VGI in Education: From K-12 to Graduate Studies

Abstract

Abstract. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is making its way into an increasing number of fields within geographic information science. This development has raised a need to cover VGI at various educational levels, which has led to a number of new classes on VGI ranging from elementary through secondary school to undergraduate and graduate university curricula. In this paper, we give an overview of the state of the art of VGI in education at these different levels. We outline different ways of introducing VGI in class. Specifically, we have investigated the long-term effects of using VGI in education to find out whether students who have come across VGI in class remain interested in the topic and engage in the communities. For this purpose, we have created a survey that was circulated among students of past VGI classes at different levels. The evaluation of the 202 completed surveys gives an overview of motivations and impediments with respect to different VGI platforms. We conclude with recommendations for the future development of curricula covering Volunteered Geographic Information.

A Derivation of Factors Influencing the Innovation Diffusion of the OpenStreetMap in STEM Education

“…However, due to government institutes' or private firms' extraordinarily high costs of drawing and calibrating maps, such geographic information is not affordable for most educational institutes. The Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) [2][3][4] initiatives that have emerged during the past decade are becoming a better alternative for education purposes in general and for STEM education in particular [5][6][7].…”

Challenges in VGI for scientific projects

“…Bartoschek and Kessler (Bartoschek & Kessler, 2012) state that a key for keeping users is usability. A website's or an application's interface must be adapted to the people who will use it (Preece & Shneiderman, 2009).…”

“…Indeed this tendency can increase information overload and it can get more difficult to find common ground which finally leads to users ceasing collaboration. Bartoschek and Kessler (Bartoschek & Kessler, 2012) suggest that a mixed form of VGI and social networks could keep users to collaborate. Moreover quick feedback through an application can incite citizens in continuing using an application.…”

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“…Indeed "diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system" (Rogers, 2003). For this purpose social networks are regularly used by citizens and thus provide a good way to find new users (Bartoschek & Kessler, 2012).…”

“…Haklay (Haklay M. , 2013) suggests a scale from citizens serving as a simple sensor (level 1 -crowdsourcing), as basic interpreters (level 2 -distributed intelligence), as participators in easy tasks (level 3 -participatory science) or as participators in more complicated tasks (level 4). Bartoschek and Kessler (Bartoschek & Kessler, 2012) state that a key for keeping users is usability. A website's or an application's interface must be adapted to the people who will use it (Preece & Shneiderman, 2009).…”