[Qgis-psc] Certification and contributions

[Tim Sutton]

Hi Kurt

> On 03 Mar 2018, at 18:33, Kurt Menke <kurt at birdseyeviewgis.com> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 

Yes I think this is going to be a very useful next step to add to the platform….

> 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….
> 
Yes sorry if I wasn't clear (might be clearer if I meet with you and Hans and walk you through the curriculum app that Ismail is working on) - the idea would be that we can make some ‘standard’ courses like intro to QGIS, QGIS Advanced, etc. and also that anyone offering a specialised course can do so with the curriculum designer. The curriculum is then saved and a PDF generated containing all the training materials. A link to this document is then included in the certificate so that a reviewer of e.g. a CV can go and look at what content was covered in the course. Of course it only works if all the content is on the same platform (though I guess we could let people attach a PDF to the course in the certification app too).



> 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!
> 

Its our pleasure - and thanks for pitching in to help. By the way I am trying to keep things generic enough so that we can host this for other projects too….

Regards

Tim


> Cheers,
> Kurt
> Kurt Menke, GISP
> 
> www.BirdsEyeViewGIS.com <http://www.birdseyeviewgis.com/>
> 
> 
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---

Tim Sutton
QGIS Project Steering Committee Chair
tim at qgis.org




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