Experiences Teaching Gis With Open Source Software

Experiences Teaching GIS with Open Source Software
Ian Turton,
John A. Dutton e-Education Institute
EES Building
Pennsylvania State University
University Park
PA 16802
USA
Email:ijt1@psu.edu

Summary
The course
The software
The students
The problems
The benefits

The Course
GEOG585 - Open Web Mapping
http://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog585
Part of the Penn State MGIS Program
http://gis.e-education.psu.edu/mgis
Online course designed for experienced practitioners who aspire to leadership in the geographic information systems profession, but who are only able to study part-time and at a distance.

What is Open?
Open Source
All the software required for the course is FOSS
Open Standards
All the methods in the course are based on open standards (OGC)
Open Courseware
All the course materials are openly available on the web for review and reuse (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Course Outline
A 10 week tour through open web mapping using open standards and open source software
Web Map Servers (WMS)
Pictures of maps sent to client
Web Feature Servers (WFS)
Actual data sent to client (includes GML)
Styled Layer Description (SLD)
Styling web maps

Assessment
A mid term paper discussing a plan for a full web map project
A final project which produces a complete web mapping project from data acquisition, setting up a web map server and building a custom thin map client.
http://webmapping.mgis.psu.edu/geoserver/www

Web Map Servers
MapServer
Open source C based
Easy to install on Linux, harder on windows and mac’s
GeoServer
Open source Java based
Easy to install on most OS (harder on Vista due to security)
Deegree
Open source Java based
Easy to install on most OS (harder on Vista due to security)
ArcGIS Server
Closed source
Easyish to install once you’ve paid for it windows, costs more for Linux, no mac support.

Web Mapping Clients
OpenLayers
Open source
JavaScript
WebKit and OpenScales
Open source
Flex/Flash
ArcGIS server client
Closed source
.Net/Java
No Internet 8 support until 9.3 (java -> 9.4)

Thick (Desktop) Clients
UDig
Open source java
Drag and drop WMS, WFS support
QGIS
Open Source python
Full OGC support
ArcMap
Closed source - windows
Can do WMS import and simple WFS
Full WFS – paid add on.

The Students
Knowledgeable Students
Less Knowledgeable Students
Clueless Students
Sharers
Hoarders

The Knowledgeable Students
These are the students who understand how their machine connects to the Internet.
They tend to ask questions about their LAMP box in basement that they plan to start their new consulting business on.
Strong programmers

Less Knowledgeable Students
These are the students that know how to install software, they mostly get on with the projects but can become completely stumped if their machine is not like the example in any way.
Have never programmed anything harder than ArcObjects.

Clueless Students
These are the students who are completely stumped at all times.
They have never installed anything on machine since it arrived new.
Don’t really understand how the internet works.
Have never programmed anything (including the video recorder)
Often younger

Hoarders/Sharers
Hoarders
Ask a lot of questions by email and on forums
Never report back as to what worked
Never answer other’s questions
Sharers
Will often research the answer to their problem
Will then share knowledge to help others on the forums

The Problems
Install the program
Which version?
Who’s this administrator guy?
But I’ve got Vista!
Run the program
It won’t run! It doesn’t start! It’s broken!
Where did my data go?

More Problems
Write a program
What is JavaScript?
It doesn’t work!
In Internet Explorer
Except in Internet Explorer
I didn’t know ,/; was important!
Cross Domain Requests
Debugger?
Philosophical objection to Firefox

The Benefits
Open software
No license fees
Free to redistribute
Open Standards
Can interoperate with ESRI software
Easier to teach techniques not technology
Open Courseware
Easy for students to determine if they can cope with course
Supports teaching at other institutions
Supports open software developers

Why Bother?
Programming is a key GeoComputation/ Geography skill
Someone has to encourage students to do this sort of stuff

Conclusions
Open is good!
Teaching an online course with closed source software is
Harder
License management
Cost to student
Limited supported platforms
Easier
Some else does support

Experiences Teaching Gis With Open Source Software

by Ian Turton on Feb 11, 2010

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