What is the IIGLU product? (The final Product Post, not the last ever blog post)

IIGLU is more than just a piece of software!

Geographical Information Systems are hard to use – IIGLU makes them easier.

IIGLU stands for Interactive Integrated Geospatial Learning and Understanding.

This is a framework for teaching geospatial information concepts to learners outside the discipline of GIS. So how will IIGLU work for you?

Are you a teacher, lecturer or geospatial expert?

• You will first need to develop a Use Case which will help your target audience understand geospatial concepts. Click HERE to see some examples – please feel free to make use of these yourself.
  
  
• Once you’ve done this, you will need to build this use case into a e-learning scenario (the software environment is in alpha phase of development an will launch at the end of FEB 2012). This is a little like writing a script for a play – see HERE for examples of the preparation process and HERE for a video of how to build the scenario using the IIGLU tools.
  
  
• The final part of your work is to bridge the gap between your scenario and a real GIS environment – you do this via the Wiki. Click HERE to see some examples of how.

Are you a learner new to geospatial / digital mapping?

• We’ve developed a decision tool to help you find out where to start – click HERE to see how it works.

• Links in the decision tool will take you to an e-learning environment, where you will be able to interact with maps, videos and text and learn how GIS concepts can be applied in your discipline. Click HERE to see a video of the e-learning environment

• If you want to find out how to do the things you’ve learned about in a GIS software package such as ArcGIS, you can follow the links to the Wiki – click HERE for some examples.

Next Steps:

IIGLU is in Alpha development phase at the moment, with an expected roll out in Spring 2012.

Thoughts on how the IIGLU e-learning environment can be further developed in the Future

For the project team it feels like IIGLU is only just getting started and what we have developed is a proof of concept e-learning environment which we think has great potential. We have identified a couple of ideas for future development, which include: Within the e-learning software we are developing each learner interaction with the map window is currently being recorded by the software and stored in a database - we call this recording of tutorial states. This has potential in 2 directions:

1. Delivering Feedback as Part of a Game Environment. Users will be able to step through the tutorials and as they complete tasks the system will deliver personalised feedback based on how successfully they completed it. This will be achieved via the use of a weights matrix (defined during user testing) that stores a tolerance ratio, which is the difference between the tutorial state of the teachers actions and the state of the learners interactions. So if the teacher writing the scenario asks the student to create a buffer that is 10m from the point of interest and the user types 15m they will be given points for drawing a buffer but not full points because the distance was wrong.
   
   
2. Tutorial State Tracking & Usability Analysis for Indepth User Understanding: The recording of user interactions with the map tutorial state will enable us to explore how users are interacting with the tutorials and inform further usability analysis and understanding.
   

Extend tutorials to include more geospatial concepts: The e-learning environment is not replicating a desktop GIS but provides a facility for exploring geospatial concepts without the complex interaction functionality of a GIS. With this in mind there is scope to expand the tutorials which currently focus on the question "how do I make a map" to questions such as "how do I collect my data?", "how do I store my data?", "how do I analyse my data?"

Integrate external data repositories automatically into the spatial database: Currently teachers can upload data, in the form of KML files. which as part of the server side of the system are stored in a spatial database (POSTGRE SQL) a future extension to this would be enable users to automatically select data /upload from higher education repositories such as DIGIMAP, ShareGeo, UK Boarders

Project Blog Posts - Table of Contents

Development of our Product - IIGLU

• 11/what-is-iiglu-product-final-product.html: Product description of IIGLU framework
  
• 11/iiglu-elevator-pitch.html: Elevator Pitch for IIGLU framework
  
• 02/project-plan-post-5-of-7-project-team.html: Project team
• 11/iiglu-our-logo.html : Developing a brand for our product
• 11/thoughts-on-how-iiglu-e-learning.html: Futures ideas for development of the e-learning environment
• 09/iiglu-how-usable-will-it-be.html: Discussion on how usable will the e-learning component of the IIGLU framework be, with screen cast
  
• 08/development-update.html: Development update in the form of a screen cast
• 06/decision-time-google-maps-vs-openlayers.html :Discussion on which development environment we should use
  
• 05/g3-few-months-in.html: Progress report
• 02/project-plan-post-3-of-7-risk-analysis.html: Analysis of project risks
  
• 02/project-plan-post-2-of-7-benefits-to.html: Benefits of the project
  
• 02/beyond-g3-project.html: Thinking ahead about after the project
  
• 02/project-outline.html: Description of the G3 project

Understanding Users:

• 08/what-is-todays-equivalent-to-jon-snows.html: Thoughts on the modern day equivalent of the John Snow Map
• 08/open-geo-health-workshop.html : Exploring issues of GIS in Health Care
• 05/if-gis-were-language.html: User interviews raised the question of whether you need to understand the language of GIS to grasp map making?
  
• 05/importance-of-knowing-location.html: User Interviews with stressed the importance of teaching non technical disciplines the power of knowing a location - which can be digitally mapped
  
• 04/gis-not-spss.html: Undergraduate consider SPPS and GIS to be the same quantitative skillset
  
• 03/urban-design-user-expert-interview.html: Summary of user interview using a Word Cloud
  
• 03/congratulate-me-im-data-scientist.html: Thinking about new roles as data scientists
  
• 02/background-narrative-for-g3-bridging.html: Summary of our typical user , a use case
  

Understanding User Interactions with Geographic Information and GIS

• /07/just-quick-pointer-to-recording-of-my.html : Presentation of eye tracking experiments given at State of The Map, Vienna.
  
• 07/gis-are-still-hard-to-use-interface.html : Discussion on notoriety of desktop GIS and how difficult they are to use
  
• 07/state-of-map-presentation.html : Summary of the Presentation given at State of The Map
  
• 05/moving-search.html: Example of the Eye Tracking Experiments
  
• 05/child-of-ten-standard-of-user-interface.html: discussion on usability from the perspective of a child of 10.
  

Teaching and Learning Geographic Information

• 11/yes-it-is-possible-to-do-phd-in-gis.html : Claire's thoughts on Spatial is Special
• 10/what-makes-spatial-special-my-kates.html: Kate's thoughts on Spatial is Special
• 07/reflective-teaching-practice-2-do-i.html : Thoughts on teaching spatial databases
• 07/we-asked-readers-of-blog-to-identify.html: Results of questionnaire posted on blog asking about prioritising geographic concepts for new learners
  
• 06/metaphor-for-introducing-teaching-map.html: Using metaphors to teach map projections
  
• 06/reflective-teaching-practice-do-i-need.html: Thoughts on teaching map projections
• 05/is-gis-discipline-or-inter-discipline.html: Thoughts on the state of GIS as a discipline
  
• 05/quick-question-on-geographic-concepts.html: Questionnaire post on blog asking readers how they would prioritise geographic concepts for new learners
• 05/important-geographic-and-cartographic.html:
• 02/representations-of-scale.html: Thoughts on use of scale in scenario development
  

IIGLU - The Elevator Pitch!

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are hard to use – IIGLU makes it easier. IIGLU is an interactive online framework to support learning and teaching of geographic and GIS concepts.

If you want to make a map for the first time OR are interested in teaching students/new learners how to make a digital map with existing data - IIGLU will support you through the process.

For teachers, lecturers and geospatial experts

IIGLU helps you to develop a use case to describe the characteristics of your learners and identify their learning needs. You can develop and build e-learning scenarios for students to play back. Supporting students learn geospatial concepts without worrying about the complex interactions required of a desktop GIS. Finally to bridge the gap between the e-learning scenarios and a real desktop GIS package a wiki enables you to share your knowledge.

For new learners of geospatial/ digital mapping

IIGLU helps you learn how to make a map for the first time - you can use a decision support tool to guide your mapping choices. The IIGLU e-learning environment allows you to interact with maps, videos, text and images usng examples from specific disciplines to walk you through the conceptual framework of digital mapping. Finally you can apply your learning to desktop GIS using the knowledge base on the IIGLU wiki.