Economic data analysis is a very important part in a decision making process. Nowadays, the importance of the geospatial component inherent with the most economic data is rapidly increasing. Therefore added value of bringing geospatial aspects in economic data analyses is highly appreciated. The project aims to share best practice across disciplinary and national boundaries. The project will ecnourage to develop a deep interdisciplinary cooperation and research sharing among the involved institutions in the field of economics and geomatics.The aim of this project is to improve students’ interdisciplinary skills by interconnecting different fields – economics, management, business informatics and (geo)informatics/geomatics. Students learn and adopt joint methodologies/techniques/tools and they serve as the actors in a simulation game-based learning. They will simulate economic/business analytics issues from the real world via games during short-term intensive courses and blended mobility in order to bring economics/business and (geo)information together. Students will be enrolled into the process to think, use, write and talk about their experience. The project will entail more attractive and relevant pedagogy than lecture or seminar based approaches.The key objectives are:1) to bring students from different contexts together, through blended mobility, where they will help develop novel approach in spatial economic data analyses,2) to bring scientists with different background together in order to establish a new cooperation within "spatial economics" domain,3) to assess the potential of playful, experiential and simulation game-based learning in this context,4) to devise an interdisciplinary and multinational course that facilitates the interconnection between economics and geomatics5) to develop an open access methodology of the spatial exploration of economic data6) to establish a simulation game scenario in order to model real world problems and their solutionsThe Partnership delivers an ongoing intensive course encounter between students and staff from different disciplines organized in three major mobility activities - two for students and staff (IntLeB - Interdisciplinary Learning Block, composed of (i) Blended mobility and (ii) Intensive Study Programme - Summerschool) and one only for the staff (SciLab - Scientific Laboratory, representing (iii) short-term joint staff training event). The project conference (Multiplier event) will be held at the end of the project in order to present the results to a wider audience. Meanwhile the regular Strategic Partnerhip Meetings will be orginized for proper project goals implementation.In total, there are 84 students and 8 academic staff directly supported by the grant, with 3 more participants helping to fulfill the intellectual outputs.The following project results are expected:1. Annual Spationomy courses (ECTS credit rated)2. Methodology of the spatial exploration of economic data - methods of multidisciplinary analytics (Spationomy methodology) 3. Spationomy learning and teaching materials (handbooks, manuals, guides, e-learning, multimedia etc.)4. Significant research results (scientific papers and publications)5. Simulation game-based learning conceptual framework (including case studies and best practices)6. Innovation of the participating institutions' curricula7. Conference proceedingsThe main expected result is a unique annual Spationomy interdisciplinary and international programme producing educated experts in the field of economy, business informatics and geomatics. All participating students will take part in blended learning activities with intensive Summerschool at the end of the Spationomy annual cycle. As a result, it is expected to educate and train 28 young students per year (84 in total) to become specialists in “spatial economy”. Besides, eight staff members will form an international and interdisciplinary group striving to derive new approaches, learning methodologies and knowledge in “spatial economy”. The participants involved in the Spationomy will be supported by interactive learning (and teaching) materials described above. Research outputs will underline the current convergence of economy and spatial information. All the materials and outputs will be available in open-access format.It is intended that the project will produce activities that could be maintained after the end of the Spationomy project funding due to the great potential of the interdisciplinary approach presented here.
The importance of economic data analysis is indisputably a key factor in a decision making process. With the help of modern ICT tools (e.g. from business informatics), such analysis brings valuable insights in data and reveals information behind them more effectively. If we complement the analysis with a geospatial component (e.g. location), we can achieve complete and comprehensive knowledge about studied phenomenon. Therefore added value of bringing geospatial aspects in economic data analyses is highly appreciated. The project established a deep interdisciplinary and international cooperation and research sharing among the four institutions from three countries - Moravian Business College Olomouc specialising on economy, Department of Geoinformatics from Palacký University Olomouc focusing on spatial analyses (both from Czechia), Geomatics group from Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum (Germany) dealing with geography and remote sensing, and Faculty of Economics and Business from University of Maribor (Slovenia) with its business informatics and quantitative methods.The aim of Spationomy was to improve students’ interdisciplinary skills by interconnecting above-mentioned fields. In three consecutive year cycles of the project, students learnt, adopted, and most importantly applied joint methodologies/techniques/tools in practice. Moreover, students went through a simulation game-based learning, which motivated them to use their newly gained competences. This "serious learning" approach represented the most successful part of the project. Students participated in two short-term intensive courses (so called "drill" and "summerschool"), where they met in person in order to learn new skills from economics/business and (geo)informatics, which they mastered in practical assignements in during and in between the courses. A novel feature for most of the participant was represented by a virtual part (distant team-work on students projects) in each year's cycle. All learning activities were carried out in a sense of blended learning. Students appreciated a mix of teaching methods making the Spationomy attractive and relevant also from a pedagogical perspective. Besides perfecting their teaching skills during courses, Spationomy staff members developed a deep collaboration in research and scientific agenda via Scientific Laboratories, where they identified and further explored possibilities to boost their professional carriers (three staff member were academically promoted during the project). All the key objectives of the project were fulfilled, i.e. 1) to bring students from different contexts together, through blended mobility, where students adopted novel approach in spatial economic data analyses, 2) to bring scientists with different background together to establish a new cooperation within "spatial economics" domain, 3) to assess the potential of playful, experiential and simulation game-based learning, 4) to devise an interdisciplinary and multinational course facilitating the interconnection between economics and geomatics, 5) to develop an open access methodology of the spatial exploration of economic data, and 6) to establish a simulation game scenario in order to model real world problems and their solutions. In total, there were 85 students (28 per year, with 1 more student in the last cycle) and 12 academic staff (4 more than proposed) supported by the grant. The project delivered all the proposed results, i.e. 1) Annual Spationomy courses, 2) Methodology of the spatial exploration of economic data - methods of multidisciplinary analytics (Spationomy methodology), 3) Spationomy learning and teaching materials (handbooks, manuals, guides, e-learning, multimedia etc.), 4) Significant research results (scientific papers and publications), 5) Simulation game-based learning conceptual framework, 6) Innovation of the participating institutions' curricula, and 7) Conference proceedings. Spationomy project created a unique annual interdisciplinary and international programme producing educated experts in "spatial economy". Moreover, as an intagible outcome, Spationomy created an exclusive spatial-economic knowledge platform, and helped students to start their new carriers. On top of it, Spationomy was selected as a case study for the Study on the impact of Erasmus+ Higher Education Partnerships and Knowledge Alliances at local, national and European levels on key Higher Education policy priorities, and also included into the program of TCA Conference "Fostering Erasmus+ Cooperation Projects Impact" in Bologna (Italy) in 2019. All the project results were presented to more than 100 people on the project final conference at the end of the project. All the materials and outputs (where possible) are available as an open-access on the project website and on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform. As intended, Spationomy delivered activities that are maintained after its end, and could also be adopted by anyone interested.