**6.1 Comparison of grades**

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

Applications of Geospatial Technologies

**6.3 Teacher's observations** 

learning path.

**7. Conclusion** 

solving the problem of enrolment.

can offer a fulfilling learning environment.

for Practitioners: An Emerging Perspective of Geospatial Education 15

There were two changes noted after the introduction of the active learning approaches. Some of the students developed keen interest in searching for additional information that could enrich their presentations and understanding of the subject. And some of them became passionate about the given topic that they felt they were the experts in the topics so others should just accept their findings. So, the presentation exercises also taught the student how to accommodate classmates with different views about the subject. Another noted change was in the answers provided by the students to examination questions. Previously, students responded to exam question by virtually regurgitating the information in the course material. During the assessed semester, responses from students showed that some of them had started explaining issues in their own words different from the expressions in the given material. This indicates that they were able to understand the material better than before. The new approaches did not really affect student attendance. And this is an important issue in the department. The goal of the department is to nurture the students to a level that they can be selfmotivated to attend classes and to search for additional information about their subjects. It might be too early for the department to fully assess the impact of the transformation since the method has just been implemented for a semester. The results from the assessment are promising enough to encourage the department to continue on the active

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

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


Table 2. The assessment of student performances for two semesters (Before and after adopting active learning techniques)

also show that the performance in the assessed semester is more consistent than the performance in the previous semester. There was a larger gap between performance in remote sensing and GIS in the previous semester than the assessed semester. As mentioned in section 5.2 above, the result should be interpreted with caution as the cohorts cannot be compared without accounting for differences in students' capability. In the light of this, other means of assessment (questionnaire survey and teacher's observations) were also employed.
