Foss4g as a Key Building Block for Case-Based Learning in Geographic Information Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In the sector of Geographic Information (GI) there is a gap between the education and training currently being offered by European universities and the knowledge and skills required by enterprises and public authorities. New forms of collaboration based on innovative methods are needed to cope with the challenges derived from the fast technological developments in the geospatial and ICT field. This paper presents the approach and the first findings of the EU Erasmus+ project giCASES -Creating a UniversityEnterprise Alliance for a Spatially Enabled Society (2016-2018) which addresses this challenge by introducing new methods for case-based and collaborative learning, and for the co-creation, management and sharing of knowledge between universities and enterprises. The aim of the project is to develop new training material and create innovative, multi-disciplinary learning processes based on real-world case studies (case-based learning). The paper focuses on the methodological approach developed during the first half of the project, and presents the 6 case studies where this approach will be tested during the second half. Despite the diversity of application domains (indoor mapping, environmental hazards, e-Government, utility networks, energy saving policies, and forestry), the case studies are all relevant to open source software and FOSS4G technologies will play a key role in their implementation, thus demonstrating their matureness and flexibility not only as GI teaching tools at the universities, but also as powerful means to develop innovative new services at the companies.

Knowledge Transfer in Software Development Teams—Systematic Mapping

“…Su capacidad de internalización, retención, asimilación y comunicación pueden realizar la diferencia para que la transmisión de nuevos conocimientos sea exitosa [37]. Manejar adecuadamente el conocimiento se convierte en un recurso clave para muchas organizaciones porque puede mejorar su competitividad, siendo el conocimiento una fuente de innovación dado que la calidad del software está ligada estrictamente con la calidad del proceso con el que se desarrolló el software [53].…”

“…Para Minghini [53], cuando hablamos de crear conocimiento se puede dividir de acuerdo con el grado de colaboración en:…”

Geospatial openness: from software to standards & data

“…The establishment in 2006 of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo, https://www.osgeo.org), dedicated to the development and support of open source geospatial technologies, was the key milestone to certify the maturity of open geospatial software and the related community. Today, open source geospatial technology is regularly used by governments, businesses, professionals and academics in a broad range of high-level applications [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, open source software alone would have never succeeded without other parallel movements in the same direction of geospatial openness.…”

Human Geography With Open Gis as a Transformative Introductory Higher Education Course

“…Students practicing OpenStreetMap humanitarian mapping gain experience in image interpretation, digitization, and understanding spatial data error while expanding their social networks and major and career aspirations (Coetzee et al, 2018). Open-source software provides platforms for collaboration between universities and public and private-sector partners in case-based learning (Minghini et al, 2017). Students digitize and edit open geospatial data through humanitarian mapping exercises (Coetzee et al, 2018).…”