[SeasonOfDocs] How should we focus OSGeo training within SeasonOfDocs?

[Charlie Schweik]

Hi Jo,

In response to this point you made (my bold, emphasis):

On Mon, May 27, 2019 at 1:42 PM Jo Cook <jo.k.cook at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>  If we (rhetorically, and not necessarily talking about Astun Technology
> here) wish to charge for training, then the training material is surely
> part of what we're charging for?* If we use publicly available training
> material some people may complain that they are paying for material that is
> freely accessible. Personally I think we should be focusing on the manual
> rather than on training material as such*.
>

>From my perspective as a faculty at a university, as you undoubtedly know,
higher education is expensive. In the USA (and elsewhere) there is a
significant push toward "Open Educational Resources" (open access, Creative
Commons or other licensed materials) as part of an effort to reduce the
annual costs students have to pay for textbooks and other academic
materials. Since 2007 I and others have been trying to encourage the OSGeo
community to develop open access materials to support our teaching in
higher education. Not only will it save students money, it will likely help
to expand the offering of FOSS4G technologies in academic programs.

The same question that you asked could be asked in the higher ed context:
"why are universities teaching with publicly available training material
when they are paying for those courses"? I'd argue that they are paying for
the services rendered around those materials. The experiences of taking a
course under the direction of someone with knowledge in that area and that
the experience of doing projects, etc. is where the value add is.

So my continued puzzle is how to create collective action across educators
on this list to try and get a set of training materials -- introductory,
advanced -- that many instructors in universities (or other levels) can use
that are no cost for the students.
For instance, right now I'm developing lab exercises based on QGIS for data
analysis of unmanned aerial systems-acquired imagery. I'd welcome
collaborating with others to develop an open access lab manual for others
to use in UAS-related courses.

For what it is worth...

Cheers
Charlie Schweik
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