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A Blended Learning Approach to Introduce
GIS in Urban Studies
Developing an On-line Knowledge Base for
Acquiring Essential Skills
JORGE GIL
Chalmers University of Technology, Depatment of Architecture and Civil
Engineering
jorge.gil@chalmers.se
22/07/2019
Abstract
Students and researchers in urban studies require Geographic In-
formation System (GIS) skills to create maps, analyse spatial data, and
produce plans, and usually they do not have the time or interest to
learn GIS in-depth. However, existing learning resources are compre-
hensive and technically advanced, targeted at (future) GIS engineers
with a quantitative background, and/or originate in other fields, such
as geology, agriculture, ecology or geography, rendering some of the
skills presented less relevant for urban studies. In this paper I explore
to what extent a blended learning approach can be used in urban de-
sign and planning studies to introduce essential GIS skills, leaving on
campus class time to explore specific problems of the projects with the
support of the teacher.
With this aim, the paper includes interviews conducted with teach-
ers about their current practice of teaching GIS in urban design and
planning courses. Furthermore, it describes an on-line educational
resource (OER) developed to support these types of courses, focus-
ing in particular on the pedagogical principles behind the choices of
format and content. This knowledge base, ’Introduction to GIS for
Urban Studies’, offers a curated set of tutorials and guides on essential
skills, and a quiz to test knowledge and highlight possible gaps. By
using this OER, students should be better prepared for acquiring, and
teachers can focus on supporting, more complex and relevant skills
specific to urban studies.
Keywords: GIS, education, blended learning, LMS, urbanism, knowl-
edge base, on-line resources
1
Introduction
Students and researchers in urban studies require Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) skills to create maps, analyse spatial data, and produce plans.
These activities involve technical skills related to handling digital data and
software on the one hand, and also involve thinking skills and require prac-
tice to adequately apply GIS to urban studies’ specific problems. However,
the study programmes do not allocate enough time to the teaching of GIS,
since it is considered a secondary technical tool not fundamental for meeting
the learning objectives of the courses. Nevertheless, both students and teach-
ers acknowledge that GIS supports their learning activities, and in advanced
courses involving urban analysis such skills are expected or even required.
We have then a situation where GIS skills are acquired in a superficial or
informal way, without good standards or specific goals, leading to knowl-
edge differences between students, and most often to losing valuable class
time with very basic exercises. Such time could be used to develop more
advanced thinking and applied skills, for which the support of teachers is
most beneficial.
A second aspect of the problem, is that most GIS introductory learning
material is comprehensive, detailed and technically advanced, targeted at
(future) engineers with a quantitative background, and/or it originates in
other fields, such as geology, ecology, agriculture or geography, rendering
some of the material presented less relevant for urban studies and not
directly applicable. Those students and researchers do not require such
in-depth GIS knowledge, nor have the background to easily assimilate the
content. From the teacher’s perspective, this means a lot of effort needs to
go into conveying basic skills. However, this activity is not aligned with the
intended learning objectives (ILOs) of the urban design courses that aim for
the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy [
1
], which are usually project based
and involve addressing questions and finding solutions that are project
specific, and even student specific. Contact time with the teacher should be
focused on exploring GIS analytic workflows that contribute directly to the
projects and the research.
Some aspects of this educational challenge originate in a traditional (and
possibly outdated) practice of lecture based teaching, where most knowl-
edge is conveyed in class and by the teacher, with minimal interaction and
customisation to individual needs. The challenge can be tackled using con-
temporary perspectives on pedagogy, namely a constructivist approach and
a blended learning course model. The first approach supports the acquisi-
tion of knowledge through social interaction between the student, teacher
and others, by constructing meaning individually [
2
] (pp. 61-62). This ap-
proach is well suited for the flexibility of project-based teaching, which is the
2
case in urban studies, but is not necessarily suited for the acquisition of basic
GIS skills that are similar to learning a craft and mimicking behaviour. For
that reason, a blended learning course model can be helpful in combining
different types of activities with the appropriate delivery mode [
2
] (p.38).
The social interaction related activities can happen on campus, while the
basic technical skills and knowledge acquisition that do not need the master
on the side can happen mostly on-line supported by a wide range of new
digital materials: video, audio, learning management systems.
The hypothesis of this work is thus that the introduction of essential GIS
skills in urban design and planning studies can be achieved by adopting a
blended learning model, introducing an on-line educational resource (OER)
for asynchronous, self-paced learning of technical GIS skills, and freeing
on campus class time to explore specific problems of the projects with the
support of the teacher. The aim of this paper is to explore to what extent this
blended learning approach is used and viable. In the next section I describe
the methods used, involving interviews and the development of an OER,
followed by the results section summarising the outcomes of both activities.
The paper concludes with reflections on the feasibility of this approach, and
points to areas of further work and next steps in the project.
Methods
To achieve the aim of the project, I adopt two different methods: interviews,
and development of an OER. The interviews aim to extract specific require-
ments of GIS teaching for urban studies, and to reveal to what extent a
blended learning approach is used by teachers today. The OER aims to test
the viability of such a blended learning approach based on existing digital
resources, and ultimately offer a new tool to support teaching of GIS for
urban studies.
Interviews set-up
The interviews were conducted in February and March 2019 with teachers
in the architecture and urbanism departments at the TU Delft and Chalmers,
covering their current practice of teaching GIS in urban design and planning
courses. In total eight teachers were interviewed, with a wide range of expe-
rience of teaching these topics (from 2 to 20+ years) at bachelor and master
levels. Each interview was conducted to cover the following questions:
1. What GIS software do you normally teach? Why?
2. What GIS software do you normally use for research? Why?
3
3.
Which GIS skills do you think are essential to know in urban studies?
4. Which topics do you cover on the first session?
5.
What topic do the students find more difficult to learn/understand?
Why?
6. Are there on-line public resources that you use?
7. Are your educational materials publicly available on-line?
The results were then summarised and key trends or significant experi-
ences were retrieved for reflection, and to inform the development of the
OER.
On-line Educational Resource (OER)
The second element of this project was the development of an OER to
support urban design and planning courses in the form of a knowledge base,
’Introduction to GIS for Urban Studies’, offering a curated set of tutorials
and guides on essential GIS topics and skills relevant for urban studies. This
OER should take the form of a publicly accessible course module, that can
be incorporated in existing courses that use learning management systems
(LMS), or that can be used as a stand-alone resource by individual learners
and researchers. Its development had three main stages: 1. Choice of LMS
platform; 2. Defining knowledge-base structure; 3. Selecting and writing
knowledge-base content.
The choice of LMS platform involved considering the following features
of three platforms available to Chalmers teachers (Canvas, edX and Github):
platform licence, regulated content, public access, possibility for student
registration, cost, collaboration with other teachers, sharing of content with
other teachers, content licence. The choice of LMS platform also influences
the knowledge-base structure, so the following additional requirements
were taken into account: possibility of modules to organise the content in
stages, pages to provide content, web links to external resources, embed
images in pages, embed video in pages, provide a quiz, support forum for
discussions between students, giving grades.
The knowledge-base content consists of a curated selection of existing
and publicly available on-line resources in English language, to have a
more global reach. The main criteria for selection of resources were: good
video and audio quality; exercises that are well prepared and contain all
the supporting material; exercises that are short and focused on a specific
operation; finally, content must be interesting and relevant to urban design,
i.e. focusing on urban scale examples of the built environment including
buildings, roads, and urban areas.
4
A final element of the knowledge-base content is a quiz with multiple
choice questions about each of the topics. The students can use the quiz to
test knowledge and to highlight possible gaps that they missed, or topics
they have not fully grasped.
Results
In this section I summarise the outcome of the two activities, that culminate
in the publication of the knowledge-base ’Introduction to GIS for Urban
Studies’ for public access.
Teacher interviews results
The interviews were used to assess if blended learning is an adequate model
for teaching essential GIS skills in urban studies, and to identify the main
topics that should be covered. The results of the interviews showed that
there is a tendency for blended learning, especially with the more experi-
enced teachers, that are already using a blended model, without necessarily
being aware of the fact. One can observe different models: more tradi-
tional courses only using LMS as a support for lectures and exercises; some
considering a move to a MOOC with pre-recorded lectures; blended learn-
ing models with different activities on-line and on campus. As for less
experienced teachers, they expressed the frustration with the time spent
teaching basic skills instead of meeting the real learning objectives, or that
by skipping those sessions the students were missing skills necessary for the
projects. There was a tension between teaching GIS and applying GIS, and
in all cases teachers were iterating and improving their courses, realising
that a different approach is required.
As for the learning objectives of the introductory GIS sessions, they cover
knowing the software interface, understanding the structure of geographic
data, accessing geo-data resources, editing data, producing maps following
sound cartographic principles, and being introduced to spatial instead of vi-
sual thinking, asking questions to the data about urban design and planning
problems. In terms of resources, only a few teachers use existing on-line
resources, mostly create their own adapted to the project or application that
is the subject of the course. None of these resources are made public, they are
only accessible to registered students. Finally, in terms of GIS software used,
there was an equal split between QGIS (a free, open source, cross-platform
software) and ArcGIS (the industry standard GIS). These results provided
valuable information for the decisions ahead in the implementation of the
knowledge-base.
5
Knowledge-base implementation: structure
For implementation of the knowledge-base, ’Introduction to GIS for Urban
Studies’, the LMS choice went for Canvas. This is the new LMS available
at Chalmers and Goteborg University, and it was chosen because of its
complete feature set and the possibility of making the knowledge-base
available for public use and incorporate in other courses. Table 1 presents
the results of the comparison of different LMS platforms.
Canvas edX Github
Platform licence Yes Yes No
Regulated Yes Yes No
Public access No Yes Yes
Student registration Yes Yes No
Cost No Depends No
Collaboration Colleagues Colleagues Anyone
Sharing Commons No Yes
Content licence University ? Open
Modules Yes Yes Yes
Pages Yes Yes Yes
Web links Yes Yes Yes
Embed images Yes Yes Yes
Embed video Yes Yes Pages, not Wiki
Quiz Yes Yes No
Forum Yes Yes Issues
Grades Yes Yes No
Table 1: Comparison of features of different LMS platforms to implement
the knowledge-base
The knowledge base structure was developed as a collection of pages
for different topics organised in six sections:
1. Knowing your GIS: Essentials of GIS and the software interface
2. A world of spatial data: Data sources and data formats
3. Making maps: Visual aspects of cartography
4. Data features: From graphics to data
5. Creating spatial data: Editing features and calculating attributes
6. Spatial thinking: First steps
These topics offer a gentle introduction to GIS, starting with a definition
and the software, each focusing on a single key concept, introduced in
6
Figure 1: Knowledge base structure organised in a single Canvas module
a logical sequence, building on the knowledge acquired in the previous
sections. For example, the second topic introduces data sources and formats,
focusing only on the most common ones available in data repositories
for urban planning. This is the first thing a GIS user will want to obtain,
followed by viewing some data set and making a map, at which stage the
knowledge-base introduces basic principles of cartography. Only then do
we introduce more abstract aspects of the data and its editing. The topics of
the six modules cover the main topics highlighted in the interviews, and a
full list of sub-topics can be found in Appendix A.
The overall knowledge-base structure consists of a single module, with
all the content (pages and quiz) organised using text separators for the topic
titles (Figure 1). Because the knowledge-base should be incorporated in
other courses, it was not appropriate to use a complete course structure
consisting of multiple modules.
7
Figure 2: Example of content page with links and embedded video.
Knowledge-base implementation: content
The sections of the knowledge-base include several pages for the different
sub-topics, and apart from a short introduction or explanatory text, they
contain one or more of the following elements: links to software; links to
user guides; links to external resources contain GIS data for download; links
to external reference material, such introductory guides and books; links to
external step by step tutorials; embedded instructional videos; linked figures.
A combination of different media offers a range of learning opportunities
matching the individual preferences of learners. The guides provide more
detailed information, the tutorials hands-on guided practice, and the videos
live demonstrations that can be followed or simply studied repeatedly.
As [
2
] explains, it is important to use different media, but also to select
the most appropriate medium for each topic. For example, to introduce
coordinate systems we use an educational video, instead of diving into the
mathematical technicalities of projections available in GIS course books.
Figure 2 gives an example of one such content pages.
In every sub-topic page the decision was to offer resources both for
ArcGIS and QGIS, providing links specific to each software. In choosing
existing resources, there was a focus on fewer sources to obtain a certain
level of consistency in language and quality, and include as much as possible
the official documentation and training resources provided by each of the
8
GIS software platforms. The most frequently used on-line resources are
listed in Appendix B.
Apart from the content sections, the knowledge-base also includes a
self-assessment quiz with 16 multiple choice questions. The quiz was set-
up so that it can be repeated several times, and for that reason the correct
answers are not shown at the end of the quiz, and the quiz does not have a
time limit. Contrary to the other content in the knowledge base, the quiz
was created from scratch since existing quizzes found on-line were too
technical, focusing on detailed questions beyond the scope of the content of
the knowledge-base. The questions and answers to the quiz can be found in
Appendix C.
Knowledge-base publication
In the end, the knowledge-base was published and the module successfully
exported to Canvas Commons
1
(Figure 3). When sharing a resource in
Commons one indicates the type of resource (in this case, a module), the
education level it is designed for (here, undergraduate to graduate), adds
tags (e.g. GIS, urban design), who has access to the resource (here, public
or institution), and selects the Creative Commons licence for other teachers
that use the resource
2
. The knowledge-base can be included as a module
in another Canvas course by those teachers that create an account or have
access to Canvas via their institution. Alternatively, teachers that use other
LMS can download the module in the IMS Common Cartridge File format
and import it, if the option is available. Finally, the knowledge base can also
be browsed directly on Canvas commons by any user without the need to
log-in. This allows the link to be simply shared with students.
Reflections
Generally, the implementation of the knowledge-base using Canvas deliv-
ered all the project aims and the usability of the LMS was simple, thanks
to a modern user interface. The only glitch was related to the addition of
questions to the quiz. The confirmation of a new question is made using a
button on the bottom left of the screen, while there is another active ’Save’
button on the bottom right that refers to the entire quiz. Saving the quiz
drops the latest question if it is not updated first, leading to some confusion.
In relation to the knowledge-base structure, the decision was ultimately
to go for a course module instead of a complete course. This means that
1https://lor.instructure.com/resources/210546e21a4945afa31a00c56ef097a7
2CC BY-NC-SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
9
Figure 3: Knowledge base successfully published in Canvas Commons as a
module (top left entry)
the forum and grades features were not included in the end, since a public
forum would raise issues of moderation, and the grading scheme is course
dependent. As for course content, the extensive use of existing videos was
a positive aspect, since they are very easy to include, and being short and
topic specific, can be engaging and help meet the ILOs. In building this
knowledge-base I explored extensively existing GIS introductory courses
to search for on-line resources, such as lectures, exercises or quizzes. Even
in Canvas Commons one can find some different courses. What I found
confirms the initial assessment of a mismatch between what traditional
GIS students are expected to learn, and the knowledge and skills expected
from urban design and planing students. The technical focus was clear, with
topics covering coordinate systems, file encodings, databases, computational
geometry and data structures, with a high level of detail. The focus is
more to "look under the hood", how the systems are made and work, what
their components are and the theories and principles behind them. This
engineering approach contrasts with the applied focus of urban design
courses, that need to teach an essential set of the features superficially, only
enough to be applied to a urban design problem. In the end, I did not refer
to or use existing academic resources, and used mostly simpler resources
from software providers and those created by "normal" GIS users.
The knowledge-base developed as an independent module can be part of
10
other courses, supporting their transition to a blended learning approach, as
suggested by the interviews. A possible course syllabus using this module
can include an introductory lecture about the application and uses of GIS
for urban studies, to inspire and show the relevance of the content. The
knowledge-base can then be used independently by the students to acquire
basic GIS skills, before starting with the projects, where the knowledge is
applied in class. This approach fits the definition of the blended learning
"rotation model" [
3
]. Alternatively, the knowledge-base can be used as a pre-
requisite before the start of a course, to ensure a more level understanding
of GIS across the class. With the use of the knowledge-base ’Introduction to
GIS for Urban Studies’ I expect students to acquire, at their own pace, the
essential skills and knowledge about GIS that is relevant for urban studies.
Especially, to acquire an understanding of key GIS principles related to data
that are new to students coming from architecture and urban planning. As
a result, they should be prepared to engage in more advanced activities
related to the ILOS of urban studies in class, with their teachers.
Conclusion
The initial understanding of the challenges facing teaching GIS in urban
design and planning courses have been largely confirmed by the interviews
and the exploration of existing on-line academic resources. The interviews
were also helpful in informing the content for the knowledge-base. As for
the knowledge-base, the choice of Canvas was successful for producing a
stand-alone course module, containing different topics, content pages and
a quiz, which was then made publicly available in Canvas Commons. The
knowledge based contains a curated selection of different types of existing
non-academic on-line resources, such as guides and videos, that teach basic
skills exemplified on urban environment data. The knowledge-base can
be incorporated in different urban studies courses, supporting their shift
towards a desirable blended learning approach, where this topic is acquired
by the students off-campus, and the teachers can focus on higher level
learning objectives, supporting the application of the skills to projects in
class.
This is an on-going project of which the work presented here is only
the first step. The next steps will involve fine-tuning the module structure
and content in several iterations, with the support from other teachers and
feedback from students. Eventually, it might lead to the creation original
GIS content that meets the content quality and relevance for students and
researchers in urban design and planning studies.
11
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the colleagues and friends with whom I had inter-
views for their detailed insights into their practice of introducing GIS in
architecture faculties, and for their feedback on the work.
References
1.
Lorin W. Anderson, David R. Krathwohl, Peter W. Airasian, Kathleen A.
Cruikshank, Richard E. Mayer, Paul R. Pintrich, James Raths, and Mer-
lin C. Wittrock. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision
of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Abridged Edition. Pearson,
New York, 1 edition edition, December 2000. 15453.
2.
A. W. Bates. Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and
Learning. 2015. 01474.
3.
Norm Friesen. Report: Defining Blended Learning. Learning Space,
page 10, August 2012. 00000.
12
A Complete module structure
1. Knowing your GIS: Essentials of GIS and the software interface
(a) Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
(b) GIS software
(c) The software interface
2. A world of spatial data: Data sources and data formats
(a) Geodata sources
(b) Geographic data
(c) GIS file formats
(d) Importing from CAD
(e) Geocoding
3. Making maps: Visual aspects of cartography
(a) Visualisation of data layers
(b) Map layout
4. Data features: From graphics to data
(a) The elements of vector data sets
(b) Displaying attributes
(c) Querying data
5. Creating spatial data: Editing features and calculating attributes
(a) Editing data layers
(b) Calculating attributes
(c) Joining data tables
6. Spatial thinking: First steps
(a) Spatial queries
(b) Joining data spatially
(c) Basic spatial analysis
13
B GIS educational resources used
This list contains the top-level domains of the GIS on-line resources most
frequently used in the content pages of the knowlege-base. All links last
accessed 22/07/2019.
General:
A Gentle Introduction to GIS -
https://docs.qgis.org/latest/en/docs/gentle_gis_introduction/
Principles of geographic information systems: an introductory textbook -
https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/
principles-of-geographic-information-systems-an-introductory-text-4
QGIS:
QGIS User Guide -
https://docs.qgis.org/latest/en/docs/user_manual/index.html
QGIS training manual -
https://docs.qgis.org/latest/en/docs/training_manual/index.html
QGIS tutorials and tips -
https://www.qgistutorials.com/en/index.html
ArcGIS:
Get started with ArcMap -
http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/get-started/main/
get-started-with-arcmap.htm
A quick tour of ArcMap -
http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/get-started/
introduction/a-quick-tour-of-arcmap.htm
ArcGIS tutorials -
http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/get-started/
introduction/arcgis-tutorials.htm
Mapping and visualization in ArcGIS Desktop -
http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/map/main/
mapping-and-visualization-in-arcgis-for-desktop.htm
14
C Quiz questions
1. The acronym GIS stands for:
(a) Geodesic Information Series
(b) Geodesic Information System
(c) Geographic Information System
(d) Geographic Information Satellite
2. Which of the following are essential components of GIS? (check all that
apply)
(a) Computer Hardware
(b) People
(c) Books
(d) Software
3. Which of the following statements is true about the capabilities of GIS?
(a) Data capture and preparation
(b) Data management
(c) Data processing and analysis
(d) Data visualisation and presentation
(e) All of these statements
4. Which of the following statements about geographic Coordinate Reference
Systems (CRS) are correct? (check all that apply)
(a) In GIS there is a single CRS for the entire Earth.
(b) A GIS supports many different CRS.
(c)
When we work in a city, we can choose any CRS that is available
in GIS.
(d) When we work in a city, we must identify the appropriate CRS
for that country or region.
(e) We can display maps of data with different CRS.
(f) We can run spatial analysis on data with different CRS.
5. Select the (one) most common GIS vector data file format?
(a) CSV
(b) Shapefile
15
(c) TIFF
(d) DWG
6. Is is possible to import and convert text data with coordinates into a GIS
format?
(a) Yes
(b) No
7. The process of finding the geographic coordinates of an address is called:
(a) Geocaching
(b) Geomunging
(c) Geocoding
8. The following cartographic elements are required on a map:
(a) Legend, price, author, scale
(b) Title, North arrow, legend, scale
(c) Projection, scale, date, size
9. A characteristic of ’spatial data’ is that it has: (check all that apply)
(a) Addresses
(b) Geometry
(c) Data attributes
(d) Maps
10. The basic geometry types in GIS are:
(a) Square, circle, triangle
(b) Line, curve, point
(c) Polyline, polygon, point
(d) Polyline, polygon, mesh
11. How should we map a data set of buildings with different land uses?
(a) We should use a continuous colour range, with maximum 5
breaks.
(b) We should use a categorical classification, with as many colours
as land use categories.
(c) We can display a data set any way we like, there are many
colours and styles to choose from.
16
12. We can select buildings in a spatial data set based on:
(a) The building footprints with an area greater than 200 m2.
(b) The land use attribute being ’residential’ and ’retail’, not
’industry’.
(c) The distance to a given road.
13. To calculate new attributes on spatial data sets we can:
(a) Use expressions based on other attributes in the data set.
(b) Use expressions based on the geometry of the feature.
(c) Use expressions based on other attributes and the geometry.
(d) It is not possible to create new attributes.
14. In order to join two tables by attribute they need to have:
(a) The same coordinate system.
(b) A common attribute or field.
(c) The same number of rows.
(d) All of these conditions apply.
15.
Which of the following belong to the spatial relationships between geographic
features?
(a) Disjoint, meets, equals
(b) Inside, covered by, intersects
(c) Contains, touches, overlaps
16. Which (one) of the following options is NOT a vector overlay operation?
(a) Difference
(b) Intersection
(c) Multiplication
(d) Union
17