gis technology is emerging with enormous rapidity into the professional world of research, policy and management. The last decade the processing of spatial or geographical information is strongly computerised. Nowad ays digital geo-referenced data like postcode bounded socio-demographic data sets, satellite imagery, street maps and cadastral information are broadly available on CD-ROM and Internet. The spatial data will no longer be used only in geographical/geo-scie nce applications by gis specialists but also in new application fields by a broad group of gis users.
With the introduction of a new technology like gis and a larger awareness of this tool in the professional field, there is the common need for hands-on training by the traditional users of geo information. This need can easily be satisfied, because thi s is a relatively small and well-known target group. Courses can consist of in-company training programmes, courses provided by the system distributor and individual sessions with help of extended user’s guides and demos. Academic level education is provi ded as short specialist academic programmes or as part of (the few) geo-oriented academic disciplines such as agronomy, geography, etc.
But the spread of gis technology into the professional world of research, policy and management has brought a large new group of potential GIS users. As a result, there is a crying need for gis education and training, both by students of the regular ed ucational institutions, by new groups of professionals, and even by the older educational staff, who have had their training before this GIS-era. With traditional forms of education, this need can not be solved by the available group of teachers in GIS. I n this article we direct to new ways of non-traditional education in GIS and novel educational GIS tools to be able to cope with the growing need in training and education.
Firstly, we describe in this article the major trends in gis education in the Netherlands and Belgium, to determine the starting points to take into account within the design of the educational materials. We recall attention to the fact that these tren ds in gis education are clearly derived from more common trends in education and in the emerging of information- and communication technologies.
In the second part of this article we describe two examples of educational GIS projects, both meant to solve the need in gis education. The first project, the development of instant tools for secondary education, is started by the Catholic University o f Leuven (Belgium), and is directed to both teachers and students (Vanneste, 1997). The second project, the development of distance learning material in gis, is initiated by the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL). This joint international project, in which several authors of eight institutions participate, is aimed at the broad and diverse group of potential gis users. Both the educational design of the project and the design of the developmental and authoring process are modelled according a GIS w orkbench as metaphor (Lansu, 1997).
After the starting points, the aims and the experiences of these educational projects have been described and discussed, the next section shows the resulting product. This educational module on digital terrain models is developed by the OUNL and KU Leu ven (Roesems and Govers, 1997; Roesems, 1997). The module, consisting of self-contained lessons and cases in DTMs is part of a multimedia introductory practical in GIS.
At the end of this article we compare the results
of those projects to the trends in gis education mentioned in paragraph
1. This close encounter between pedagogic experiences and technological
trends will indicate new ways of solving the need of gis e ducation and
enhancing professional awareness in the future as effective as possible.
A virtual GIS workbench may solve the lack of experienced teaching tools
in secondary and higher education in future.
1 Trends in gis education
1.1 designing gis education
The usage of geo information systems has expanded to various GI systems (including desktop mapping) and many new application fields. According to this shift, the attention of the GIS educators has to be changed from the GIS specialists’ training programmes towards courses directed to potential GIS users. These potential GIS users have dissimilar professional backgrounds or application areas and divergent knowledge of spatial concepts. At the same time, the students and the teaching staff of the regular educational streams have to be confronted with the new GIS possibilities within a context of spatial information processing and spatial analysis.
Obviously, the number of GIS educators, to be recruited out of the booming and attractive GIS business, is too small to satisfy the need by traditional, instructional face-to-face (teacher-student) education. The design and development of instant educa tional tools, with instruction and guidance within the material can be a possible solution in this tight labour market to meet the demand for instructors. The diversity of the target groups asks for a ‘tailor-made’ approach of this problem. If we want to be able to reach these groups of GIS users optimally, we have to analyse their views and opinions about the GIS tools as well as their aims and goals in order to take these into account the educational design of the materials to be developed.
(2) didactic means, e.g. how to offer the subject ,
(3) educational considerations, e.g. the various ways of learning and teaching,
(4) logistics, e.g. is there a need to attend scheduled meetings, and
(5) financial affairs, e.g. how many students
can be expected.
In the next paragraph we describe some key trends in reference to the factors professional contents and educational considerations in GIS education. These trends in the professional fields of education and GIS are of important influence o n both the structure and contents of the two given examples of educational GIS tools (see next sections). With the appropriate didactic means and effective use of logistical and financial means, these mix of factors will lead to a well-considered didactic design, optimally dedicated to the aimed target groups.
1.2 Trends in the professional contents
Tools & techniques
At the moment we observe a rapid spread of ‘tools & techniques’ among users in business, policy and education. Main causes are the increasing processing power of personal computer systems, the user friendliness of new software and the diminishing prices of hard- and software. This ‘digital emancipation’ of tools and techniques makes geo information systems from a specialists’ secret to the users’ shareware. The spread of GIS desktop mapping software is a clear e xample (for example the mapping module of Excel).
Professional awareness
The present-day school population forms the decision makers, managers, researchers, urban planners and marketers of tomorrow. They should be aware of the notice of GIS as a marvellous spatial information tool. At th e same time they need to have some insight in spatial analysis to be able to ask the right spatial questions to obtain the expected geographical information.
This notice of spatial information is not yet sufficiently available among the present generation of actors in the field of spatial information. A recent investigation was carried out to identify the nature of ‘using’ spatial data in Belgium (Vanneste & De Wilde, 1996). The survey shows that firms handling and/or producing spatial data, often stick to a low level spatial analysis. It is clear that many of them are not aware of the strengths of a GIS or do not take full profit out of the spatial ana lytical capabilities of their GIS.
Life-long learning
The flexible and dynamic labour market asks more and more for generalists with an overview on complex matters who are ready to start a life-long learning (or ‘éducation permanente’ along the White Papers of t he former EU commissioner Jacques Delors). This has its effect on education by paying more attention on learning how to learn than on teaching facts and figures. In GIS we see a re-orientation from GIS courses of distributor’s training programmes directed at the ins and outs of a specific GIS software, towards more problem oriented education, with GIS as a tool in decision-making, independently from the software.
New technologies in an integrated environment
The computer-environment of the GIS users’ working place, the so called GIS workbench, consists essentially of digital spatial data. The other parts of the workbench are the soft-and hardware, the methods used to so lve the researched problems and the human procedures and contacts of the GIS users. Often, this GIS workbench is not standing on its own, but it is an integrated part of the information department of the firm or the institution.
Because of the computerised nature, the new information and communication technologies can be integrated in the digital heart of the GIS workbench. These new technologies give new possibilities in linking GIS with other tools (models, multivariate anal ysis, dynamic simulation), and a cheap and easy gate-way to information (clearinghouse, metadata) and communication (with internal and external GIS professional expertise) on its own GIS application field.
To be able to speak of a successfully integrated environment, there should be a minimal condition of acceptance by and integration within the organisation. Therefore, even colleagues and people in charge need knowledge about GIS (Aronoff, 1993).
Visualisation of complexity
Present society, and in particular society’s decision makers, researchers and planners, copes with complex problems with many variables (climate change, human health, planning of infrastructure). In search for solut ions they have to process large databases of different sources and multidimensional (spatial and time depending) data.
Digital image processing techniques play an important role in the analysis of complex problems. These techniques combine the present intensive computer technology with the unique human ability to visualise complexity and to interpret these images. This particular combination leads to quick creative solutions for complex problems. In this way, digital image processing techniques (as used not only by GIS, but also by remote sensing, medical scans, and in telecommunication) are essential in policy-making, research and education on complex problems.
Secondary education: students
Professional awareness of users and decision-makers of spatial information about the possibilities of GIS and spatial analysis does not start by vocational training of potential GIS users. To enlarge the prof essional awareness, the awaking of the qualities and possibilities of a geo-information system has to grow and to be supported by a broad public. For stimulating professional awareness, the level of secondary education is an ideal start to learn ab out spatial information with GIS tools.
When comparing to other data management tools, gis has the advantage of presenting the results of the analysis and processing of large data sets, not only as a table or a graph, but also as (two- or three-dimensional) maps. For this, GIS is an ideal me dium to visualise complexity. Moreover ‘visual’ education like GIS education corresponds to the experiences and actual practice of the present generation of students, who are used to visualised information and to information processing by (multimed ia) images.
In addition to the trend to incorporate the ideas of life-long learning or ‘éducation permanente’ in secondary school education, the final learning objectives of secondary education are subject to drastic changes in the nearby futu re. For example the structure of secondary education in the Netherlands will be changed as from 1998 (Min. van OCW, 1997). A choice is made for a new pedagogic approach with more self study and assessment by means of practical tasks and essays. Together w ith this switch from teaching by teachers to learning by students, the contents of the subjects are reviewed and renewed, with more attention payed at tools & techniques like GIS and remote sensing.
Secondary education: teachers
Because of the above described increase of GIS education in secondary schools, teachers of subjects like geography, science and information technology, are considered to have knowledge of GIS and to be able to teach the handling of spatial information by GIS tools. The present-day teachers have not been confronted with GIS in their own education and there is a huge necessity for teaching-the-teacher programmes. In addition, ‘instant’ educational GIS tools are needed to be used in programmes both for teachers and for secondary school students. The tight GIS labour market with shortage of GIS educators does intensify this need for well-equipped teachers. In section 2 an example is given of such an integrated package.
Individual (higher) education: the non-specialists
With the rapid spread of ‘tools & techniques’ among users in business, policy and education, we observe a growing need in GIS education among non-specialists. The professional awareness asks for another approach of education in form and contents. The potential GIS user needs education on a problem-oriented approach and dedicated to the individual study-environment: with full freedom of place, time and pace of study. The contents of the education programme should be more oriented to spatial data for the decision-making process in her/his discipline, with GIS as one of the tools. The GIS users should be able to learn about the process of analysis of spatial information, with its sources, methods and actors, instea d of becoming technician, specialised in the use of one specific software package.
2 Enhancing general professional awareness of gis by improving educational gis tools for secondary school teachers
2.1 A cut-and-dried solution for secondary gis education in Belgium
Since 1997, the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (D. Vanneste and Th. Steenberghen) has been organising GIS training for secondary school teachers, based on a cut-and-dried package. The evaluation of previous trai ning sessions had taught that a detailed demonstration of the possibilities of several software packages, although suitable for and oriented to a secondary school situation, was not said to be fully satisfactory because of the following:
The entire preparation as needed by the teacher was worked out for each lesson: integration in the school curriculum, literature that was used for the lesson and that can be consulted by the teacher, a list of didactic tools, the initial stage of knowl edge and experience of the pupils, the general, affective and practical aims, the scheme of the lesson divided in several ‘educational moments’.
This way of putting the GIS lessons in place does not differ from any other lesson the teacher has to prepare. In addition an extensive appendix describes how the teacher (or the student) can use and manipulate the software so as to obtain the results for each of the ‘educational moments’ and to reach the goals.
The annex for the teacher therefore has a different structure as compared to a traditional user manual. The ‘manual’ is not structured according to a list of functionalities but according to the didactic path of the teacher and the technical way of cre ating the information needed to answer the didactic questions of that moment.
The price of this training (incl. the material on paper and floppy disk) is kept very low in order to solve the obstacle of a very restrained budget.
2.2 The choice of contents
The choice of the contents depends on several aspects:
On the other hand, a lesson was attributed to the European environment via a survey of the impact of human activities from a macro-scale perspective by focusing on the mapping possibilities of the latest release of Excel as well as ArcExplorer. Because existing cartographic material (made available by the services of the EU) is structured in layers, the students can explore the effects of combining information layers and quantifying spatial relationships.
Both subjects are part of the official secondary school curriculum for the fifth year within the Belgian secondary school system, together with the topic ‘cartography and GIS’. This offers a far-reaching integration of technical issues and the compulso ry content within the program of the same year.
The first stage of the lesson has to do with some notions about urban regions in general. It’s the one and only step that has nothing to do with GIS. Therefore, the introduction is short and rather superficial because the students are sup posed to get acquainted with some terms while understanding their content is based on experience with GIS in later stages.
In a second stage, the students can explore the (geo-relational) database. The structure of the database is simple, only showing one geographical layer (basic map with the boundaries of the Belgian communes) and a few limited tables on th e commune level with numeric or quantitative variables (e.g. population, % of car ownership, % of old dwellings etc.) and categorical or qualitative data ( e.g. identification of the urban regions, identification of the urban segments within each of the u rban regions etc.). By scrolling through these data and using functionalities such as ‘find’ and ‘info’, the student experience the link between the map and the tables, while notions as ‘key’, ‘attribute’ and ‘object’ take shape.
In the fifth and the sixth stages, the students explore the internal structure of one particular urban region.
Again, the basic present-day structure, in terms of ‘agglomeration’, ‘urban fringe’ and ‘commuter zone’, is put in place by opening a workspace. This pattern offers the opportunity to explain the spatial structure as a growth model, modelled by the process of suburbanisation. The students can experience the dynamics of the pattern by putting the map of the same urban region in an earlier period on top of the present-day structure. This makes the student experience the significance of o verlay.
This means a step by step exercise in thematic mapping, taking into account the cartographic rules about the use of colours and symbols, according to the variable type.
2.4 Social and educational justification
We are very much aware of the fact that (geography) teachers still need strong arguments to convince their school board of the benefits of investment in GIS for educational purposes. Therefore, the most relevant results of a survey about the use of spatial data in the (Belgian) private sector (Vanneste, 1996) are communicated to the participating teachers.
First, teachers get information about the kind of applications Belgian firms are using spatial data and analysis for. It is obvious for a GIS specialist that the survey shows that many applications are beyond the field of geography sensu stricto, but i t may create a broader base of support by convincing boards and colleagues that GIS is also important for students with interest in environmental and urban management, geo-marketing, archaeology, information technology etc.
As seen from the enquiry, it also occurs that firms not only attribute an informative value to GIS but that they do consider GIS as a decision-supporting tool (using it as such or expressing their conviction about such a capacity).
Nevertheless, one discovers that many firms are attempting to reach new goals in the old way, e.g. by using CAD instead of GIS for spatial analysis or by using a GIS only for inventory, design and mapping while ignoring the more fundamental abilities of their system. This can stimulate school boards to invest in GIS for geography classes as they become convinced that the managers of tomorrow may not be able to generate full information if they do not have enough insight into appropriate information tools such as GIS.
Beyond those elements, some arguments are put forward in order to motivate the geography teacher him/herself.
3.1 coping with non-traditional students
As already stated in section 1 and also one of the outcomes of the research to employment needs (Vanneste, 1996), there is a need among the appearing group of potential GIS users to personalised GIS educational material s with guidance incorporated. These potential GIS students are already working or shifting their carrier in a firm where GIS is already in use, or could be used because of the business activities or collected data. To cope with this diversified student gr oup by absence of sufficient gis teachers, the idea of a workbench practical is linked to distance learning methods. The main objective of this educational project described in this section is to develop an introductory practical in geo information system s, to be studied independently of tutors at the students’ own study-environment. The gis workbench: the computer working environment of a GIS professional, consisting of gis software, hardware, life-ware and connected to the outside gis expert world by in formation- and communication technologies is an ideal metaphor by designing gis education. The interactive gis practical on CD-ROM described is developed to be studied at the students own computer learning environment with access to Internet. The practica l can be studied independently of place, time and pace of study, with tutoring designed within the material, and by mutual guidance by fellow students.
This project will be developed in joint co-operation with institutions with expertise on gis-education and -research and on distance education. The metaphor of the GIS workbench is also used in the design of the developmental process of the materials. The authors work with especially developed authoring tools and their own GIS educational materials on their own computer working environment, in close contact and interaction with co-authors and development team.
3.2 Project settings and aims
The project Geo Information Systems: an introductory practical is part of the first programme (96/97) of the ‘Consortium Innovatie Hoger Onderwijs’, a consortium of several Dutch and Flemish universities and coll eges with the aim to innovate higher education by means of joint projects. The GIS project is initiated and developed by the Faculty of Natural sciences of the Open University of the Netherlands together with the Educational Technology Expertise Centre of the same university. The OUNL is a government institution and offers academic programmes in open distance education, with twenty-four regional study centres in the Netherlands and the Flemish part of Belgium. In a major part of the courses, written mater ial is the preferred media, because of its freedom of place, time and pace of study of the student. In accordance to the didactic concept of open distance education (Crombag et al., 1979) new media, like interactive computer programs, and innovativ e didactic techniques, like case studies and simulations, must be considered when learning aims can not be achieved by means of written material.
Although the first ideas on this full electronic practical and related contacts with GIS educational experts started in 1994, the first project design came into existence in 1995 (Lansu & Nadolski, 1995). With the start of the Consortium the projec t developed to a joint international educational co-operation with partners in Belgium (KULeuven), The Netherlands (e.g. GEON, Groningen) and the United Kingdom (e.g. Manchester Metropolitan University).
At this moment the developmental testing of the especially developed authoring tools has been ended. As part of this stage the first module, consisting of a lesson on digital terrain models and an Idrisi case on DTMs in erosion research is developed. T he next section will show the details of these educational materials developed by the KU Leuven (Roesems, 1997; Roesems and Govers, 1997). The first developmental testing of the developed materials, consisting of five modules, is planned in the spring of 1998, with students of the different institutions. After this testing among students and the fellow authors, the comments will be incorporated in the material. The final release of the materials, computer based learning programmes on CD-ROM, is expected a t the end of 1998.
Aim of the practical to be developed is to give the student the opportunity to understand concepts of, and to acquire skills in processing of spatial data in an advanced technology by ‘hands-on’ training at an established geographical information syste m at her/his own study environment. In addition, this computer-based practical will train students in handling the new ways of (academic) communication and familiarise them with data availability, access of data, metadata and quality of data through elect ronic networks (Internet). This practical (in English) is aimed to be used at undergraduate level of higher education. Indication of the study load is three study credits in Dutch system of higher education (100 hours net study load).
Because the core contents are in essence digital, the educational design (figure 3.1) concentrates on the computer learning environment of the student like a GIS workbench. The design of this project on gis guarantees that the introductory practical fi ts into the diverse educational settings of the partner institutions involved. Each copy of the practical contains a CD-ROM with the professional gis software Idrisi to be used and two computer based learning (CBL) programs CBL Lessons in gis and CBL Cases in gis and access to a study guide on the world wide web and a practical related computer conferencing. The www study guide will direct the student through the practical components. In addition, two cours e books (a workbook and a manual) will be available to the student.
(image to come)
3.3 The GIS workbench: a learning environment
The educational design of this project consists of an introductory practical in gis and is concentrated on the computer learning environment of the students according to the GIS workbench metaphor. Problem in gis practi cal education without face-to-face contact between student and teacher is the way in which feedback on complex activities and visual spatial information should be given. A solution is found in the design of the practical by co-operating of students via pr e-structured methods of communication (mutual guidance), with minimal tutoring only if teacher contact is really needed. Because communication concerned the exchange of the students results (digital files of gis images) electronic communication methods ar e a prerequisite. Access to Internet is a condition to consult gis experts and to obtain cheap and original gis data all over the world, like a real GIS working environment.
(image to come)
Contents
The contents of this introductory practical in geo
information systems consist of two main parts. The first part Lessons
in GIS contains a broad overview of GIS concepts, illustrated with
examples and exercis es. The lessons introduce students in the uses and
requirements of geo information systems, in mapping geographical data and
in spatial analysis and modelling. The second part of the practical consists
of hands-on Case studies in GIS on several app lication areas. The
data of the case studies have to be processed by the students with professional
GIS-software (the Idrisi GIS software).
The contents of the lessons and case studies are
based on pre-existing educational materials of the participating institutions
like lecture notes, exercises, slides, maps, tutorials, demo-software and
case studies in use at the educational programmes of t he partner institutions.
These materials will be adapted to be used in the introductory practical.
Computer learning environment
The core contents of a hands-on training in gis is the processing of digital spatial data by using GIS computer software. Because the core contents are in essence digital, the design concentrates on the computer learning environment of the student. An outline of the computer learning environment as a GIS workbench is given in figure 3.2. These core contents, to be studied at the students own computer configuration, consist of a number of computer applications : the study-guide on world wide web, the professional gis software program Idrisi, the CBL program CBL Lessons in GIS and the CBL program CBL Cases in GIS with data on case studies (GIS files, documentation). The www-study guide and the CBL programs are d eveloped within this project.
www-study guide
To direct students through all the components of the practical an electronic study guide on the world wide web will be developed. Such a more time-dynamic www-study guide is preferred to written material, because of four aspects. Firstly, th ere is no need to switch media in consulting the study guide or the other computer applications. Secondly, the costs of ‘publishing’ full colour geographical maps on world wide web are extremely low compared to the costs of producing paper maps (maps are needed in introduction and feedback on the practical contents). At third, new developments in the use of gis are part of the contents are site-specific and depending on the educational setting of the partner institution. The www-study guide can be simply linked to www-pages of a institution or educational programme. Four, information on GIS, especially sources of GIS data on the Internet, is rapidly changing. A www-page can be altered cheap and simple. The www-study guide contains of a general introductio n to the practical and (site-specific) information on aims, contents, tuition and examination. The study guide consists of a www-home page, linked www-pages of each institution or educational programme and guidance by didactic techniques (introduction, le arning objectives, tasks, data, sites) on each lesson and case-study.
CBL Lessons in GIS
To be able to study the lessons on GIS concepts a computer based learning program will be developed (CBL Lessons in GIS). The CBL Lessons in GIS contains self-contained lessons with documentation, questions and exercises on GIS concepts, ill ustrated by digital images. Also an illustrated glossary is part of the program. All digital image formats and slide shows of images can be used (scans of paper maps and text-illustrating figures, images of vector and raster GIS software, animations of GI S software use).
CBL Cases in GIS
Another computer based learning program will introduce students in real world applications of GIS by means of ‘hands-on’ case studies. The CBL Cases in GIS describes the role and task of the student in the case study, directs the student to the needed data and documentation and the GIS software and gives feedback on the assignments. Technically the design of this program is similar to the CBL Lessons in GIS, although the contents and didactic techniques used will differ.
professional gis system
The practical is concentrated around a professional gis system, which is available to the student in its full complexity. The GIS software to be used is Idrisi for Windows, developed by Clark university (a raster based GIS). Because of this restrictive choice to one GIS, the case studies have to be developed with Idrisi. Images, processed by other professional GIS software (e.g. vector-based Arc/Info) will be used as images and slide shows, e.g. to show essential differences in using vector data models or raster data models.
conferencing system
A practical related computer conferencing system plays an important role by mutual guidance by communication and information transfer between student groups. There is the added advantage of the possibility to distribute more ‘time-dynamic’ i nformation, like new data or new gis applications. Information on the conferencing system comes from both students and tutor and is co-ordinated (and controlled and justified) by the tutor.
Written materials
Written materials are also part of the practical components, mainly because larger texts are unpleasant to be read on the computer screen. A workbook will be produced with introductory texts and background documenta tion, and a manual on the use of electronic communication and information.
workbook
The workbook contains larger textual explications as an introduction on each lesson and case-study, documentation on GIS concepts and application areas, and documentation on the gis program and the case-study assignments. The workbook, struc tured in chapters parallel to the lessons and case studies, will also serve as a paper study planner.
manual
The telematics manual will introduce the students in data transfer, electronic communication and computer conferencing and use of Internet. It is meant to be produced as a camera-ready publication which can be easily updated.
A CD-ROM will contain the professional GIS software and the CBL programs. The possibilities to add demo versions of professional GIS software to the CD-ROM will be studied. The www-study guide and the computer conferencing system will be available on < B>Internet. Both will be closely linked and even be integrated (depending on the ICT- infrastructure of the participating institutions). The written materials (one workbook and one manual) will be produced and published by the Open university o f the Netherlands.
3.4 The GIS workbench: the authoring environment
The main aim of the project Geo Information Systems: an introductory practical is to develop a self-tuition practical on CD-ROM with a ‘hands-on’ training in gis technology. The practical is designed by the Open University of the Netherlands in co-operating with some gis educational institutions of the Netherlands, Belgium and UK. The participants (authors) co-operate with means of specially developed authoring tools and a restricted computer conferencing newsgro up. Manuscript versions of the modules are updated by means of FTP (file transfer protocol) with access restricted to authors and editors.
(image to come)
At the final stage of the project the project participants
will implement the practical to be used in the own educational setting
of the partner institution.
4 A multimedia introductory practical in GIS: the DTM module
4.1 The practical
As part of the developmental testing (or pilot) stage of the authoring tools of the Consortium project Geo Information systems: an introductory practical, the KU Leuven developed in co-operation with the Open University of the Netherlands, the first module of this practical. The module consists of a lesson Digital terrain modelling in the part Lessons on GIS and a case study on visibility analysis (with means of DTMs) in the part Cases on GIS.
The design of the educational materials is developed by the Open University of the Netherlands, and the authors of the project participants are developing and writing the modules the practical consists of. In order to ‘write’ this multimedia introducto ry practical (in which images and student tasks are far more abundantly than plain texts), the authors use authoring tools. These authoring tools are developed by the OUNL, in co-operation with KU Leuven. The authoring tools: the GIS workbench as an autho ring environment consists of two data entry programs (Lessons in GIS and Cases in GIS) with a data-entry mode to the GIS-glossary and to the meta-database (with image descriptions, lineage of maps, copyrights etc.), a computer conferencing news group with restricted access to authors and an Author’s Guide (Nadolski, 1997). The Author’s Guide is meant to be a reference book and guide by its table of contents, also offering full explanation about the installation of the material in order to avoid any proble m about ‘getting started’ with the authoring tools.
In order to study the introductory practical on GIS, the student must dispose of a PC with access to Internet and a CD-ROM driver. The student receives a CD-ROM and a small workbook.
By means of Internet, students get in touch with the Open University of the Netherlands, offering a study guide (on www), with Internet related tasks, possibilities for guidance by fellow students (in restricted newsgroups), and a managed update exchan ge site (by FTP) (see figure 3.1).
The CD-ROM contains the computer based learning program (CBL) consisting of a tutorial on Lessons in GIS, a practical on Cases in GIS, a GIS glossary, and the IDRISI-software.
The tutorial is consists of 14 lessons focusing on different aspects of GIS:
When going through the tutorial text, the student is regularly questioned or is asked to carry out a little exercise with IDRISI or an Internet task. Sufficient feedback for these questions and tasks is provided.
The DTM-lesson takes about 4 hours of study and is divided into 5 chapters.
An introduction explains the notions of ‘DTM’, relief, and illustrates graphic representations, types of information and applications using DTMs. As a result, students have to be able to define a digital terrain model a nd to give an overview of its use.
A second part handles data models for DTMs, i.e. the raster and the (vector)TIN model. Advantages and disadvantages of both data models are discussed, differences are explained and illustrated. There is also some focus on the concept of resolution.
DTM-construction (i.e. the collection of data, interpolation/triangulation and filtering) forms the object of the third chapter of the lesson. Students learn how to describe and comment the main sources of information for DTMs critically. Various metho ds for DTM-construction are presented and their (dis)advantages, relatively to each other, are discussed. The principle of parallax measurement and the construction of a DTM based on data of contour lines (maps) using standard IDRISI procedures are explai ned.
The fourth chapter is about the quality of DTMs. The students have to know and understand the effect of sampling schemes on DTM quality (e.g. by field survey and photogrammetry). They get acquainted to simple Idrisi procedures for the evaluation of DTM quality.
The last chapter handles DTM-applications. Students are trained so as to calculate geomorphometric variables from DTMs, to construct a slope map using standard procedures in IDRISI using specific filters, to construct a block diagram with overlay in Idrisi.
4.3 The case study: Visibility analysis
When the student got through all lessons, he/she has to chose a more extensive and complex task of about 20 hours study load on topics of the different lessons.
When related to DTMs, students have to execute a
simple visibility analysis, as an example of a real-life application, which
can be carried out with relatively simple algorithms (also in Idrisi).
Their task is to consist of determining the visible part s of the terrain
from a certain spot on the surface and to map the result in a visibility
map. First, the DTM must be created from a scanned contour map. Uncertainties
about the DTM must be incorporated in the analysis, in order to be aware
of the quality of the DTM.
5 A Virtual Future
As was stated in the cases about the educational tools developed, the opportunity to enhance professional awareness of GIS is offered by both secondary education (Vanneste, 1997) and open higher education (La nsu et al., 1997). The introduction to GIS can take important effect on the perception and the judgement of many (decision making) people about spatial analysis in general and GIS in particular. The awareness of the value of spatial data and their handling, creates an open mind, even when not really applying GIS.
Nevertheless, one has to take into account the difficulties of teaching GIS (e.g. by lessons in geography) on a secondary school level because of obstacles in terms of time and budget. Therefore, packages with cut-and-dried material seems the only solu tion (Steenberghen en Vanneste, 1996).
The notice of GIS as a decision-supporting tool and as a direct response-tool for spatial questions leads to a need for more problem-oriented education. The large and diverse group of individuals interested in GIS and spatial concepts on different leve ls and from different angles as (potential) GIS users, is best served with self directed learning material, like the given example of open distance education (Lansu et al., 1997). The multimedia introductory practical shows that there exists suitab le opportunities in combination with the new information- and communication technologies (Roesems and Lansu, 1997).
In the larger software producing firms and information departments of private as well as public sector institutions, the tasks are strongly divided between programmers and analysts. At the moment the same process appears in the GIS world. The way in wh ich geo-oriented data are transformed into spatial information as required by the actors, is becoming of great importance. This refers to a growing need for GIS analysts who can proceed to a problem solving strategy by following a systematic approach, def ining the information needed and designing the analysis procedure to meet the goals (Aronoff, 1993).
Therefore, learning materials on GIS should not be directed to knowledge-based learning and hands-on training only. As was shown by the concept of the GIS practical (Lansu et al., 1997), the mutual contacts with employees, GIS experts and other actors are essential in an effective and complete GIS education, so as to prepare for a real GIS environment. A more competence-based way of co-operative learning guarantees the best possibilities, e.g. the mentioned modifications in the Dutch secondary s chool system (Min. van OCW, 1997).
Another realistic example of a self-directed competence-based learning environment is the virtual company initiative of the Open University of the Netherlands(Westera & Sloep, 1997). The first business unit in this 3-D cyberspace consultancy firm o n planning and environment will be a unit for environmental assessment. This pilot unit will be tested among working adult students in spring 1998. Pushing forward the technology of interactive CD-rom design and of virtual environments opens new horizons for advanced GIS learning and education, dedicated to the needs of the targeted students.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully thanks prof Gerard Govers (KULeuven) and Wim Slot (Open University of the Netherlands) for their contribution to the contents and the design of the multimedia introductory practical.
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