OPENSPACES

The aim of the project OPENSPACES is to develop university courses in the field of geoinformation science for Ukrainian students, which can be conducted independently from the students' location, their temporal availability or the availability of license servers.

The core idea within OPENSPACES(Offering non-Proprietary Education for aNalysing SPAtial data in Computer and Environmental Sciences) is totransfer practical exercises to free and open-source software products, that can be installed locally and free of cost for all students and lecturers. The use of such products removes the restrictions of the availability of license servers or high-capacity internet connections, which exist during war times. Together with the pre-recorded videos and self-learning tutorials the use of the free and open source software is a key element for the courses that we create. The study materials include newly created versions as well as translated version of existing courses. In addition, the Project offers a block course for university lecturers to learn how to follow this example and how to use the developed materials themselves. The main focus of OPENSPACES lies in enabling asynchronous and self-paced learning of geoinformation science (GIS). But as well, it offers specialised language courses, such as English for Environmental Science, and German for the students who have left Ukraine for Germany.

OPENSPACES is funded by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst / German Academic Exchange Service) with resources from the BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Federal Ministry of Education and Research). The project is implemented over the period of July 2022 – December 2022 (6 months) by the two project partners – University of Greifswald, Germany (project coordination) and Odessa State Environmental University, Ukraine.

Contact: sebastian.linden[at]uni-greifswald.de, svitlana.kuznichenko[at]uni-greifswald.de