**4. Importance of geospatial technologies in higher education**

It can be argued that the importance of geospatial technology in higher education is evident from its varying areas of application. A field of study that its applications cut across different aspects of human endeavour should be valuable to higher education. Sinton (2012) classified the reasons behind geographic information science and technology (GIS&T) education into two; dominant and secondary reasons. The reasons include marketplace, conducting research, competition for students, managing the business of the university and enhancing learning and teaching (Sinton, 2012). Apart from the need for geospatial technology in the marketplace, there is increasing demand for researchers (even in other fields) to have geospatial skills. "Scientists who can combine geographic information systems with satellite data are in demand in variety of disciplines" (Gewin, 2004). Thus, geospatial technology could help enhance the needed "spatial thinking" in higher education.

In addition to supporting varying research studies, geospatial technologies enhance teaching and learning by promoting effective learning environment and critical thinking (Sinton, 2012). Most of the subjects in geospatial technologies are amenable to being taught using emerging and innovative teaching and learning methods such as problem-based learning and inquiry-based learning. For example, GIS courses have components that are taught using real world problem-solving approach. These problem-solving components engender analytical and spatial thinking among learners thereby improving their critical thinking skills.

The myriad of challenging issues facing the world today ranging from urban growth and biodiversity to climate change have spatial dimension. Geospatial technologies are needed in addressing these challenges. "Grappling with local, regional and global issues of the 21st century requires people who think spatially and who can use geotechnologies" (Kerski, 2008). In addition, geospatial technology is interdisciplinary giving its graduates the capability of viewing problems from different perspectives. Tackling these varying global challenges needs multidisciplinary and collaborative approach and training in the needed multidisciplinary perspectives is already embedded in geospatial education.

Applications of Geospatial Technologies

misleading as the capability of different cohorts are different.

and transform student learning experience.

the methodology section).

**6.1 Comparison of grades** 

for Practitioners: An Emerging Perspective of Geospatial Education 13

techniques of modern cartography". Meitner et al. (2005) also reported a successful adoption of active learning in teaching GIS. However, they noted that instructors should be cautious of turning student-focused classroom into "free-for-all" chaos or drifting back to teacher-led classroom. It is not all the activities of the students that will necessarily translate to active learning. Even Prince (2004), had raised a cautionary note on reported result since it is difficult to measure whether active learning works. Shortis et al. (2000) also noted this difficulty when they acknowledged that comparison of examination results might be

**6. From global to local: The case of geomatics at Yanbu Industrial College** 

The Geomatics Technologies Department at Yanbu Industrial College is facing the problem of low student enrolment. Since the department was created in 2003, student enrolment has not been more than 24 in a year. In addition, the department has not been able to attract high quality students. This poses a challenge of identifying the learning and teaching approach that will increase student motivation, retention and performance. The situation is similar to that of some other geomatics department around the world experiencing low patronage or even closure. The department has taken some measures to reverse this trend. One of the measures is to take the opportunity of the college's drive towards studentcentred learning (Matmti and Delany, 2011; Delany, 2011) to reinvigorate the department

The active learning case study that is presented in this article was implemented in teaching two geomatics courses in remote sensing and GIS. There were ten and six students in the remote sensing and GIS classes respectively. Two methods, group discussion and learning by teaching, were adopted in infusing active learning in the courses. In the group discussion, the study material was given to the student to study before the class. In the class, the students were paired into groups and each group was asked to discuss the material and write down two important ideas they understand from the material and two ideas they do not fully understand. Thereafter, a student from each group was asked to explain to the class the ideas they understand and other ideas (difficult to understand) were thrown open for discussion.

The learning by teaching method was based on presentations by the students. The students were divided into groups. Each group was given a topic from the course module to prepare a presentation on. Each group made presentation on the assigned topic in class and other class members had to take note of important points in the presentation. The teacher served as a facilitator in these two approaches by clearing misconceptions about the subject matter, guiding the students on the concepts to focus on and getting feedback from the students. The following sections present the results of the assessment of the methods (as mentioned in

The comparison of grades of the students with the grades from previous semester shows a mixed result as depicted in Table 2. The average class performance for remote sensing and GIS in the previous semester was 2.89 and 2.59 respectively. For the assessed semester, the average grade was 2.65 for remote sensing and 2.67 for GIS. The results show a slight improvement in performance in GIS and a lower performance in remote sensing. The results
