Moving CyberGIS education forward: Knowing what matters and how it is decided

Abstract

Maintaining educational resources and training materials as timely, current, and aligned with the needs of students, practitioners, and other users of geospatial technologies is a persistent challenge. This is particularly problematic within CyberGIS, a subfield of Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIS&T) that involves high‐performance computing and advanced cyberinfrastructure to address computation‐ and data‐intensive problems. In this study, we analyzed and compared content from two open educational resources: (1) a popular online web resource that regularly covers CyberGIS‐related topics (GIS Stack Exchange) and (2) existing and proposed content in the GIS&T Body of Knowledge. While current curricula may build a student's conceptual understanding of CyberGIS, there is a noticeable lack of resources for practical implementation of CyberGIS tools. The results highlight discrepancies between the attention and frequency of CyberGIS topics according to a popular online help resource and the CyberGIS academic community.