Tips for Designing GIS Learning Modules based on Esri Software Products

Sheila Churchill

Abstract

The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) offers a nine month Advanced Diploma Program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (Esri) software is used extensively throughout this program to demonstrate GIS concepts, to teach GIS methodology and to develop technical skills. This paper will describe how learning modules have been designed to lead students through a broad range of practical GIS problems and examples, using the ArcInfo and ArcView software products.

Introduction

Creating a competent GIS technologist is not done in a day. GIS software is complex, has multiple functionality and encompasses concepts not familiar to the general public. At BCIT we take eager and motivated graduate students and nine months later produce job-ready GIS specialists. In order to do this we must give the students a solid background in GIS fundamentals, extensive hands-on experience in using GIS software and practice in developing problem solving skills. Over the years, we have designed many learning modules which use Esri software to teach these skills.

Using Esri Software at BCIT

There are three main methods in which we use Esri products in our courses.

Esri software, Self-study Workbooks and additional course materials used for introductory level courses.
Esri software and BCIT course material to demonstrate advanced concepts.
Partial use of Esri software products and other software products in course material for related subjects.

The following table outlines the courses taught, source of learning modules, software utilised, and method.

Course	Description	Source	Software	Method
GIST5128	ArcInfo Level One	Esri/BCIT	ArcInfo	1
GIST6128	ArcInfo Level Two	BCIT	ArcInfo, AML, ArcView	2
GIST6102	ArcInfo Level Three	BCIT	ArcInfo, AML, C	2
GIST5108	Fundamentals of Mapping	BCIT	Pathfinder, ArcInfo data conversions	3
GIST6132	GIS Database Systems	BCIT	Oracle, ArcInfo	3
GIST6100	Technical Issues in GIS	BCIT	Java, Esri data conversions	3
GIST6101	Selected Topics in GIS	BCIT	Avenue	2
GIST5028	Introduction to ArcView	Esri/BCIT	ArcView	1
GIST5120	Technical Topics	BCIT	UNIX scripts, Esri data conversions	3
GIST6120	Projects	BCIT	ArcInfo, ArcView, MapInfo, Smallworld	2,3
GIST6028	Avenue Programming	BCIT	Avenue	2

Method 1:

We have developed introductory courses in GIS using Esri Self-study workbooks "Understanding GIS; The ArcInfo Method" and "Getting to Know Arcview GIS". Both these books form an excellent base to an introductory GIS course. However, since our courses are for academic credit, we must develop lecture, assignment and exam material.

We have found that the best assignment material to be questions from the text and exercises that enlarge on the text content. Questions often involve the student researching commands in the ArcInfo On-line Help.

An example question from GIST5128 (ArcInfo Level 1):

Section C. Create a data dictionary

You need to design a GIS database that will help you find a rapid transit corridor between downtown Vancouver and Coquitlam.

If the selection criteria are:

Soil type must be suitable for transit construction
Minimum use of residential land area
Minimum purchase value of all land
Minimum number of residential land owners affected
Minimum major road crossings,
Minimum river crossing over 10m width
Stops (stations) close to major shopping areas
The transit system will use a 200m corridor to allow for two lines.

Create a data dictionary in table form for the above project. Include layer, ArcInfo feature class, attributes( item names), values and descriptions. (use Lesson 3, Building a Data Dictionary as a guide) (5)

Suggest where might you get the data you need to produce your GIS database for each layer. (4)

Draw a diagram to show how your GIS project workspace would be organised in your account (be sure to include the workspace, and coverage names). (2 )

Advantages of using the workbooks are many. The students pay more attention to information in a book as opposed to lecture material or handouts. New material does not have to be generated for every upgrade of the software - we just order the new version of the workbook. Less assignment material has to be generated by the instructor.

There are however, a few disadvantages as well. The major one for the student is the cost of the text. Also, even though the books are not written to be platform specific, there are instructions in the book which are either confusing, or just will not work on our system. Most of the confusion comes from setting up the data and copying files. As well, the ArcView Self-study book comes with both the application and data, which must be set up in a very specific way - one that did not easily work on our network! Finally, students tend to just "type in the bold" and ignore the rest of the book.

Strategies have been developed to overcome these disadvantages.

We try to incorporate the cost of the text into the course.
We find it easiest to set up the individual student accounts with all the data in place and give detailed explanations of what the data consists of and where it is stored.
We include exercises to refresh the student's abilities in basic computer skills - i.e. moving around directory trees, copying and renaming files and directories, etc. We cannot stress too much the problems encountered using UNIX cp -r command to copy a coverage instead of the ArcInfo copy command!
Lecture material reinforces concepts covered in the workbooks, and assignment and exam questions test the amount of time a student puts into reading.
A separate lecture course teaches general fundamentals of GIS, which also helps reinforce concepts covered in Esri Workbooks.
We maintain a good relationship with our computer resources department so that they will attempt to install software that does not conform to BCIT standards.

Method 2

We have developed our own learning modules for more advanced courses which still deal exclusively with ArcInfo software. These courses cover advanced data handling, customization and analysis. Esri's ArcInfo software is used for lab exercises and assignments which test the student's comprehension of concepts covered in the course.

Within the laboratory exercise and assignments the students are given problems to solve and guided towards the resources that will help them. These problems not only highlight the advanced capabilities of a GIS (and ArcInfo software) but also force the student to find solutions on their own, thus increasing their problem solving abilities.

An example question from GIST6128 (ArcInfo Level 2):

The data for this question is in a workspace called 'census' in your 'mod67' directory. Work from the 'census' directory.

Data is provided as follows: census.dxf census.data census.items

Create a coverage called census from the census.dxf file and build line and polygon topology.

Create the INFO file called FAMILY.DATA from the census.items file.

Fill the INFO FAMILY.DATA file with data from the census.data file.

List the CENSUS-ID item value for some of the CENSUS.PAT and CENSUS.XCODE records. Now use the ARC joinitem command to join the .XCODE INFO file to the .PAT file.

Use the ARC joinitem command to join the .PAT file and the FAMILY.DATA file based on the census-id field.

Use ARCPLOT to display the coverage and use IDENTIFY to query census information about the polygons.

List and print the CENSUS.PAT items AREA, CENSUS-ID, FAMILIES for AREA > 0 and CENSUS-ID > 0 and $RECNO < 25

Hand in your print out. (5 marks)

Creating, maintaining and instructing these learning modules takes considerable effort. The following points are helpful.

Try not to include specific ArcInfo command input or output in the learning modules. This changes with every new software version, and so means updating the modules as well.
Never upgrade your software in the middle of a course.
Do not put too much descriptive material or detail in the learning modules. Instead, emphasise the resources available to the student, i.e. On-Line Help, Esri-L lists, etc.
Always use real-life problems and local data for your problems - this makes it much more interesting and useful for the students.
Use small data sets for problems - the procedures can still be learned without large amounts of disk space or CPU time.
Assignment problems slowly increase in complexity and difficulty - always challenge the students.

Method 3

The BCIT GIS Advanced Diploma includes many courses that are not specifically about GIS software but do involve the students working with the software in order to solve problems. These courses include the Projects course, where a student may choose to work with ArcInfo or ArcView software in order to complete an Industry Sponsored Project. Depending on the problem, the student may spend a large percentage of their time using the software.

Other courses may teach GIS skills not directly related to the functionality of Esri software, yet use Esri software as a component of the course work.

An example question from GIST6100 ( Technical Issues in GIS):

Program Purpose: To read an Esri Shapefile and draw the shapefile in an Appletviewer window The Esri Shapefile is becoming a popular GIS file format. The shapefile specification consists of three files:

An Esri shapefile consists of a main file (file.shp ), an index file (file.shx), and a dBASE table (file.dbf). The .shp file contains GIS spatial vector data. The file contains variable length records of point or line or polygon x,y coordinates.

This module only uses the .shp file as you only need the .shp file to draw features.

Write a JAVA program to read an Esri .shp format line or polygon shapefile and draw the vectors as a resizable map in an Appletviewer window. A test .shp file can be found in /gisdata/gist6100/mod6/mod6.shp

In some ways, developing course modules that use just the "fringes" of ArcInfo software can be the most difficult.

Instructors teaching these courses may not be familiar with Esri software. Make sure resources are in place to help them develop meaningful problems that can be solved using the Esri software.
The instructor must know the student's level of familiarity with the software.
Test these problems thoroughly before presenting them to the student! This is a given for any learning module, but is even more important when you start mixing different softwares.
In the Project course, the student will often go beyond the instructor's knowledge base, either in the problem they are trying to solve, or the method they are using to solve it. Resources such as the Esri-L and ArcView-L archives, and technical support, must be made available to the student.

Discussion

Esri software is an integral part of the GIS Advanced Diploma Program at BCIT. It has contributed to the success we have had in producing skilled, employable GIS technologists. Due to the incredible rate of change in GIS, and Esri software in particular, creating and maintaining learning modules in GIS skills can be a daunting task. The experience we have gained over the years, the teaching materials available from Esri and the functionality and flexibility of the Esri software has made this task manageable.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the contributions to this paper of her colleagues in the BCIT GIS Department: Ross Miller, Jonathon Candy and Carmen Heaver.

Sheila Churchill
Assistant Instructor, GIS Department
British Columbia Institute of Technology
3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5G 3H2
Phone: (604) 451-6897
email: schurchi@bcit.bc.ca