Basic Geo-Spatial Data Literacy Education for Economic Applications

Abstract

Geospatial data literacy is of paramount importance in an increasingly digital business world. Especially in economic decision-making processes, the ability to judge the trustworthiness of pertinent data sets is inevitable for reliable decisions. Thus, geospatial competencies need to supplement the university’s teaching syllabus of economic degree programmes. Even if these programmes already have a lot of content, it is worth adding geospatial topics to educate students as skilled young experts, being geospatially literate. This contribution shows an approach on how to sensitise students and teachers with an economics background to understand the origin of geospatial data sets, their specific nature, their quality and how to gain geospatial data sets with a particular focus on sustainable economics applications. It proposes a teaching approach for educating students on geospatial characteristics of data, making them aware of spatial reasoning and spatial thinking. Especially it is vital to give them an impression of the manipulating nature of maps and geospatial visualisations. The aim is to show them the power of geospatial data and map products for research in their specific thematic field. The presented teaching concept originates from an interdisciplinary data literacy course geared to students other than geospatial sciences. It incorporates elements of a flipped classroom and a self-learning tutorial. This paper shows and discusses the results of the implementation of the course. Positive exam results imply that the teaching concept provides a suitable way to impart geospatial competencies to students belonging other than geo-related subjects.