This guide is designed to provide a quick overview for the GIS instructor on the use of the CCTP resources to create GIS course modules and design GIS courses.
Overview
The Core Curriculum for Technical Programs concentrates on providing course content assistance for instructors. The CCTP is intended to support a full range of courses that would be taught at a 2-yr. college. The materials are textbook and course independent, providing a generic task-oriented approach. While the NCGIA core curriculum in GIS (GISCC) focuses on Geographic Information Science, the CCTP focuses on information that instructors need to present to students so they can perform the technical activities associated with geographic information systems.
This guide suggests some ways that the CCTP units can be used to support
class preparation and new course
development . For more information on the purpose of the CCTP and development
philosophy see the "About"
section.
How can I use the CCTP for Course Development?
The CCTP units can be put together in whatever order and quantity best serves the overall objective. It does not imply that any given course must include specific units. Course content and programs at technical and community colleges are generally reflective of the needs of local industry. Thus, courses may lean toward competency in CAD/GIS in one community, natural resource management applications in another and mining applications in still another. Instructors are encouraged to choose amongst the materials in order to develop courses suited specifically for their students.
There are numerous approaches to course development. The following list recommends ways to use the CCTP to plan and develop one or more courses. For those putting together an entire program, it is assumed that some sort of survey has been made to assess local needs for GIS training. Likely a steering committee has been already been set up to discuss what types of courses would best meet those needs.
To make it easier to use this section it is provided in the form of a list. Work through the steps, which make the most sense for the phase of course development that you are in.
Check out what other colleges are offering in the way of GIS courses, certificates, and AA degrees. The CCTP Resources section includes a growing list of Example Courses and Programs. Another source for more courses in GIS and related technologies is the Virtual Geography Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, all the courses listed under this link are taught at 4 + year colleges and Universities.
The course titles, descriptions and, in some cases, syllabi illustrate
the variety of courses offered in GIS and GIS related technology. Courses
vary both in content and approach. Some courses provide software specific
training such as Introduction to MapInfo and Introduction to
ArcView, while others focus on concepts or a combination of concepts
and software training, such as GIS Database Development, and Introduction
to GIS.
Under the Resource roots check out the link to Textbooks
and Lab Resources. Additionally, many of the courses that you found
in step one list a textbook. Check to see if your library has a copy or
contact the publisher to order an evaluation copy of books for courses
similar to what you are developing. Most publishers have hyperlinks for
their textbooks that display the table of contents and sometimes more.
Next, scan the table of contents, chapter objectives and chapter contents,
for one or more books, while keeping in mind how well it fits the objectives
for your course. This will help you to refine your objectives and determine
whether or not the textbook will suit your needs.
The Background Trunk, Task Branches structure provides an example structure
for developing a single course or program of courses (see below).
A course in Spatial Analysis would likely pull heavily from the units
under the "Analyzing Spatial Data" branch, covering most of them at the
level of Competency or Mastery. For an example of how one unit writer outlined
the goals and objectives for each of the learning outcome levels for a
unit under the Analyzing Spatial Data Branch scroll through Unit
33, Using Buffers.
[The GIS steering committee at your college has determined that a course in Spatial Data Development and Acquisition is needed. This 3 unit course will cover Data Input and conversion issues and skills such as digitizing and scanning and GPS. Accessing and using data from the internet, and spatial data transfer standards. Your steering committee determined that it is especially important for students to develop mastery in GIS data searches, and metadata creation.
Geography 26 - Data Acquisition in GIS (3 Units)
This course provides students with the knowledge and practical experience necessary to develop skills in the acquisition, management, conversion, analysis, and creation of spatial data. Topics include acquisition of existing data sets, data format conversion, and acquisition of data from remote sensing sources and the global positioning system (GPS), an integral part of the development and implementation of geographic information systems.
As the CCTP is designed for instructors and not students, you are interested
in locating a book that is suitable for the course you are designing. Listed
in the Resource Roots section of the CCTP is a hyperlink to Instructor
Resources, where numerous books are listed. One of these books is the "GIS
Data Conversion: Strategies, Techniques and Management" by Pat Hohl Ed.,
published by OnWord
Press. An expanded outline is available at the publisher's site for
you to view and print. From the table of contents, it appears that this
book covers a number of the areas considered important to the steering
committee, such as Scanning, global positioning systems and Spatial Data
Transfer. You request an evaluation copy of the book.
As the book requested in step 2 above doesn't have a section on the
Internet, you are pleased to find that branch one, Accessing Spatial Data
Sources will be of great help in developing a course outline (and later
for lecture). See Unit
One Data Acquisition for an example
The units are intended to contain enough information about each topic to assist an instructor in preparing a lecture. The Unit Format Template displays and explains the format that was followed for each unit. Briefly, each unit contains the following elements:
CONTEXT/EXAMPLE APPLICATION
Students learn GIS more easily in the context of real world examples. Each Unit contains an example application, for the particular concept or skill discussed in the Unit.
For example: In Unit 18: Scanning Air Photos the unit author begins by describing why, when and where scanning is used. This is followed by an example application which describes a national and statewide agency that must determine to what extent agricultural land use has changed both spatially and temporally in the Southern Appalachian region. Ultimately, the agencies will perform soil erosion modeling. In order to meet the project analysis requirements multiple years of air photo coverage will be scanned.
A real world example such as this can lead to further discussion of
available airphoto coverage, scale and specific steps to accomplish the
scanning.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
This useful section of each CCTP unit can help you decide what is most important to cover on a given topic given the level of the course you are teaching and the time available. For example, an introduction to Geographic Information Systems instructor using Unit 10: Projecting Data will likely cover projections at the Awareness level. The author of this unit lists the following objectives:
The student will be able to:
2. Discuss the types of distortion inherent in map projections
3. Demonstrate familiarity with some commonly-used map projections and coordinate systems
4. Discuss the required parameters for several common map projections
2. Create a custom map projection.
An advanced GIS course would cover this topic at the competency level,
likely including one or more objectives from the Mastery level. At this
level a students will complete a project, using a GIS which offers true
projection capability. Thematic layers could be projected or re-projected
to create a GIS database with all the layers on one projection.
Examples of the use of the CCTP to create GIS Teaching Resources
The following is an example of how an instructor uses several units
to support a Digitizing
Tutorial.
Input
Have you used the CCTP materials to give you ideas? Develop a lecture or exercise? Put together a new course outline? While we are not actively developing and doing very limited maintenance on the CCTP, Steve Palladino, the project manager would be happy to hear from you. It would be nice to know how you are using the CCTP, and any suggestions you have for minor modifications that would improve or correct elements in the resource. We are aware that some units are incomplete, but unfortunately not all of our unit writers were able to complete their section.