[OSGeo-Edu] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Training and certification

[Phillip Davis]

Charles, the GeoTech Center will be at FOSS4G this September offering the following workshops:

1. FOSS4G for Educators (Monday)
2. GTCM Course Development (Tuesday)
3. Remote Sensing DACUM (Wednesday-Thursday)

to promote two goals: a) FOSS4G for higher ed and b) alignment of geospatial industry needs and academic GIS program curriculum.  Our ongoing effort is the help higher education better align with the new Dept. of Labor's Geospaital Technology Competency Model (GTCM).  You can see our work on building SCORM-compliant, GTCM-aligned course packs with curriculum modules here: http://www.geotechcenter.org/Education-Training/GTCM-Faculty-Development-Workshop-Summer-2011.

In regards to certification, we fully support the GISCI's effort in improve their GISP certification with a competency-based exam, something they've committed to doing last week, over the next three years.  Researchers with GeoTech assisted the GISCI working group that investigated the question over the past 18 months, offering our extensive research into the precise skills required by GIS technicians (and now Remote Sensing Specialist).   You can view this research here: http://www.geotechcenter.org/Resources/Publications.

Finally, we would like to offer our SCORM-compliant, GTCM-aligned course packs for OSGeo to help us vet and eventually disseminate beginning next May, 2012 when the results of our 2011 workshops have been properly vetted and created.  The Center would offer to sit with yourself and the OSGeo board at the forthcoming FOSS4G to discuss collaboration.

Phil Davis
Director and PI

________________________________________
From: edu_discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [edu_discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Charlie Schweik [cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 8:31 AM
To: discuss at lists.osgeo.org
Cc: OSGeo-edu
Subject: [OSGeo-Edu] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Training and certification

I'm not going to weigh in on the certification question -- I don't
understand the companies out there doing training and the issues raised
by Cameron and others. Apologies in advance for a long posting.

But I find myself puzzling about how this is linked to universities (our
edu group) and the discussions about more formal relationships with
universities. I teach in an Environmental Conservation department and
also in a Public Policy and Administration program. I sometimes have
undergrad and grad students interested in going beyond the traditional
"Intro to GIS" course, and would love to be able to somehow offer a more
advanced course that would utilize open source technologies and
especially training on web-based GIS (currently we have none in our
curriculum). Or "enterprise-level" desktop GIS that might be utilized in
small local government settings (that often do not have GIS because of a
lack of staffing) -- like small "hilltowns" in Western Massachusetts, or
local governments in developing world contexts. Right now we offer both
Intro to GIS courses using ArcGIS and also desktop open source, but we
don't have the ability to teach the next level -- an enterprise GIS or
web-based GIS.

The other thing I am seeing is a movement away from standard lecture
format to one where the prof might use YouTube videos or other open
access content outside of class and then use class time to be more
hands-on. Also there is a push at our university to try and use more
open access educational material to help reduce the costs of textbooks
and coursepacks on students.

This leads me to my questions regarding training and this discussion.

1) How can we collectively act and utilize the expertise within OSGeo
software groups and other affiliates to develop a set of training
material that could be connected to university classes? Could people on
this list with expertise develop "modules"? Could we develop,
collectively, workbooks along with data and exercises that we
instructors could use? If there are people out there willing to
contribute to this idea, who are you and what kind of material would you
be willing to contribute? For example, I would love to get some students
learning how to use technology like OpenLayers or other web-based GIS
technologies, but I don't have those skills so would want to offer a
"group independent study" under my direction, where students could try
and learn these kinds of technologies on their own and together, under
my direction and with the support of this OSGeo network.

2) Would it be possible to develop a network of classes in affiliated
institutions that are all teaching the same content in parallel, and
perhaps all using one Moodle course hosted by OSGeo?  In other words,
have face-to-face classes running in parallel on several universities
during the same time frame (e.g., Sept-December or January-May) where
these classes are meeting face-to-face but then we have the ability to
tie expertise and he classes together via Moodle or maybe hold some
webinars by technical experts that all classes in all universities
(timezones will be an issue here)?

This would at least work for universities in locations where they have
decent Internet connection. But the idea might be the start of the
content for a proposal to educational funding agencies or
foundations.... and I greatly appreciate the approach Cameron has done
for the Free DVD in terms of having an editor who coordinates these
things. Some proposal for funding would need to put forth that model.

I hope these ideas are helpful and not noise....

Cheers
Charlie Schweik
UMass Amherst

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