JISC

Start date: 1 January 2001

End date: 30 April 2003

Funding programme: Learning and Teaching (5/99) programme

Project website: http://edina.ac.uk/projects/mapscholar/index.html

This project is part of the Enhancing JISC data services for Teaching and Learning project cluster in this particular programme. The main focus of projects in this cluster is to improve use of existing JISC owned resources through the JISC data services for learning and teaching.

Background

Digimap is a JISC-funded Web service that delivers Ordnance Survey (OS) cartographic products and digital map data across the Internet via a simple-to-use interface. Building on a successful JISC-funded Electronic Libraries (eLib) project, it provides convenient, on-demand access to some of the best and most detailed map data available anywhere in the world. Evaluations revealed that the eLib Digimap Project both encouraged the use of OS data in teaching and promoted the use of digital data in disciplines outside the traditional ‘map domains’ of geography and cartography. Over 80% of users were non-geographers and 60% were undergraduates. Currently, there is a skills/concepts gap between creating a map, which is very easily accomplished, and downloading digital map data for use in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or drawing software packages. e-Map Scholar aims to fill that gap, supporting both those learners who need to progress to using these software packages, and also those whose needs are more simple; to understand how to use geo-spatial data more effectively. Given the growing use of spatial data in the real world, where over 80% of all data used in business have spatial elements, an understanding of these data is increasingly part of the skill set of the well educated graduate.

Aims and Objectives e-Map Scholar aims to promote and enhance the use of digital map data in learning and teaching, by developing resources applicable to all geo-spatial data available to the academic community and to enable staff to provide new, exciting and adaptive learning materials using geo-spatial data.

The specific project objectives are to:

• Promote the use of geo-spatial data in learning and teaching
• Support learners by providing a range of tools, tutorials and learning materials that develop skills in the use of digital map data and knowledge of geo-spatial concepts
• Support the use of geo-spatial data in teaching by providing exemplar case studies and customisable modularised resources for lecturing staff
• Support the learner in integrating digital data from other sources with OS data
• Support the learner in using data visualisation concepts and techniques
• Provide opportunities for learners to develop workplace related skills in the use of geo-spatial data, using problem based learning techniques

Project design

The project proposes to enhance the usability and learning potential of spatial data resources, extant within the tertiary education sector, by developing three sets of new resources.

The first will provide a number of teaching case studies, each of which will include the data and materials used by the learners, along with descriptions of the uses made of the data and learning materials, and evaluations by staff and students. The case studies will address as many different subject areas and uses (eg self-study and group projects, undergraduate and postgraduate, classroom-based and open learning) as possible. The second will develop tools and tutorials within three key areas:

• Strand 1: Working with digital map data
• Strand 2: Data integration
• Strand 3: Data visualisation

All resources produced will be customisable by students and staff enabling effective constructivist learning related to prior knowledge.

Learning materials developed under the first strand will include: concepts of geographic data, such as extent, scale and generalisation; how objects in the real world are portrayed within OS data; and how the student should select data based on fitness for purpose. The tools developed will include simple map querying and measurement, and simple data integration/customisation.

Learning materials developed under the second strand will focus on developing skills in, and understanding of, integrating a variety of external data (eg census, remote sensing, environmental), as well as user-generated data (eg Global Positioning Systems positions, other measured datasets), with the OS data available through Digimap. A number of client-based tools will be developed to interact with the Digimap system and learners and teachers will be able to upload their own data for use against the OS backdrop.

Learning materials developed in the third strand will focus on developing skills in, and understanding of, 2D and 3D visualisation and visual problem solving techniques. Areas addressed will include fitness for purpose, collecting data for visual problem solving and working through the decision making process. Tools and materials will be developed that can be adapted to the learner’s own prior knowledge and subject area and enable the development of appropriate skills by participation.

The third area will develop a proof-of-concept ‘virtual placement’, a real-life problem from an outside partner organisation, through which the learner has to work in order to arrive at a reasoned solution. The external organisation will provide a description of a typical workplace problem, along with solution(s) that it would find acceptable, and data for use in the virtual placement. The partner organisation will be invited to review and comment on work developed by learners using the virtual placement and this evaluation will be fed back to the community.

All work will be underpinned by user requirements surveys, the outcomes of which will be incorporated into the design of the tools and materials and by formative evaluation work. The project also benefits from advice and support from a number of prominent academic staff and LTSN (Learning and Teaching Support Network) Subject Centre staff with interests in the development of geo-spatial online learning materials.

Outcomes

It is intended to work with other projects within the JISC DNER programme to enhance the work of the e-MapScholar project in the light of their findings and vice versa. A joint dissemination strategy will be developed in partnership with some of these projects and is likely to include use of Web sites, conferences, workshops, articles in relevant journals, and leaflets/flyers to publicise the projects and their findings.

The project will yield a range of online tools and learning materials that will enhance the use of geo-spatial data from many sources, much of them already available within the DNER, in learning and teaching. The ultimate goal of the project is to broaden the appeal of using geo-spatial data in learning and teaching across subject areas, by providing tools and materials that bridge the current gap that exists between creating maps, and using GIS and drawing software packages. In doing this, it is believed that many more learners in tertiary education in many subject areas can be introduced to spatial concepts and skills that are likely to prove useful to them in later life and, at the very least, enrich their understanding of the world around them.