Enhancing Surveying Education through Blended Learning

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FOREWORD

Surveying education has a strong tradition of face-to-face lectures supported by practical tutorials and field project activities. ‘Learning by doing’ or ‘active learning’ have been fundamental to many surveying programs as well as training and continuing professional development. In 2010, Commission 2 recognised the benefits that online learning (or E-learning) could also have for surveying education, and how it could enhance the traditional face-to-face approaches. The result was FIG Publication 46 “Enhancing Surveying Education through e-Learning” which was a major contribution to the surveying education community globally. This publication builds in Publication 46 and reflects the significant technological and political changes in the surveying education institutions since 2010. The development of ICT and video conferencing, along with the development in Learning Management Systems, has allowed online learning in a way that was not possible previously.

The impact of the COVID pandemic, and the associated lockdowns starting in 2020, resulted in most surveying programs rapidly pivoting to emergency remote teaching mode. This pivot involved an exceptional response by surveying teachers globally and allowed classes to continue in most cases, although fieldwork was heavily impacted. While this emergency remote teaching was not blended learning, it did show that blended learning was possible, and that the essential field activities could be supported by online learning material in very effective ways. Other lessons from the pandemic were that surveying students are diverse with some thriving in face-to-face learning, and others preferring online learning.

This publication aims to assist the FIG community with a summary of lessons learned from the COVID pandemic emergency remote teaching and provides some guidance on good practices in implementing blended learning in surveying education. The content draws on papers presented during FIG events on the lessons, and discussion at online webinars during the FIG Working Weeks and Commission 2 events, as well as discussions on-site at the FIG Working Week in 2019 and the FIG Congress in 2022. We would like to thank the editors: Ir. Liza Groenendijk, Dr. David Mitchell, and Dr. Dimo Todorovski, and all the contributors of this publication as listed in the final pages.

Dimo Todorovski, FIG Commission 2 Chair 2023–2026
David Mitchell,  FIG Commission 2 Chair 2019–2022
Diane Dumashie, FIG President
May 2023

Summary

The COVID pandemic accelerated the adoption of online and blended learning in surveying education. This publication is based on the lessons from our response to the pandemic and builds on the contribution of FIG Publication 46 Enhancing Surveying Education through e-Learning. The following chapter presents the results of three surveys of staff and students at education institutions undertaken during the COVID pandemic. These include a global survey by FG Commission 2, a national survey in Germany by the professional association ‘German Association of Surveying – Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management’ (DVW), and a survey by The Technological University of Dublin, Ireland School of Surveying and Construction Management (SSCM). These results of these surveys are presented in Chapter 2. Chapter 2 also provides a description of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic as further background to good practice recommendations provided later in the report. These lessons learned, along with FIG publications and discussions during this period, informed the good practices in blended learning are described in chapter 3. In chapter 4 good practices in blended learning technology and infrastructure are discussed. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the role and benefits of blended learning in surveying education.

Chapters

1 Introduction
2 Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic: Staff and studen perspectives
3 Good Practices in blended learning
4 Blended learning technology and infrastructure
5 The beneits of blended learning for surveying education

Read the full FIG Publication 81 in pdf

Copyright © The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG),  May 2023.

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International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
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Published in English
Copenhagen, Denmark
ISSN 2311-8423 (pdf)
ISBN 978-87-93914-04-9  (pdf)

Published by
International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
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