Free Online World Regional Geography Course from Saylor

I've written about the Saylor Foundation before and noted its mission to provide open textbooks, including one on geography. I found that Saylor.org offers free courses "built by professors" and one is titled Geography 101: World Regional Geography. It's a course where you work through the material on your own and take an exam at the end, so it's not a MOOC per se. Students who score 70% or higher receive a certificate. And a few schools will accept a certificate for credit.

World Regional Geography was designed by Ken Yanow, Professor of Geographical Sciences, Southwestern College. I know Yanow from his work at the GeoTech Center and on the Esri Education Advisory Board. Saylor hires professors to write the courses; there are about 300 courses currently available.

World Regional Geography relies on a few key resources:

• Sheppard Software: “Geography Games” (a click and find/locate game)
• World Regional Geography: People, Places, and Globalization (pdf) (the free geography text noted above) 
• iTunes U: University of Binghamton: Professor Mark Reisinger’s World Regional Geography Video Lectures (iTunes U) (other videos are used, too including WPSU's Geospatial Revolution and some Ted talks)

I don't know when the course was posted, but I see queries from May 2013.  Some queries on access to a reading from students from late last year were answered by a Saylor administrator on Jan 14, 1014.

Add this to your kit of free tools for teaching and learning world regional geography!

Why was an Interactive Map Series the top story of 2013 in the New York Times?

My dialect map was spot on!

Diana Sinton notes on her blog that the most read story in the New York Times in 2013 was  not a story but an interactive map series.  (The map was developed by an intern.)

An Engaging Map Activity

Here's how the interactive works. After a series of questions about terms used for various actions and objects, the visitor is presented with a personal dialect map. It identifies regions (U.S. only) where people who use the same terms. By most accounts the algorithm is very successful at identifying individual's home regions.

Sinton offers some explanations for why the online offering was so popular:

People like to answer simple, online, multiple-choice questions, especially about themselves. People like to reminisce about their childhood places, where their pronunciations of words were first fixed.  People needed a distraction from the end-of-the-year activities in chaotic December.  People had more unstructured and free time to hang out online over the holidays.

We as geography/GIS educators can learn something about engaging students with maps and geography from the Times success with this map series.

Let me start with this comment from the Atlantic article that Sinton cites:

People will generally click on and respond to things that are funny, personally relateable, positive, and have that "I didn't know that!" anecdotal quality.

There are other qualities of note in the map series: (1) there's a path that's laid out and (2) if you follow it, you get a "personalized prize." To use education lingo, the process is "scaffolded." And, to use motivation speak, there is a "payoff" at the end. Both of those factors, I believe, help visitors get engaged and stay engaged with the dialect map.

At the other end of the spectrum of interactive maps are open-ended, exploratory ones that do not have an immediate connection to the viewer. Consider for example maps with symbols that you can click to view data. Here's the latest one I tweeted; it show U.S. military golf course locations. My experience, I'll admit, with maps like this is that once I've clicked on my state or the dot in my local area, I'm done clicking. Further, I'm not usually interested in putting in the work to read the article to find out why this map is important to me or anyone else. Finding context is too much work.

Takeaways

After pondering the success of the dialect map, I offer these two takeaways for educators:

1) Online map engagement can be driven by scaffolding and a payoff.

As I write this post my Twitter feed and Facebook page are filled with results of the latest successful "payoff" interactive. This one has a quiz, like the dialect one, and as a payoff identifies what city you should live in.

2) Educators need to teach students to create pathways and payoffs for maps (interactive and otherwise).

At one level, this is simply teaching the geographic perspective: What is where? Why? So what? And, yes, that's a lot harder than engaging the public or students with the dialect map and others like it.

Send Help

Consider Esri's JFinteraKtive map (Esri blog post) from last year. Could you help students find context, find a pathway and learn something from this map? Did you? Or, like me, did you look at it and say, "Cool" and move on? I'll be honest: I know I'd need some help there if I planned to teach with this map.

The Esri education team recently asked educators to share their thoughts on how the team should spend its energy in 2014.  I think short "study guides" for educators suggesting how to engage students with some of Esri's interactive maps (story maps and others) would be a great help. In time, perhaps educators could contribute to a library of similar materials.

via Diana Maps Blog

One in Four Americans Holds an Alternative Educational Credential

The Census Bureau reported today (press release) that some 1/4 of U.S. adults hold a credential that's not a tradition college degree. The Census cites a professional certifications, licenses or educational certificates as examples. The data is from fall 2012 and is detailed in a report titled Measuring Alternative Educational Credentials: 2012 (pdf).

Money does come with these credentials.

Among full-time workers, the median monthly earnings for someone with a professional certification or license only was $4,167, compared with $3,433 for one with an educational certificate only; $3,920 for those with both types of credentials; and $3,110 for people without any alternative credential.

But, if you have a bachelors degree, adding on one of these does not significantly change income.

Two findings are relevant to geography and GIS leaners and workers.

About three-quarters of professional certifications and licenses were required for the current or most recent job. 

That's not something we see (yet?) in our field. It's a rarity when a professional certification is even noted in a job posting and in most U.S. states, there is no licensing of GIS users.

More than 90 percent of these credential holders took training or courses and had to demonstrate on-the-job skills or pass a test or exam in order to earn them.

This is also something not common in the U.S. geography/GIS market. However, with the current work on a test for the GISCI GISP credential, there may be some movement in this direction.

The main finding of this data for me is this: Educational institutions, educators, learners and hiring managers should open their eyes to these alternative credentials. They are here to stay.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 10 - The Business of EdTech (in Geography/GIS)

--- This post is the tenth in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Audrey Watters introduces her final trend of 2013, the Business of EdTech with this often noted quotation: “Education is broken, and someone should fix it.” And, this being 2014, that means businesses should play a key role and be appropriately compensated for the fix. In the big world of education this means companies are jumping at the chance to offer:

• learning management systems
• MOOC platforms
• e-text and regular books
• hardware such as tablets and smart boards
• education communication tools
• resources for teachers and students in support of the Common Core and its respective tests

Our little world of geography and GIS education benefits only casually from most of these (iPads, say) and loses out quite a bit since geography and GIS are not explicit parts of the Common Core (but see part 3 of this series with resources on how these can be integrated into it).

I'm the first to agree that most individuals who go into business to help teach geography or GIS are not doing it for the money. No, they do it because they love the discipline and/or technology and believe others should know about it and use its principles to make the world a better place.

So, what are the "hot" geography/GIS education businesses and business opportunities in our space in 2013/2014? 

GIS Etc. - GIS Etc. is small company that offers both GIS education books (All Esri Press Books are 40% off the retail price) and consulting. GIS Etc. folks are the same ones raising money for GeoPorter.

Esri - Esri offers a map of its various education licenses implemented in the U.S. and publishes many of the top selling GIS training books. There's a story map of there the Esri Ed team travelled in 2013. I think the most innovative thing Esri did in education this year was to host an unconference as part of Ed UC. Said another way, I can't point to any specific edtech innovation from the company.

National Geographic - I found this year's Geography Awareness Week support/tools/outreach less than stellar. In fact, I for one feel it's losing steam.

The company still offers educational products. It also was a recipient, with three others, of NSF funds to explore the future of geography education, aka "The Road Map." I'm not sure if these documents (three at NatGeo, one at AGS - why these do not all live together, I can't say) have caused any innovation in the areas they cover. Could/should these reports be a resource for new education products and services?

National Geographic Learning, a partnership between the National Geographic Society and Cengage Learning, an educational publisher, is sort of on hold as Cengage declared bankruptcy in July and is restructuring.

ICA/OSGeo - A memorandum of understanding has these two organizations standing up 100 (there are now 64) university open source GIS software labs worldwide. Are there business opportunities here? I'm not sure.

Certificates - GIS certificate programs seem to draw students and bring in money. That would explain why more appear every few weeks. Elmhurst College is making waves by offering an AP Human Geography certificate for educators. The college feels there is demand, but is there money to keep such a program going? With few state geography requirements and no in the common core, funding for educators to study, may be a challenge. I hope I'm wrong.

Drone Training - I've noted Unmanned Vehicle University, a for-profit, unaccredited school, but other training organizations are popping up. Just this week Northland Community and Technical College announced a one year remote sensing programming specifically aimed at interpreting drone-collected imagery. The school is using drones as a marketing opportunity. Well played! We'll see more plays in this space in the short term now that the FAA has selected the UAS test areas in the United States. 

Conclusion

This list is a way to highlight two things: (1) there is little money in geography/GIS education and (perhaps therefore) (2) there has been little to no innovation in it in recent years.

The innovation in geography/GIS edtech with the greatest impact this year was MOOCs, most notably Penn State's Maps and the Geospatial Revolution (which is running again next spring). While I applaud it and its peers, the current MOOC business model, as I understand it, is not one that can spur many competitors or innovators. 

And, that perhaps explains our situation. In contrast to the larger edtech business space where all sorts of businesses are funded, pop-up, survive, die, pivot or are acquired, geography and GIS education lives in an edtech desert.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 9 - Credit Where its Due

--- This post is the ninth in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters details the ups and downs of giving actual college credit in new ways such as via competency-based learning and MOOCs. If you are not aware, there are select universities offering credits and degrees via these paths. She also explores alternative credentials like certificates and badges. Where are geography and GIS among these trends?

Competency Based Learning

The two schools that I'm aware of that use a model that focuses on what skills students have or have gained, rather than seat time, are Western Governors University (WGU) and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). I know about the former because I tried to apply for a job there, but alas course mentors (content experts) must have PhDs. I know of SNHU because it does a lot of advertising here in Massachusetts. Neither yet offer geography or GIS degrees.

Of note, perhaps, in the coming years is what's going on at Northern Arizona University. Its competency-based online degree program called “Personalized Learning,” was accredited this year. That school offers among other things, a GIS certificate. Could that morph into a competency-based degree or certificate here or elsewhere? Stay tuned.

Badges

The big news in badges is that Mozilla rolled out its 1.0 badge software program. The news within GIS of which I'm aware relates to just two institutions exploring badges: Skidmore and American Sentinel. It will be at least the end of 2014 before we see how these efforts play out in the geospatial education marketplace and, equally importantly, the geospatial workforce.

Credit via MOOC 

There have been ups and downs with giving college credit for MOOCs. So far the news on balance is not good. Two disappointing situations from 2013:

• The deal between San Jose State University and Udacity ran aground and now Udacity is pivoting toward corporate training. Here's the latest on the relationship via Inside Higher Ed.
• An offer from Colorado State University-Global Campus that offered credit for a MOOC via a proctored exam ($89) got no takers. The comparable three credit course was $1,050. 

What's happening in our world of geography and GIS? Credit for a MOOC could be coming soon at Elmhurst College:

Additionally, we will be offering a MOOC in Spring 2014 (probably March or April) that will allow prospective students to gain badges for skills and have a course in the [graduate] program  waived upon full completion of the MOOC. Stay tuned for further details!

Is credit for MOOCs doomed for core courses? For GIS? I don't think so, but clearly the model is still in development.

Credit via AP Exam

The news on AP exams in general is mixed per Watters:

Enrollment in AP classes has been skyrocketing in recent years, although as Politico’s Stephanie Simon reported, “the number of kids who bomb the AP exams is growing even more rapidly.”

And, to my surprise, venerable Dartmouth College, no longer accept AP exams for credit. That I suppose is an interesting statement from the school about competency-based learning or at least the College Board's version of it.

The news on the only AP exam related to geography, the AP Human Geography exam, is more positive. 

In recent years between 25% and 30% of test takers have achieved a 4 or 5, grades typically worthy of college credit (Wikipedia).

Per Rich Schultz at Elmurst College noted other positive signs in an interview on this blog:

Some of our Advisory Board and faculty members in the program are heavily involved with the College Board and noticed that the trend was very clear that APHG was increasing in demand and more and more schools nationally are offering it, at least over the last eleven years (2001-2012).

Elmhurst is launching an online certificate for educators who teach AP Human Geography.

Accreditation

Most colleges and universities have administrations that insure proper accreditation. That said, a few institutions lost accreditation or were threatened with it during the year.

In our world of geography and GIS it's the specialty schools that are having trouble with accreditation. Accreditation sometimes makes a difference to students, but can be key to a university making money: it can be a key stepping stone toward government loans and grants for students. The news from Unmanned Vehicle University (UVU) is still not good:

UVU is not currently accredited. We will start the process in March 2014. We have hired an expert that has experience with our accreditation agency.

Certificates

While I have yet to see a certificate in geography, the number of them offered, both pre and post baccalaureate, in GIS is growing. New ones are announced nearly every week. The latest data I can find, via the GeoTech Center is from May 2013; but alas I can't even count the number of results from my query.

That said, the range of certificates is quite large. A school or organization can provide a "certificate of completion" for a MOOC. That's quite different from a certificate offered by a reputable university after a four course post graduate course of study that includes a capstone project. So, let the buyer and the potential employer, beware!

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 8 - The Battle for Open

--- This post is the eighth in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters notes that "open" continues to be a trending and yet confused term within education technology. While lots of announcements included references to projects, code, courses or data described as "open," many were not open in any meaningful way. Others were merely "open washed."

In geography and GIS education I think we did a bit better in using "open" to reflect at least one of its true meanings in recent years.

In 2012 Esri announced its ArcLessons would be released under a Creative Commons License.

In 2013 Esri decided to remove the fee on its SpatiaLabs lessons and made it available with an Esri educational site license. (Not open, exactly, but with no fee.)

Back in September 2011, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) joined forces to "establish Open Source Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centres across the world for supporting development of open-source geospatial software technologies, training and expertise." To date there are 63 set with a goal of 100 research labs worldwide by Sep 2014. (See Geo for All)

In 2013, there were four "open to all" massive open online courses on GIS topics. Two focused on Esri technology, one on free technology and one on Google technology. (I recapped MOOC ideas and these courses in this video. References are on All Points Blog.)

In 2013 TeachGIS.org launched to try to get educators to share ideas. Sadly, it began to lie fallow as its creator took a new job.

All of these are great, forward-thinking efforts. I'm hopeful those involved will document and share the impact these have on geography and GIS education. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that I've raised in the past: "open" sounds good and providers and educators may both "vote" yes on it, but that does not mean it will be used. That lack of use by the target audience may lead unexpected consequences.

Consider all the discussion of how MOOCs will democratize education for all. In reality, some 80% of those taking the courses already have bachelor's degrees. As idealistic and important and morally correct as open is, it's but one tool in our educational arsenal.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 7 - Data vs. Privacy

--- This post is the seventh in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters notes that the collections and use of education related data was a trend in 2011 and 2012, but its appearance in 2013 is the most dismaying. Watters regularly explores how learning management systems (LMSs) and other software solutions collect data about students including their grades, how long they watch videos, their uses of social media and more. She asks, quite correctly, who owns those data and what can they legally do with the? She also pushes at the irony: the students are not always the ones benefiting from this data collection.

Privacy regarding personal and educational data is certainly worth attention. But now, privacy regarding student's location information around education is coming to the fore. For example:

• Schools track students as they get on and off buses.
• Online schools track where students are (IP map from UW) but could (and perhaps already do?) collect details such as where individuals watch videos or take take tests.
• The University of Alabama announced plans to use drone to monitor student safety on campus.

We, as geospatial educators, need to raise the location privacy concern associated with these sorts of efforts. Are they required? Opt-in? Invasive? Transparent? Valuable?

That last question is most relevant in 2013. Remember the student who refused to wear an RFID-enabled ID tag because she felt it conflicted with her religious beliefs? A court did not support her preference to go un-badged. But, not long after, the school dropped the program because it didn't provide the expected return on investment.