Abstract
Designing an Online Certificate Program in "Mobile GIS Applications Development"
Track: Teaching About GIS for Future Professionals
Authors: Patrick Kennelly, Christopher League, Kiichi Takeuchi, Gavi Narra
This presentation describes the strategies and challenges in designing an online certificate program at Long Island University (LIU Online) in Mobile GIS Applications Development. The certificate can be completed in one year, allowing students to create geospatial applications (apps) for use on mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Android phones. The program includes five courses. The two required courses are "Introduction to GIS" using ArcGIS and "Introduction to Computer Programming" using Python. The three elective courses, from which the student chooses two, are geographic applications development courses for iOS, Android, and the web. Although strongly supported at our university, we faced numerous and interesting challenges in designing this certificate. Some items we needed to address were associated with creating one of the LIU's first online programs, utilizing instructors from multiple campuses and University Center, and modifying the typical schedule of courses to meet the needs of our prospective students.