[Qgis-psc] Certification and contributions

[Kurt Menke]

Hello everyone,

I think there are a lot of good and interesting ideas here.  In terms of
giving back, obviously the Certification program is already set up so that €20
are donated to QGIS for each certificate, but there are more ways.

To let everyone know how Hans and I have been operating so far:

We have established that if an organization isn’t one we are familiar with
(outside QGIS “trust network”) they need to provide:

·  Course outline/syllabus

·  An example exercise with sample data and presentation

·  Link to the course website (if it exists)

We also discussed that open data or an online MOOC should be encouraged and
would be a positive attribute for a new organization seeking approval.

I think the most important characteristics for a potential QGIS certifying
organization are: 1) being able to determine that an they represent QGIS
accurately, 2) have sound materials and 3) qualified instructors. I think
we all want the resulting certificates to mean something.

Regarding instructors: Currently the initial approval of the organization
is the only quality check in the system. Once certified, an organization
can add new courses and instructors. Perhaps when an organization adds new
teachers we should have them provide a bio or resume and have some criteria
for approving them? I realize it would add another layer to manage, but it
would be a nice additional quality check in the system going forward.

Regarding mandated contributions to the QGIS project: It certainly is a
good opportunity to not only get more contributions to the project, but to
educate more of the users about the myriad of ways they can contribute. I
think 9 out of 10 users still don't know this. The "How you can contribute"
is material that should be included in all workshops/courses resulting in a
QGIS certificate. For educational institutions and professional educators,
authoring books and publishing open content should suffice.

Regarding a mandated curriculum: This is interesting and perhaps also a bit
of a slippery slope. Mainly because courses might range from a single day
custom professional workshop to full term/semester courses.  Tim, I haven’t
had time to really look at this yet but I know you have put a lot of
thought into it. It’s on my to do list.  We wrestled with a lot of these
issues when we first designed the FOSS4G Academy & Discover QGIS. A
mandated curriculum obviously needs to be flexible enough so that local
data could be substituted. It also needs to be organized in such a way that
modules can be selected for use in a course. Another consideration is how
that curriculum would fit for more topical courses like one on UAV’s and
QGIS, ecological conservation and QGIS, hydrology and QGIS, public health,
cartography, modelling, LiDAR, parcel management….

Another reality is that all of these issues mean more oversight and
management by a small team of volunteers. It will need to be built
gradually and I like where we are starting from. Thanks to Kartoza and Tim
for building the platform! I like where the discussion is going!
Cheers,
Kurt

Kurt Menke, GISP

www.BirdsEyeViewGIS.com <http://www.birdseyeviewgis.com/>
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