), with most still relying on proprietary software.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
