**7. Conclusion**

This article has dwelt on three issues that are very important to geospatial technologies. First is the justification for teaching geospatial technologies in higher education by highlighting its growing applications and future trend. Second is the paradoxical issue of low student enrolment at some geomatics departments around the world despite the growing need for geospatial technologies in varying fields of application. Third is the adoption of active learning technique to improve teaching and learning and thereby attract more students. The highlight on the expanding applications of geospatial technologies has shown that different domains of geospatial technologies are continuously evolving and the market demand for geomatics researchers and practitioners is expanding. And this leads us to the justification for having geospatial technologies in any college or university. Apart from the demand for geospatial technologies, other justifications include research, its use by the society and the promotion of emerging learning techniques. The emerging learning techniques could help in solving the problem of enrolment.

A case study of the adoption of emerging teaching techniques at Yanbu Industrial College is presented in this article to show that these techniques could transform geomatics education. Though the implementation is still at an early stage, its effect on student intake is yet to be determined, it has shown promising results. The students were keen to search for additional material on the courses and they answered exam questions from what they understood not what they crammed. If the techniques could not result in an increase in student intake, they might lead to an increase in retention of students once the students realise that geomatics can offer a fulfilling learning environment.

Applications of Geospatial Technologies

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