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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: [gislist] Support for non-certified instructors to teach GIS
classes |
| Date: |
02/14/2007 03:00:00 PM |
| From: |
Scott Madsen |
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Julia, Tripp, Dewayne, Andy, Trish, Landon, Kevin and Cynthia:
Thanks to all of you for your posts. Many of them were lengthy like mine so
I am not pasting them here. However, if anyone wants me to paste them into
a personal email outside of this list, let me know. Otherwise, I will
summarize:
It sounds as though the subject of inexpensive training is a common
frustration among local government entities and small businesses. With
limited funds available for training, most entities have to take the time to
make up their own training courses. This can be a good thing since doing so
can result in course presentation that more aptly meets the needs of the
target students: however, it can also be very time consuming.
For a GIS Coordinator like me, finding the time to prepare teaching aids
(Power Points, etc) for a class is much more difficult than finding the time
to teach a class. But, organization is everything thus, the reason I'm
looking for existing teaching aids to help me teach the subject more
smoothly.
While there are certified instructors willing to offer classes at reduced
rates, this really doesn't do much for folks working with strapped
government and private sector budgets. In such a case, it's pretty much up
to someone within a city or county or a local planning and development
district to teach GIS applications to newcomers. We do have a local
planning and development district that uses GIS but, unfortunately I'm the
one who's been teaching their people GIS, not the other way around.
Tripp questioned how I can teach a class of 20 people at 1/6th the price of
a certified instructor. That is because I have a meeting room, computers
and projector at my disposal. I need only the training materials and trial
versions of ArcView to put a class together. If I did not have a room,
projector and computers at my disposal, yes, it would cost me money to rent
such from a local university or other entity.
Julia mentioned a book by Maribeth H. Price (see her post below). I forgot
to mention that I have also considered this book as a resource - after all,
she's a GIS professor at one of our state universities (unfortunately
located 300 miles away from my county). She too teaches certified GIS
courses but, like many others, charges hundreds of dollars per student to
attend. (As I mentioned in a previous post, I don't dispute these fees, my
county just can't afford them).
Anyhow, I checked with another of our state's planning districts and they
use Dr Price's text and training aids to teach GIS to their counties. They
said they work well: however, unlike the ESRI training books which include a
temporary ArcView license, hers has none. I will need temporary software
licenses so, I think I am going to see if good 'ole ESRI will help me out
with some. If they will, Dr Price's book is accompanied by instructor aids
and an interactive CD-ROM so, it might just do the trick for this intro
class. If ESRI isn't willing to comply, I'm probably going to have to use
one of their books that include the temporary licenses. (Somehow, I can't
help but predict what ESRI will tell me).
Thanks again for all who responded. I would, however, still like to hear a
response on these posts from an ESRI representative if one is looking in...
Scott Madsen
GIS Coordinator
Brown County, SD
-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of Julia Harrell
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 1:54 PM
To: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] Support for non-certified instructors to teach GIS
classes
Hi Scott
Lack of funding for GIS training is a common issue that we all face, and
it seems to be getting worse each year...
What we did last year was to have all of our prospective trainees
(around 60) purchase a book by Maribeth H. Price, "Mastering ArcGIS with
Video Clips on CD-ROM" for around $60. We had the students read the
chapters before class, and then the instructors went through the
powerpoint lectures that came with the book and had the students work
through the exercises in class, so instructors could answer questions
and help when students got stuck. A colleague and I shared the role of
instructor, although this material is well-suited and probably intended
for solo self study.
We realized that a large segment of the potential GIS user population in
our organization simply would or could not take the time to work through
online or self study courses on their own. Many prefer to be led by the
hand - or nose, in a few "special" cases, through the material in a
classroom setting. Another reason we liked the option of using this book
is because we didn't have to spend any of our very scarce time writing
lectures and exercises. The accompanying CD of exercise videos is also
someth
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