Welcome to the Course “Geospatial Data Analysis: Tools and Techniques”. This is the 3rd course in the CSOD LEVEL II program that seeks to empower young adults with the practical skills for today’s Digital economy. These courses are designed to address competency profiles in Digital literacy and Data skills that have become essential for the job markets of today and the future.
Participants in this course on “Geospatial Data Analysis”, will acquire the essential practical skills that will equip them with foundational data competencies for collecting, working with and visualizing location-based data, and applying these techniques to Interactive Community Mapping.
In the Digital economy, Data has become a critical and valuable business resource. In particular, there is a lot of economic value in geospatial data i.e. data that contains geographical co-ordinates that can be plotted on a map. As a result of the ubiquity of mobile devices such as smartphones, a lot of today’s business data from social media posts to transactional data are collected with location coordinates.
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of geospatial data, mapping concepts and applications. Practical techniques are learned to collect, process and visualize geodata using low-cost devices and free tools such as Openstreetmap
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Explain the business value of Geospatial Data
- Understand Mapping concepts
- Collect Geospatial data using mobile devices
- Upload and Edit Geospatial data in Openstreetmap
- Demonstrate techniques for visualizing Geospatial Data
- Apply the learned techniques to Interactive Community Mapping
Who is this course for?
The course is targeted to young adults who have reached the end of high school and/or are beginning to engage in tertiary education, and who have completed the CSOD basic program, or have otherwise acquired digital competencies.
The course will provide a virtual community to work in, that includes other participants like yourself, your course facilitator, and potential mentors that will be an invaluable source of information, knowledge sharing, and creative ideas. We encourage you to participate in the discussions and activities which will be one of the most valuable things this course has to offer
What do I need to know?
Participants should have completed the CSOD Basic digital skills Program, should have successfully completed all modules and assessment quizzes in the 1st two courses of this Level II program:
- Data Preparation
- Art & Science of Data Visualization
How long is this course?
Structure of the Course
This course is broken down into four (4) modules, namely:
- Module 1 – Understanding the Business value of Geospatial data: introduces the concepts of geospatial data (i.e. Geospatial data is data that contains geographical co-ordinates that can be plotted on a map) and GPS devices
- Module 2 – Geospatial data and Mapping Concepts: orients learners in the foundational concepts and principles of maps, mapping and geospatial data and introduces the various elements and attributes that go into constructing a digital map
- Module 3 – Interactive Community Mapping – Tools & Techniques: provides learners with knowledge on the tools and techniques for mapping a local community, such as the use of mobile devices (smartphone or tablet) to collect Geospatial data and attributes, and a practical hands-on introduction to the Openstreetmap platform
- Module 4 – Visualizing Geospatial Data: applies data visualization tools and techniques learned from the preceding Data Visualization course, to display geospatial data on Maps