Re-thinking GIS education
David Rhind and Jonathan Raper City University, London There seem to be about 2 million GIS users at present. About 2000 universities run courses on GIS and hundreds of other courses are run by non-academic organisations, such as software vendors. Those taking the courses come from a huge variety of backgrounds - environmentalists, people working in local and central government, utility companies, the military and not-for-profit bodies. There seem to be about 100 different GIS textbooks. Yet, despite all this, GIS education and training is astonishingly similar world-wide and - in our view - is mostly stuck on historical tram lines. Why so similar? The reasons why GIS courses are so similar reflect the causes of our past success. These include:
What's wrong? The problem with all this is that GIS is not just a technology. It is increasingly part of the way in which commerce, government and academia - all operating in some senses as businesses - operate. Yet, as anyone who goes to work in a wholly new environment will testify, life inside businesses is not homogeneous. Different businesses need different contextual knowledge and application-specific experience. Cultural differences mean different approaches are required in different places. Many of these factors are changing so learning is now life-long and different modes of up-date and continuous professional development are essential. The nature of GIS tools and GI is that many different answers are sometimes possible: ethics become a significant matter. How learning is achieved needs to reflect best practice in use of IT and also meet stringent quality criteria. And finally, what is important is bringing benefit to the organisation - not just doing something neat with GIS - so institutional objectives and standards need to be factored in. Employers need multi-disciplinary skills and institutional awareness, not simply clever fingers and packaged solutions. So what can we do about it? Identifying problems is the easy bit. Solving them is sometimes more difficult but we have been parts of two different, parallel initiatives to enhance the current, flawed situation. Each one is now briefly described. The Student Companion We need a new generation of textbooks. Good as some of the existing ones are, most of them still see the GIS world as one dominated by technological and 'geo-technical' considerations. Many simply describe practice, rather than practice informed by theory. Many see the world as exclusively geographical, ignoring the trade-offs between different factors that have to be struck in real life. And most focus on operational uses of GIS rather than a spectrum from strategic to tactical and operational. Most are written for people who will either be GIS technicians or who will lecture on the same material for years to come. The reality is that GIS is now GI Science, GI Systems, GI Studies and GI (Geographical Information). It is also increasingly involved in g-business. The safety of use of GI Systems is a matter for concern in a world where risk identification and management is becoming normal practice and where investment appraisals and business cases are becoming required even in governments. Successful pricing of information, services or products is crucial either for financial or political reasons. It follows that textbooks should provide the relevant information. It is absurd to separate out the different skill elements needed in working life in different kinds of book as if they do not interact. Four of us have written a new book to meet these needs (see http://www.wiley.co.uk/wileychi/gis/ )It sets out why 'spatial is special', explains how science must underpin GIS operations and describes how to anticipate and cope with the uncertainty and messiness of the real world. It describes the laws of GIS, the consequences of different data characteristics, data and other standards and the organisational factors in GIS success. GI as an asset to be exploited, risk management and GIS strategy are all covered. The whole book is designed to be easy to use, with full colour throughout. Examples of applications and role models are threaded throughout the entire 470 pages. Beyond all that, we recognise that learning is not done by one or two techniques, like lectures and practical classes: we have built in simulations of real world projects when local politics, institutional dynamics, partnerships and 'not everyone can win' are central to the role-playing. The book is not a stand-alone entity. It will be accompanied by instructors' manuals linking it to a variety of subject areas. Relevant and still current chapters from the first edition of the reference 'Big Book of GIS' have been made available on the web and these and chapters in the second (wholly new) edition are cross-referenced for those who need more detail. Numerous links to web-based resources are given, including - but not restricted to - the ESRI Virtual Campus. The book is thus part of a bigger learning system that will progressively mutate as needs change. A new approach to courses: MGI We need a new generation of courses. Table 1 outlines some of the contents of one solution, the Masters degree in Geographic Information (MGI) at City University (see www.soi.city.ac.uk/mgi) . These contents match well with the needs identified above. The course orientation is steered by a high powered advisory body which includes Carol Tullo - the person responsible for the UK government's information policy - and senior business people. MGI offers transparency in its quality procedures, a comprehensive learning resource and pro-active student involvement. The UK is the only country in the world where national standards for all university degrees are externally assessed and graded, with the results being made public. The national Quality Assurance Agency recently gave a star rating to MGI for its innovation and thoroughness of every aspect of its design. The heart of the MGI is the WebCT Managed Learning Environment through which the course is managed. Course handbooks, study skills guides, student-staff meeting minutes, computing guides and details of departmental teaching policies and procedures are available. Discussion boards and chat rooms allow students to interact with staff and each other and the results of student queries and feedback are placed online. WebCT also hosts the course materials, assignments, marks/feedback and a guide to the virtual library where book and journal articles have been placed for student access after copyright clearance. The course is delivered in either face-to-face or distance modes using the Internet. Student achievement for face-to-face students is assessed through practical coursework such as field GPS data capture, information resource management, development of legal opinions, web page design, project management in teams and critical evaluation of sources, as well as through written work in exams. The distance mode focuses more on the use of email, discussion boards and online chat through WebCT, although some distance students are able to visit from time to time. Students prepare feedback on the weekly course materials and enter into a dialogue with tutors through the most convenient channel of communication for them. Online chat sessions individually or as a group are held and then published for the whole cohort to see. Comments on the discussion board are moderated by academic staff and the courses resource manager. Monthly analysis of lecture material access patterns, feedback delivery and tutorial reports are used by the MGI teaching team to monitor progress and minimise isolation. Rapid turnaround of assessed work helps ensure that students see how they are doing and can gauge their progression. Tutorials are organised at times convenient in all time zones and examinations are carried out at approved local centres around the world. Trial access to parts of MGI can be obtained via http://webct.soi.city.ac.uk (user: gueststudent password: mgi2001) Some conclusions These two developments are not of course the only ones in the world of their type. GIS is breaking out of the hardware/software ghetto. But what is fundamental is the wide range of new knowledge, awareness and skills which seem to be needed on the part of those working with GIS. From Intellectual Property Rights, through sensitivity to national security issues, pricing strategies, management of diverse specialists and risk containment, team working and presentation skills to the development and exploitation of good Geographical Science - all are all part of our everyday GIS world now. Not everyone has to be expert in everything: but we all have to know the rudiments of everything and what is important locally. There is an institutional geography to the need for GIS skills and knowledge. GIS education has to recognise that fact. Table 1 Some 'top level' contents of MGI
|