Using open-ended geographic information system assessments to allow students to construct relevant geographies given the internationalisation of tertiary education in New Zealand

Abstract

The geospatial skills shortage in New Zealand requires the development of more undergraduate geographic information system (GIS) courses. However, the internationalisation of New Zealand's tertiary education system has resulted in an increasingly diverse tertiary student population, which makes it challenging to teach GIS in a way that maximises relevance to all tertiary students. One approach to this challenge is to make use of the recent proliferation of openly available GIS data, and to internationalise GIS curricula by using open-ended assessments that provide students with the opportunity to learn GIS by constructing their own geographies of relevance.