Whyatt, Duncan and Clark, Gordon and Ross, Kirsty (2026) Using individual GIS projects to build students' self-efficacy : an empirical and theoretical study. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. ISSN 0309-8265
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The authors have previously demonstrated that students pursuing individual GIS projects adopted different strategies, recognizing that further research was required to understand how they used online sources of help. Here we explore how students engaged with these sources and provide future students with advice on how to use them more effectively and efficiently. Adopting self-efficacy as a theoretical construct, we analyze the students’ progress and the effects of their GIS projects on their self-confidence and resilience. We adopt a mixed-methods approach comprising two linked, online surveys, conducted before and after the project work, and a series of one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. The former sought to quantify confidence in using online sources of help and translating real-world problems into GIS. The latter sought to gain deeper insights into students’ resilience given the challenges of GIS. We show that most students are significantly more confident after completing their GIS projects, supported by online sources of help, but for individuals the areas and degrees of improvement are highly variable. We recommend that students develop a positive mindset when engaging with online sources of help and conclude that self-efficacy must be treated more critically to be considered operationally useful and theoretically insightful.