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Mapeo, like many applications, is best learned in with an emphasis on practice, so plan to include hands-on exercises and simulations.
Scale event goals and be transparent about expectations. Be selective and realistic about what can be covered.
Mapeo tools each have a lot of features and possible uses for individuals and communities. Having clear priorities will help in designing a Mapeo training plan that is relevant to learners. Get clear on participants' goals in order to incorporate these into the training plan.
All skill levels of participants can become Mapeo users in some way. Some tasks like collecting data are accessible to new users who are comfortable using their devices. Other tasks like setting up customizations, data synchronization, and generating data outputs may be tasks a user is ready to do after they are comfortable with the Mapeo interfaces, and understand what kind of information they are working with.
If community members who can’t read or write are important to the project (eg. elders sharing stories, leading walks, etc.), make sure that use demonstrations are tailored to engage them, so that they are also able to use Mapeo.
It is important to present information and instruction at a vocabulary and skill level that is accessible to participants.
Newly learned skills can be affirmed by asking participants to share with their peers what they were able to do using Mapeo. Even if they are unsure, it’s good to remind them that making mistakes or asking for help in the learning environment is much better than getting stuck when alone.
Be mindful of different abilities and disabilities in the group. Impaired vision, hearing, dexterity, and mobility, as well as diverse levels of literacy and language fluency can impact one's ability to learn new skills and be a confident Mapeo user. Mapeo trainers are encouraged to use accessible training techniques and support learners with their device's accessibility feature settings and where possible, access specialized equipment.
It is always better to use virtual platforms with whom participants are already familiar or to separate dedicated training time to train them on the use of new platforms.
Mapeo, like many applications, is best learned in with an emphasis on practice. You can promote this even in virtual events.
If you use Zoom, you can use breakout rooms, polls, and other tools to make the session more interactive.
Make sure to use visual materials to share the content in different formats (oral, visual, etc.). You can find some useful visual materials in Additional references
Use screen sharing software and connections to make demonstrations of Mapeo on your smartphone and computer
Pre-recorded videos of demos are recommended to have on hand in the case that live demos are not working well*
Consider that it can be very demanding on your computer's video card to participate in a live video conference while doing a screen share and local screen mirroring. This can often affect the computer’s capacity to perform well. Also, most software will be slower and less responsive in this context and Mapeo is no exception.
Any WiFi-based screen mirroring tool will prevent Mapeo from being able to use Mapeo’s synchronization via WiFi. It is highly recommended to prerecord this on both devices used.
We encourage you to sample content that can be seen, recorded or captured by attendees.
In this section, we put together a few suggestions on how to plan the agenda and different sections of a training, and included some tips and proposed exercises for training some of the key features and workflows in Mapeo.
Training plans are naturally unique for every participant group, and Mapeo training sessions can go in many different directions depending on the trainer’s strengths and participants’ needs. Working through the questions below can be a good first step in defining your training plan.
The goals of a Mapeo training often fall under one the umbrellas below, but of course your goals will vary depending on your team's priorities and needs:
Tool-centered: Provide a general overview of the Mapeo tools or focus on specific Mapeo features. For example, training on how to collect observations, or on how to synchronize Mapeo Mobile with Mapeo Desktop
Context-centered: Train on the workflow and concrete tasks that users are expected to perform in a specific context or project. For example, training to the monitors on the workflow they are expected to carry out (e.g. collect observations with Mapeo in the case of X
or X
, send an alert to X
person via the X
app, sync with X
person, etc.)
When planning a training session, it’s important to know who the participants will be and what their interests, needs, and skills are. Mapeo can be used by participants of all skill levels if training sessions are tailored appropriately. You can find tips on this on #tips-on-engaging-with-participants-with-various-skill-levels.
Participants’ goals are also important to get clear on. With good communication, the participants' realistic goals become the goals for a Mapeo trainer and are incorporated into the training plan.
It is the responsibility of the trainer to design and adapt sessions based on the participants, to ensure they are able to gain the skills and confidence needed to accomplish the necessary tasks in a mapping or monitoring project.
Mapeo training events can be in-person or virtual. Each has its benefits and limitations, which must be considered when deciding the goals, participants, and scope of the activity. For example, virtual events allow participants to join from anywhere with an internet connection, while in-person training sessions allow for better hands-on demonstrations and exercises with participants.
IN-PERSON training event
Strengths
Mapeo is an offline-first tool that makes it possible for people in remote areas with limited or no internet to collect and exchange data, and these offline workflows are much better trained in person in the same context.
A safe, friendly, and relaxed space with ample opportunity for peer learning can be easier to foster in person than in virtual contexts.
It is much easier for a trainer to observe participants in person in order read the room, identify which aspects are harder to learn, and change plans if needed.
Weaknesses
Normally it is more expensive, as it has to gather people from different places.
Depending on the context, it might be impossible to do this given time or logistics required, or because of location of the trainer, etc.
VIRTUAL training event
Strengths
It allows the involvement of participants located in distinct areas.
It tends to be cheaper than organizing an in-person training.
Weaknesses
Virtual training events have the challenge of requiring that participants have knowledge of virtual learning platforms. If you end up organizing a virtual session, remember that it is always better to use the virtual platforms that are already known by the participants or to separate dedicated training time to train them on the use of these new platforms.
It is more difficult to read the room and have a sense of how people are following the session.
The Internet signal can be weak in some areas, so expect sudden losses of connection by participants joining from rural areas.
It can be more challenging to maintain momentum, have people work together, and remain focused. Participants' ability to remain focused on a computer screen for training is likely less than in a face-face meeting.
In this section, you will find a collection of best practices, tips, ideas and resources that you can use when planning and conducting a training event. From tips on how to engage with participants in an in-person event to recommendations for virtual events, from suggestions on how to tackle the different sections of the agenda, to tips and exercises that you can use to practice different Mapeo workflows. Moreover, we also have compiled a list of useful presentations and other resources that you can use during the training.
Best practices for planning a training
General tips when planning a training
Tips on engaging with participants with various skill levels
Tips for virtual events
Structuring the agenda, content and activities
Suggestions for the different sections of a training event
Tips on how to train different important features and workflows in Mapeo
Available materials and resources for the training event
A training activity generally begins with an opening and introduction, followed by demonstrations and walkthroughs, a practice time, and time for questions and discussion. When possible, it also can include a demonstration by the participants. Here you will find some tips for these different sections:
Take time for making an appropriate and meaningful opening that is directed by local leaders. Mapeo is a tool designed for communities to use in their unique contexts. What is shared in the opening can help participants contextualize the possible application and impact of their use of Mapeo.
Participatory introductions are an opportunity for the trainer to hear from participants why they are participating in a Mapeo training. This becomes a collective affirmation of the effort everyone is giving in sharing the learning process.
When introducing or reintroducing Mapeo to a group, give concrete examples from other places about how Mapeo works or helped a community achieve their goal, followed by goals and expectations about what the participants will be learning about Mapeo at the current event. Allow time in this section for questions or concerns to make sure that the agenda is going to work.
For events that will include hands-on practice with Mapeo, take a moment to remind participants to charge their devices.
Show a user task or workflow once with everyone watching first.
Be specific when describing what you want to do and what you have to click/tap to do it. Often describing the shape, color, location, and when available, a label of a button in a demonstration will make it easier for participants to recall more options for interacting with Mapeo.
You can also use some support for the demonstrations, such as using a slide or a printed demo to show people on, or if you only have one device, you can walk around so everyone sees it.
Have all participants' equipment ready to use and distributed to participants. (see #participant-devices )
Ask leading questions - I want to do x, Where should I click/tap?
Having a dedicated support person to help participants resolve equipment issues, and walk around the room to offer support if it's an in-person training, is essential for maintaining a flow during instructional time.
Make use of consistent learning teams. Groups of 3-6 people generally work best for Mapeo Mobile, groups of 2-3 people work well for Mapeo Desktop. You will find some ideas for exercises in Tips and suggested activities for training key features of Mapeo
Practice time is a good moment for you as a trainer to observe the participants and get a sense of which processes are harder to follow and where to dive a little deeper.
A lot of questions that come up about Mapeo revolve around design, possible use cases, and if it has the features needed by the user (check Is Mapeo right for me?). Depending on the training agenda, your familiarity with Mapeo, and your access to Mapeo resources, you may be able to answer these questions when they come up, or document the questions and return to them at the end or at a different time.
Equipment issues are often the first issues that arise so provide adequate time to troubleshoot.
You can take a look at thisFAQs section, where we gathered some of the most common questions about Mapeo.
Newly learned skills can be affirmed by asking participants to share with their peers what they were able to do using Mapeo. Even if they are unsure, it’s good to remind them that making mistakes or asking for help in the learning environment is much better than getting stuck when alone.
Mapeo is designed for community-owned data and so it is important that users are able to see the data on Mapeo and be able to talk about it in their own words.
Before finishing the practical part, consider if you want everyone to delete the data created during the simulation so that it is not mixed with the project data.
Review what was shared or learned in the session and highlight any reminders about Mapeo tasks that were particularly difficult for the participants.
Gather feedback about Mapeo and about how the learning experience went.
This can be tricky depending on the context. So, here are some practices that have worked for us:
Instead of testing/evaluating skills gained, ask questions about where participants found pain points with Mapeo, and what could be improved. This way you can encourage discussion on the most difficult processes in Mapeo.
Make questions around the time used to deliver each section (e.g. did we invest enough time to practice the synchronization between devices?), to identify which are the things that were more difficult to follow and require more time and attention in the next training session.
Ask the participants to compare things. They might not want to say that something was bad, but maybe you can come up with a clear ranking by asking questions like “what was easier to learn, this aspect or that aspect?”
Ask how effective the training session has been for them, or how useful the Mapeo tool and its processes are to them. This also opens a space to discuss where the focus of the training should be next time.
Identify any needed follow-up and how that will happen.
Give that final word to the local leaders that are present. Often during technical training, local leaders observe and identify obstacles, behaviors, possibilities, and solutions. They are the best at articulating the importance of Mapeo in the project and getting specific about the responsibilities the participants have in maintaining skills and making the quality of information high.
A key piece of a successful Mapeo project is ensuring that participants have the skills they need in Mapeo and a clear understanding of the workflows they are expected to perform. It will often be necessary to run one or more training sessions to cover these aspects.
Training sessions generally take place at the beginning of a Mapeo project or when a new participant joins a project. Trainings can cover different types of content, ranging from a general introduction to the Mapeo tools and main features, to explaining how Mapeo is used in a specific project and the workflows that need to be followed when participating in it. In this sense, trainings can be tool-centered, or context-centered. Sessions can be virtual or in-person, periodical or punctual. These aspects of format and focus will depend on the details of each case.
Mapeo is designed with a focus on being easy to use to help communities spend less time learning technical skills, and reduce their need to have budget and access to outside trainers to get started using Mapeo. The aim is to increase user and community autonomy.
Digital Democracy has been delivering many types of information and training events based on the needs of different groups and communities. We have documented the content in this section because we believe that access to good information and training should not be limited to the relatively small number of training and support requests we are able to accommodate. With a diversely skilled and motivated team, we hope the contents shared here will help you deliver a Mapeo training event that will work well for your community or audience.
Remember that everyone can learn and train Mapeo and all skill levels of participants can become Mapeo users in some way. Those who can’t read and write may be an important part of the project and can also learn to use Mapeo if demonstrations are tailored to engage them (eg. elders sharing stories, leading walks, etc.). You will find some tips on this in the subsections that follow.
In the subsections below, you’ll find useful resources and information on how to plan, prepare and deliver training sessions based on your goals, participants, training etc.
What are the goals of the training?
Who will be involved?
What will be the format of the session(s)?
Best practices for planning a training
General training tips when planning a training
Tips for engaging with participants with various skill levels
Tips for virtual events
Structuring the agenda, content and activities
Suggestions for different sections of a training event
Tips on how to train different important features and workflows in Mapeo
Available materials and resources for the training event
Preparing equipment and supplies for a training
Recommended equipment and supplies
In-person events
Virtual events
Tech preparation before doing in-person training
Participants devices
Trainer devices
Tech support devices
Before a training event, lots of energy and time go into preparing the equipment and supplies needed for the event and ensuring that the technical preparation is done in advance. The checklists contained in this section can be helpful for working through these steps.
Recommended equipment and supplies
In-person events
Virtual events
Tech preparation before doing in-person training
Participants devices
Trainer devices
Tech support devices
Different features and workflows of Mapeo differ in terms of complexity, difficulty, and relative importance depending on your project. In order to help you plan the training activity, we have put together some reflections on the most commonly used Mapeo workflows and features, as well as some ideas for exercises that you can do with your group to practice the specific workflows during a training activity.
đź’ˇ Activity 1 - Collect data with Mapeo Mobile
đź’ˇ Activity 2 - Create territory data with Mapeo Desktop
đź’ˇ Activity 3 - Sync data with Mapeo Mobile
đź’ˇ Activity 4 - Sync data with Mapeo Desktop
đź’ˇ Activity 5 - Filter observations in Mapeo Desktop
Generating outputs and exporting data
đź’ˇ Activity 6 - Share observations with Mapeo Mobile
Normally it is a quick to learn workflow.
It can be time-consuming to get an agreed understanding of the use of categories and the level of detail that is needed for the Mapeo data. Having dedicated time to discuss this as a group after is recommended.
Synchronizing is the most difficult feature to fully understand because it is an offline feature that is not typical for most internet-dependent consumer-based technology. Peer-to-peer (P2P) can be very abstract to talk about and is more intuitive to understand when in action.
This functionality has a relatively steep learning curve for new users.
It is best to do it early in a training agenda in case more time is needed or the agenda requires this to be repeated towards the end of the event.
This is essential for understanding how data is aggregated on phones and/or computers with Mapeo when used in a community GIS data project.
Hands-on exercises are the best way to show and clarify that any edits or deletions made in the database on any device, will be shown on the other devices after syncing.
Having participants practice data sharing and data syncing is useful to visually illustrate the different behavior of the data in these two processes.
This is the most technically demanding module, and it requires careful preparation. (See #participant-devices)
Pay extra attention to synchronization via Wi-Fi equipment requirements (See#synchronizing-via-wi-fi).
For Mapeo Desktop, take time to get an agreement on file naming conventions.
This is generally a workflow that is quick to learn.
It's a great opportunity to discuss the quality of data.
If the training event is more than one day, it is recommended to maximize full exploration of filtering possibilities and potentials for outputs.
If training is just going to be one day, having sample data collected on a few different days before the event will make it possible for participants to practice using the filter by date feature.
Editing & deleting on Mapeo Mobile is best demonstrated after synchronization so that participants can see how editing permissions work and understand their responsibility to the community project.
Check out the proposed đź’ˇActivities for syncing edited/deleted data.
Mapeo Mobile and Desktop are designed very differently in terms of generating outputs because of typical user contexts. In both cases, it is important that there is a clear distinction between generating an external data output, and data synchronization.
Mapeo Mobile currently only creates one external output - Mobile alerts shared via messaging apps - designed for time-sensitive information that can help expedite crisis response to an incident. This can be quick to learn if the participants are already familiar with the use of other involved tools, such as email or Whatsapp.
Mapeo Desktop allows the creation of several types of outputs (PDF reports, CSV, SMART CSV and GeoJSON files, and web maps). Read more about it inExporting data & sharing externally. You can discuss which of these options are a priority to learn for the participants considering the goals and needs of the project. Depending on the goals, the skills, and the available time, you can also focus on how to use the data exports on other platforms such as Google Sheets, Excel, SMART, QGIS, ArcGIS, etc.
To minimize the risk of unexpected tech issues spoiling your agenda and consuming valuable training time, make sure to prepare all the devices involved in a training event.
Here there is a checklist to review before the event:
Ensure that:
On top of the checklist for “participant devices”, make sure of the following:
Presentation files in dynamic and static formats are loaded on your device.
Coming soon
We have compiled a list of items that are very useful to have when organizing in-person and virtual events.
Make sure you don’t run out of power! Some important items are:
Power strips (enough to accommodate participants’ needs)
International voltage and plug adaptors
USB charging hubs
Portable USB chargers
Surge protector
Some equipment to practice synchronization via WiFi:
For small groups of 5 or fewer - access to 1-2 routers
For group 6 or more - portable routers, power sources, and charging cables.
For file transfer, device storage, and troubleshooting, make sure you have:
OTG adaptors for troubleshooting (MicroUSB and USB C are common)
External hard drive with space
USB sticks with space
For demonstration outdoors or in low-tech spaces you can use:
Tabloid (11”x17”) printouts of Mapeo screen or presentation slides and a wall or laundry line to display them. We recommend you laminate them to make them more resistant to use and weather conditions
You can also use big textile prints - they are easy to carry around, can be used rain or shine and you can use Velcro pieces to make them more interactive.
A clean dry surface with shelter from rain or sun to stage equipment
For Mapeo Desktop training, tables and seating where participants can work in pairs
For demonstration indoors or in spaces where projection is possible, you might need:
Projector and power cable
Projection surface in a shaded or dark area. White walls are best. White with fabric backed with black light-blocking fabric works well hung properly.
Video cables and adapters
For demonstrations with smartphones, make sure your device has video projection capabilities. This is an advanced device feature and requires a video signal adaptor
Other workshop supplies that are handy:
Notepad and thick marker (for organizing teams and activities)
Masking tape and utility tape
Spare notebooks and pens for participants
If expected, printed guides, protective case folders, and labels
For demonstration in virtual events:
Screen sharing software and connections for devices demonstration
Sample content that can be seen, recorded, or captured by attendees
Pre-recorded videos of demos are recommended to have on hand in the case that live demos are not working well.
Consider that it can be very demanding on your computer's video card to participate in a live video conference while doing a screen share and local screen mirroring. This can often affect the computer’s capacity to perform well. Also, most software will be slower and less responsive in this context and Mapeo is no exception.
Any WiFi-based screen mirroring tool will prevent Mapeo from being able to use Mapeo’s synchronization via WiFi. It is highly recommended to prerecord a demo of this process on both devices used.
Training events can be run by walking through each topic of interest in the Complete Reference Guide on this site. However, it is not as engaging as a participatory event, where the trainer fully understands the topics of interest and tailors activities around them.
We have prepared a list of resources that can be useful for Mapeo trainings. Check it out here: . They range from short illustrative videos giving an overview of Mapeo, to Google sheet slides that you can adapt for your training activity, and templates for creating training resources on textiles to use in outdoor training events under any weather conditions.
Moreover, you can also use the sections and content of this Mapeo Support Materials site as a menu of possible content and as a support resource when having questions on specific features and workflows. Remember that this guide has also a section, where the most common questions are answered, and a section to help solve the most frequent Mapeo issues.