News — 09 June, 2025
Demystifying Expert Mapping Through Modeling
Tim DeWinter, our Open Mapping for All Coordinator, invites you to explore how modeling can make expert OpenStreetMap skills more accessible to beginners and foster a stronger mapping community.
How can we better support beginner mappers in their learning journey? What does an expert mapper know and do that others do not? Many new mappers have asked me what else they can do, other than just keep on mapping, to become expert mappers. And they are right, we give examples in mapathons, and webinars, but demystifying expert mapping is not high on our priority list. It should be.
Let me suggest a way forward with this: Modeling! Modeling is a strong force that can shape a learning experience, it is all about showing the way and explaining on the way. It means demonstrating a skill, behavior, or way of thinking so that learners can observe, understand, and eventually try it themselves. In our case, we should not only show how we map, but also include an explanation of our thought process. In fancy terms, this is related to metacognition (thinking about your thinking) and of the modeling strategy of “thinking aloud”. Modeling will allow a beginner mapper to understand what an experienced mapper does.
Using modeling to make expert mapping accessible for all will make a big difference for beginner mappers. Let’s lead by example and start modeling our thinking aloud.
“Hmm, I see this road is directly connected to a building, when I move the building, the road moves with it, this should be separated. What can I do? Right-clicking always gives me some options, so let me try that first, I’ll right-click on the point where they meet, and will have a look at the menu. There it is, the “disconnect” option. That is what I need, I’ll select that. Now the house and road are no longer linked. That frees me up to square the building properly and clean up the road alignment too. So, remember, when features are wrongly joined, the right-click menu gives you tools like “disconnect” to fix it. In general, the right-click menu has a few good tools that solve mapping problems”.
In this example, the experienced mapper talks through the process, shares his thinking, and explains how he gets to the solution. The experienced mapper should role-play from a mindset that they are beginner again and ask themselves simple questions, questions a learner can follow. Modeling like this helps demystify the mapping process, it’s not just about what buttons to click, but how to think, question, and improve the map collaboratively.
Modeling goes far beyond simply giving an example of a mapping task. True modeling involves the deliberate and transparent sharing of one’s own thinking processes. Ideally when training, experienced mappers make their invisible thoughts visible to beginners. This includes narrating strategies, questions, uncertainties, and even mistakes, so that new mappers gain insight into how experienced mappers approach problems, make decisions, and reflect while mapping. Sometimes this requires some acting “oh my God, what happened here, is this really a river that is going upstream, how do I double check that I am right here? Let me have a look at the contour lines before I move on, where can I find these different map layers again? “
By modeling strategies, problem solving and reflection we can create a culture in the OSM Community where sharing thoughts is valued, visible, and learnable. This approach encourages beginners not just to copy behaviors, but to internalize the cognitive habits and dispositions of experienced mappers.
Modelling is often called “thinking aloud” and we should practice it, verbalizing your internal cognitive process in real time is a powerful strategy. To do this effectively, start by choosing a moment when you’re engaging with a complex or meaningful task, and consciously articulate what’s happening in your mind.
For example:
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Strategies: “Before jumping in, I like to have a look at the whole area first to get a sense of it, so I will zoom out before mapping anything.”
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Questions: “I’m asking myself: What was the mapper trying to do here? Why did they map it like this? Has there been an upgrade recently?”
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Uncertainties: “I’m not totally sure if this is the best approach, but I’m going to try it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, I’ll adjust before saving or delete the whole thing.”
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Mistakes: “Ah, I see what I did wrong, I mapped something without checking the other imagery. Let me do that now before moving on.”
By verbalizing these moments, you show that mapping is active, that it can be messy, and that reflection is needed. It demystifies expert mapping and invites beginners to develop their own mapping competencies based on the experience of others.
The key is to be intentional, authentic, and reflective, letting your mapping be a model for theirs by sharing your thoughts.
Let’s make the invisible work of mapping visible. If you’re an experienced mapper, your voice and thought process could be the bridge someone else needs. As an open community, it is time for us to share our thoughts when training. Good luck!