Developing teaching/learning materials on ‘Sense of Place’ with students in an international university cooperation: overall approach and first phase outcomes at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences

Abstract

The ‘Cognitive Geomatics’ project is a cooperation between the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and the University of Nairobi (Kenya). It builds on an earlier geo(infor)matics-focussed cooperation between the first two universities, which is expanded to a third country and to be interdisciplinary in nature through participation of lecturers and students from the social sciences and culture media management. The aim is to jointly develop digital teaching and learning resources related to sense of place, which can be used in blended learning at each university. We aim to learn with and from each other, and to create awareness of cultural differences when using geomatics methods. The adopted approach is one of working together with students on the conceptualization, development and completion of the resources. The project has three phases, each led by a different university, and with a different focus on teaching sense of place. In this paper, the results of the first phase led by the German university are shared. Students developed four digital teaching/learning resources for training awareness of space, making use of web mapping technologies and Sustainable Development Goals data. During a project workshop, the students presented the resources to project team members, who provided feedback and proposed ideas for further work together with students.