[OSGeo-Edu] Tracking a GIS Core Curriculum

[Helena Mitasova]

On Sep 15, 2009, at 11:37 AM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:

> On Tue, 2009-09-15 at 09:56 -0400, Charlie Schweik wrote:
>> There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here:
>> http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000).
>> I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting.
>>
>> But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of
>> efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core  
>> curriculum
>> for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin.
>
> Thanks Charlie,  The NCGIS curriculum was also in the dust at the back
> of my mind.
>
> Just to make sure we're on the same page - I'm suggesting we build on
> top of existing curricula by focusing on tutorials and lessons that
> apply theory using open source GIS applications/tools but tied back
> directly to aspects of these curricula.
>
> Are you suggesting that we build on top of these existing ones or  
> start
> from scratch with our own?
>
> I could see that a few modules in such a certificate for open  
> source GIS
> would require us to have some general "open source" focused teaching
> that we might have to create, but can we still re-use existing  
> component
> from elsewhere, right?  At least as a framework for building our open
> source specific teaching?
>
> My mental challenge here is that I could see that our curriculum would
> be the same as any GIS certificate curriculum, only the labs and
> applications would use open source tools.  Of course, it could also be
> branded as an open source GIS certificate, but perhaps that's a fine
> line at this point?  Are there other perspectives on this I'm missing?
>
>> I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you  
>> suggest,
>> we could potentially organize or link course material in our  
>> database to
>> a curriculum
>> structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great
>> collaborative goal for this next year*.
>
> Maybe this answers my above questions.  Do these next steps make  
> sense?
>
> 1. Review existing curriculum.

which one? There are general ones and each university program has its  
own

(e.g. here is what we have for MS in GIST
http://www.gis.ncsu.edu/academic/programs/index.php -
you can see that Open source is "trickling in", but we are a very  
open source
oriented school, to some extent because of RedHat  headquarters on  
campus)

We don't have any geography dept. so I can imagine that universities
with geography department would have different curricula most of it  
built around ArcGIS.
Also there is a difference between undergrad and grad level curricula,
as well as between GIS certificate, BS, minor, and masters degree.

> 2. Copying the structures from existing curricula as appropriate
> (hopefully verbatim so educators can tie directly back)

see above

> 3. Identify holes that we'd need to fill (hopefully only a few)

that will depend on what curriculum you select -undergrads basics  
curriculum
would be certainly easier than grad level material.

> 4. Collate or create material for each section.
> 5. Bundle it all up, etc...

we need to have a solid SVN infrastructure to be able to manage,  
update and collaborate on the material,
I still haven't figured out the group support.

Helena
>
> Thanks for discussion!
>
> Tyler
>
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