This past summer, 10 Penn State geography graduate students collaborated with graduate students in the Netherlands to develop solutions to analyze spatiotemporal patterns in refugee migration data.
“The current refugee crisis is unprecedented and has implications for mass migration, humanitarian aid, and resettlement, and it affects nations worldwide," said instructor Beth King. "Our students developed visualization solutions using the United Nations High Commission for Refugees database to provide assistance to refugees.” Their solutions entailed developing software, identifying potential funding sources and making recommendations on how best to allocate resources to benefit refugees.
The unique field-learning experience was part of a new, eight-week course in the online Master of Geographic Information Systems program offered by the Department of Geography. Taught by King and Fritz Kessler, Challenges in Global Geospatial Analytics gave the Penn State students an opportunity to work with students at the Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente, located in Enschede, Netherlands.
The first four weeks of the course featured collaborative learning at a distance to develop their proposals. Penn State students engaged in problem-solving activities using a range of digital learning tools and developed online partnerships with ITC students, Kessler said.