OER Geomatics

Enhancing geomatic teaching and learning at UBC and beyond through interactive “click and discover” textbook

Background

Canada is the birthplace of computerized Geographic Information Systems (GIS), yet existing textbooks (both OER and non-OER) adopted in UBC classrooms rarely focus on environmental management issues, case studies, and examples that are relevant to underrepresent northern communities in Canada. UBC excels in teaching geomatics and should have an OER geomatics textbook that reflects the needs of the diverse student body interested in the discipline.

Objective

The aim of this project is to develop an interactive online textbook with open educational resources (OER) for teaching geomatics across UBC faculties. Existing OER geomatics textbooks are flat: they lack interactive examples, tools, and case studies that make cutting-edge geomatics so engaging.

Format

Interactive “click and discover” elements in the OER geomatics textbook will be key to enhancing geomatics teaching and learning at UBC and beyond. Interactive web maps will be embedded throughout the online textbook to provide students with a “hands on” virtual experience working with geographic data. Additionally, students will be trained in and exposed to the back-end framework for coding and developing web-based geomatics content.

Features

3D immersive scenes that will allow users to zoom, pan, and rotate around terrain or an areal image
“Zoom in” feature, to present more information about the selected pathway
All of these features are available through open source software (e.g., Leaflet, 3D Tiles, SceneJS, Potree viewer).