Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Key elements of an introductory study-unitThe introductory course to GIS is a crucial point in the student’s undergraduate years.Amongst the factors that will influence his/her career decision whether to become aGIS specialist or simply a casual user, is the understanding of the main concepts ofa GI system. Today, there are a number of help tips on the Internet which point anynewcomer to the teaching of GIS in the right direction and since GIS is a relativelynew technology and the industry competition is very fierce a number of study aidsare available. Setting the course structure however is only one element. Other factorscome into play when preparing for the academic year.a) Understanding your audienceWith today’s varying degree of computer skills in class, it is very difficult to gaugeyour audience’s adaptability to understanding and using a GIS. Most studentsoutside the computer and IT studies have background knowledge of Office tools andsome basic computing. Having prepared courses for Geography, Archaeology andBiology students, it is important to understand in the early days of your study-unitthe computer literacy of your class. Ideally students should have a basic knowledgeof databases (tables) and information systems or have been exposed to softwaresuch as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tounderstand the structure of a GIS.In the case of non-geography classes the spatial relationships must be explainedat length before any attempts are made at explaining the concepts of a GIS. It mightbe useful at this stage to explain the importance of geography in certain fields ofstudy. Non-geography classes have difficulties to understand the applicability of GIsystems because of a lack of understanding about spatial relationships and the valueof spatial data.With today’s multi-disciplinary approach to University studies, it is becomingvery difficult to have homogenous groups of students. There will be varying degreesof computer skills and different understanding of what spatial relationships are.The next step is to try and identify the basic concepts and components of a GIS forstudents to start using such systems.b) Main components of an introductory GIS study-unitDuring the course of one semester of an undergraduate course there is an opportunityfor introducing both the theoretical elements of a GIS and the practical sessions onsome software. Over the years, the course structure of the introductory study-unit atthe University of Malta has changed to reflect the needs of the students. Originally, thestudy-unit covered aspects of history and GIS development, map projections, imageprocessing, data collection and storage, applications and digital terrain models. Overtime, this structure was simplified to allow students more time to use the softwareand work on real-world applications of GIS.The most important elements for direct tutoring in class have now been rationalizedto four main topics. There is a good review of these concepts in introductorytextbooks such as Heywood (2002), Clarke (2002) and the GIS Dictionary published98