Classes for creating location-based audio tour content: A case of user-generated LBS education to university students

A course named Seminar of Culture Studies is given to undergraduate students in the School of Cultural and Creative Studies of Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan, in which a new mobile application named Manpo was applied for the students to create location-based audio tour content in 2013, 2014 and 2015. With little background knowledge on geography and cartography, the students tried to draw maps and create georeferences for positioning on the maps using Manpo’s functions. They also focused on recording audio guides for the POIs and walking routes, and bundled them to the maps together with photos and texts. The procedures of the classes and the students’ performances were observed, in which the problems encountered by the students showed the difficulties, such as achieving appropriate georeferencing for accurate positioning, for non-professional users. However, the classes and students provided hints to the further development of Manpo, which also improved the classes and the students’ works. As the course was proved to be a success, it inspired future research plans of a platform that can involve researchers, developers, mapmakers, local communities, and ordinary users to provide user-generated content including diverse maps for more attractive location-based services.