Meta-analysis of the impact of geospatial technologies on learning outcomes

Many scholars have been using geospatial technologies (GST) to improve students’ learning outcomes in the Web 2.0 age. However, many studies focus on the effectiveness of GST on cognitive domain of learning outcomes, which poses challenges to GST efficacy evaluation. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of GST on students’ learning outcomes and identify potential moderators through meta-analysis. The results indicate that GST has a positive effect on students’ learning outcomes on a medium scale, while its effects on the cognitive domain were more significant than the non-cognitive domain. Moreover, we identified variable factors such as participant’s country/region, education level, intervention duration, and type of geospatial technology to analyze whether the four moderator variables had an impact on the effectiveness of GST. The moderator analysis results show that GST’s effectiveness on students’ learning outcomes depended on participants’ country/region, intervention duration and type of geospatial technology. This means that participants’ country/region, intervention duration and type of geospatial technology had a significant effect on GST’s effectiveness, while students’ education level did not have a major impact. Thus, geography educators should promote a pedagogical model with GST, and take into account the individuals’ country/region, while setting a reasonable intervention time of using GST in teaching. Teachers should also be flexible in using different types of geospatial technologies to achieve positive students’ learning outcomes.