The paper presents pedagogic experiment focused on teaching future geography teachers to work with story maps with the use of three applications (Knight Lab StoryMapJS, Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps, and Google Tour Builder). The experiment was carried out by questionnaire form at two Slovak universities. The respondents were students of the geography teacher training program, whose task was to select and learn one of the mentioned applications to create a story map. The statistical analysis of the research results confirmed that the choice of the application by the students was influenced by their previous experience with the applications; it was not difficult for students to develop a story map using the selected applications even though they did not have enough experience about the selected applications before the experiment; and students would make more use of story maps than other applications in their educational practice.

The landscape surrounding the village of Čív (Piliscsév in Hungarian) in the north of the Komárom-Esztergom County is part of the cultural heritage of the Slovaks in Hungary. This paper discusses the issue of the Čív landscape changes in the context of its use (historical land use). Between 1701 and 1709, new inhabitants began cultivating the desolated landscape of the Dorog Basin, which is surrounded by the Pilis Mountains. This paper aims to characterize the Slovak exclave Čív land use with an emphasis on the period from the beginning of the 18th century (Slovak colonization of the analyzed territory) to 2019. These findings subsequently lead to the evaluation of the stability of the cultural-historical landscape as an essential condition for the development of ecotourism in the cultural landscape. The study results show that a long-term stable cultural landscape has a similar potential for the development of ecotourism as a natural landscape (wilderness). Research conclusions were aimed at creating three proposals for the cultural landscape management of the study area, conceived by the fundamental pillars of ecotourism, which would lead to its stable and sustainable use in ecotourism.

The paper deals with distance learning of geographic information systems (GIS) at the Department of Geography and Regional Development FNS CPU in Nitra using various educational materials and the JitsiMeet application during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students of bachelor study had GIS lessons in face-to-face instruction in a computer room for half of a semester. In the middle of the semester, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Slovakia and the face-to-face instruction had to be reoriented to the distance form of learning. The first month of distance learning took place with the help of textbooks and video tutorials, which were sent to students. The task of the students that month was to study a new subject, then students were sent a questionnaire where they had to express their opinion on learning GIS using video tutorials and textbooks, but also indicate whether they had facilities for online learning (PC, audio and video outputs, Internet) as well as to express their views and experiences with online learning as such. Although after evaluating the questionnaire, up to 71% of students answered that they had learned a new subject from the video tutorials and 57% also from GIS textbooks, several percent of students were still unfit for this form of learning. That is why we went to lessons with the free JitsyMeet app, which allows for video conferencing, screen sharing, chat, and more. The aim of the paper is to point out the perception of distance GIS learning by university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At present, the protection of nature and landscape in the high mountains of the Western Carpathians, protected as national parks, is becoming increasingly at the forefront of society’s interests in connection with the development of their economic use and the development of mass tourism. Our research was focused on analyzing the extent and character of land cover changes in the Low Tatras National Park in Slovakia over the last 30 years (1990–2018) using CORINE land cover (CLC) data. The period captures almost the entire existence of the Slovak Republic. Therefore, it was possible to evaluate the landscape changes in the protected area and to identify barriers and possibilities of its long-term sustainable development. Based on computer modeling, the main areas of the land cover changes were identified, and on the basis of historical-geographical and field research, land cover flows were determined and justified in the studied landscape of the national park. Changes were monitored using three methods: by comparing CLC maps over the years, by analyzing land cover flows, and by comparing landscape metrics obtained through the PatchAnalyst. Land cover changes occurred on up to 20% of the national park area in the given period. The most significant change was observed in the CLC class coniferous forests, with almost a 12% decrease. Conversely, there was an increase of more than 11% in the CLC class transitional woodland-shrub.

As a country with abundant natural resources, Slovakia has legislation to protect significant parts of nature and landscape. The paper aimed to identify the extent and nature of land cover changes in large protected areas in Slovakia and to determine how had these changes impacted the diversity and ecological stability of the landscape. We used the CORINE Land Cover data from 1990 and 2018 to identify landscape changes and analyzed them spatially and statistically. Overall, 21.7% of the total area was changed. In terms of landscape changes, nine dominant sub-processes within five »land cover flows« were identified. In terms of changes in landscape diversity and stability the most significant changes occurred in the NP Nízke Tatry.

Distance education at universities during the COVID-19 pandemic was implemented through various so-called learning management systems (LMSs). These environments are primarily used for teacher–student communication, assignment, and sharing of learning materials, testing, and assessment. This article aims to evaluate the Google Classroom environment’s perception by university students of the courses Teaching Academic Subjects and Geography, forced to study through distance learning during the second half of the semester. Students filled out a questionnaire focused on the perception and evaluation of the Google Classroom environment at the end of the semester. The students were divided into two groups, depending on whether they worked in the Google Classroom environment for the first time or not. The results were evaluated using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and the semantic differential method. The results show students’ positive attitudes toward this environment, even though some were working with it for the first time. The perception and identification of the strengths and weaknesses of learning environments are essential in their future use in creating curricula and analysis of possible further use in other subjects or situations.