Note: for more information about the presentation given at the conference see http://www.sbg.ac.at/geo/people/jstrobl/gishe96.htm
Due to the high demands placed on GIS professionals to achieve and maintain a high level of qualification throughout their careers, technological changes and progress make continuing education mandatory. Individuals not being able to attend full-time programs and extensive seminars offered at often distant locations value the opportunity telelearning courses present. The growth and success of several such programs in the field of GIS clearly demonstrates this need.
Although there is a substantial demand for distance education in GIS, students still face several disadvantages in comparison to traditional on-site programs. Issues are access to staff and contacts to fellow students, feedback opportunities, maintaining motivation and individual tutoring. The WWW now offers a chance for improvement in these areas while maintaining the undisputed strengths of telelearning programs. Within the framework of the UNIGIS distance learning diploma, Internet-based GI seminars and training courses, strategies and instruments to support telelearning are currently developed. This paper will demonstrate various approaches explored at Salzburg University, Austria.
A key area building on the Internet's inherent strengths is the development of a supportive communications environment. Enhancing and partly replacing the use of phone and e-mail are groupware capabilities merging with the role of newsgroups, textual, audio and video real-time communication ("chat", "conferencing"), bidirection transmission of all kinds of digital materials and increasingly interactive access to various resources. With all of these tools today being readily available. the question of adequate and efficient use for the communications needs in an educational environment arises. While the need for an overall design is generally accepted, few guidelines are currently available.
The presentation of study materials probably benefits most from the combined multimedia and telecommunications capabilities of today's computing. While printed texts still maintain an important role in a flexible mix of delivery modes, still and animated color graphics, interactive applets and forms, integration of "real world" GIS applications and enhanced server-side capabilities greatly enhance the choice of media available to the instructor. One of the overall key ideas is to create an "involved" learning environment, sharply contrasting the passive style of studying a course text.
Starting with experience gained from several prototype applications forming building blocks for a more complete set of interactive tele-study materials, the paper discusses ideas and concepts for different didactical approaches. With basic guidelines for teaching over the Internet still largely missing and the technology continuing development at a rapid pace, dynamic evolution of Web-based educational offerings is to be expected. By trying to play an active and experimental role, pedagogical and design guidelines will be collected for the future development of more mature educational products.
With the Internet playing an expanding role in overall communications and computing, its use obviously is not limited to full distance education applications. Conventional academic courses will increasingly be supplemented by Internet-based components, and in general various kinds of learning try to use the most appropriate media and presentation styles. The Internet's great advantage is the capability to integrate most of them!