Case Study: Harvard Library enhances GIS teaching and student collaboration with Felt

How Felt is Changing the Pedagogical Possibilities at Harvard

The Harvard Library's Map Collection, led by GIS Outreach Librarian Belle Lipton, faced the challenge of teaching geospatial concepts to history students with no GIS background within a limited timeframe. The existing desktop GIS tools were too complex and time-consuming to set up for a short workshop, and they lacked the collaborative features and support for open data formats that were essential for the course's pedagogical goals.

By implementing Felt's free Classroom plan, the library provided students with an accessible, cloud-native platform that required no installation. Felt enabled real-time collaboration, allowing the entire class to work on a single map simultaneously and easily share their work. This solution was so effective that 85% of the students, who were new to GIS, chose to incorporate it into their final projects, dramatically expanding the course's pedagogical possibilities.

Harvard Library

Belle Lipton

GIS Outreach Librarian