Mapsurvey for classrooms

Free map-based surveys for student fieldwork. Your class collects geographic data right in the browser — dropping pins, drawing routes, outlining areas — no GIS software and no coding. It's Google Forms for geodata: perfect for a walkability audit, an accessibility study, or any participatory-mapping assignment.

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Free for education No GIS skills needed Works on any phone Open source

Why it fits a course

Built for a class of fieldworkers, not a GIS lab

Zero setup for students

Students open a link, mark places on a map, and submit. Nothing to install, works on the phone they already have.

Every student is a maker

Each student builds their own survey and gathers real responses — so they learn survey design and spatial data, not just how to answer a form.

Real geodata out

Export points, lines, and polygons as GeoJSON plus a CSV — ready for QGIS or a report, straight from the browser.

Free and open

Free to use for classroom projects, open-source, and self-hostable if your department prefers.

In the classroom

A planning department ran a whole field study on it

In a recent term, an urban-planning department used Mapsurvey for a semester field-study assignment. Student groups each designed their own map survey — walkability, sidewalk accessibility, pedestrian safety, campus "blind spots" — and collected responses across their city, entirely in the browser.

~30student creators

700+responses collected

0GIS installs needed

Assignment ideas

Ready-made prompts for geography, planning & environmental courses

Walkability audit — students map the routes they walk and rate the segments.
Sidewalk accessibility — outline areas that are hard to navigate for wheelchairs or strollers.
Pedestrian safety / blind spots — drop pins on unsafe crossings and intersections.
Community asset mapping — mark the places people value in a neighborhood.
Citizen science — record sightings or field observations with a location.

Create your first class survey — free Teaching a course? Tell us what you need

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Mapsurvey free to use in the classroom?

Yes. Mapsurvey is open source (AGPLv3) and free to start — you can create and publish a map-based survey without paying, and self-host the whole platform at no licence cost.

Do students need to install anything?

No. Students open a link in the browser and mark the map — no install, and no account needed to respond.

Can students export the data for coursework?

Every response — including map geometry — exports as GeoJSON plus a CSV for non-spatial answers, so results drop straight into QGIS, ArcGIS, or a spreadsheet. You own the data.

What kinds of map questions can students build?

Respondents can drop points, draw lines (routes), and outline polygons (areas) directly on the map, alongside ordinary survey questions.

Can the university self-host it?

Yes. Mapsurvey ships as a Docker stack you can run on your own infrastructure, so response data stays on servers you control — useful for GDPR and data-residency requirements.