Geoinformatics education in different disciplines - Challenges, approaches and experiences ·...
Transcript of Geoinformatics education in different disciplines - Challenges, approaches and experiences ·...
Geoinformatics education in different disciplines -
Challenges, approaches and experiences
Wolfgang Reinhardt
AGIS / Institut für Angewandte Informatik
Universität der Bundeswehr München
www.agis.unibw.de
LeGIO workshop – Leuven, 18.11.2011
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UniBwM • UniBwM = University of the Bundeswehr (German Federal
Armed Forces) Munich
• Degrees approved by the state of Bavaria, courses equivalent to
other state universities
(Bachelor, Master, PhD)
• 15 study programs (Master level)
• Around 3400 Students
• Most students are soldiers for 12/13 years,
but also non-soldier students
• Most students live on the campus
• Trimester system
• Staff is civil
• AGIS: Research group of the Chair of Geoinformatics at the University of the
Bundeswehr Munich, Comp. Science faculty, around 10 scientists
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Examples of Research - Teaching
Interoperability/Services
GI-Interoperability based on services/ Testbed for services
Concepts for meta data/Quality Management
Data visualization on the internet via portrayal services
(BGIO funded)
Projects with utilities
Quality management
• Q-assurance /Process orientation
• Quantitative investigation (Industry funded)
Engineering
Measurement and documentation of sewer systems (INS/GI) (Industry funded)
GI and Early Warning
EW in land slide applications (BMBF/DFG funded)
TranSafe-Alp
Monitoring of alpine transit routes (EU Interreg “Alpine Space”)
http://www.unibw.de/inf4/professuren/geoinformatik
Teaching of GI / programs
Geodesy and Geoinformatics (ends in 2012)
Computer Science (Specialisation in Master program)
Civil Engineering (Basics in Master program)
Information Management (specific topics)
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Overview
• Introduction of content and goals of our GI related modules
• Discussion of the usage of BoK for curricula design / comparision in different disciplines
• Related to relevant content
• Related to core units
• Some suggestions
• Conclusion
Suggestions are thought to be a contribution for further discussions
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Background
• Geographic Information education is manifold, there are:
• Courses with GI as the main subject (Master in GI …)
• Courses with GI as one main subject (Master in GI & …)
• Courses with GI as a side subject (with different weighting)
• The required competence profiles of graduates are also manifold, examples
• GI Software development
• GI Application development
• GI Data Management
• GI Data Analysis
• Usage of GI methodology in a certain domain
• Training
• Sales / Marketing
• …
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GI in Computer Science and Civil Engineering
CS: Spezialisation “Geoinformatics and Computer Vision” (30 ECTS).
GI related modules:
• Geoinformatics Basics (3 ECTS)
• Geoinformatics I (Reference Systems, datum, map projections .., 3 ECTS)
• Geoinformatics II (Spatial data bases and data types, analyses, quality …, 3 ECTS)
• Geoinformatics III (Basics of services, geo web Services, security …, 3 ECTS)
• Geoinformation programming, project based (3 ECTS)
CE: Basics in GI and Surveying, related to their further studies in planning and Water Management
• Geodesy, Surveying and GIS (which includes GI Basics and DTM) (6 ECTS)
• Geographic Information Systems (Data bases, analysis, visualization) (3 ECTS)
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GI in Computer Science and Civil Engineering
Aspired Competences:
• CS: they should be able to design and implement SW / applications which
also include (among others) any handling of Geographic Information (->
according to market)
• CE: they should acquire the necessary basic knowledge / competence to
use GI methodology in water management and planning
Questions:
• What is the core of GI topics which should be taught in every program with
GI content?
• How can the “overlap” of content be maximised?
• Is the BoK suitable to describe the content of GI modules in other disciplines
than Geography?
• Can the differences in the learning goals and the content be expressed with
the BoK?
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GI S & T Body of Knowledge (BoK)
Well known work from UCGIS
• Benefits / deficits discussed in several papers,
• Includes 10 knowledge areas (KA), which include 72 Units and these
include around 1330 topics [Rip et al, 2010], :
Analytical Methods (AM) Data Manipulation (DN)
Conceptual Foundations (CF) Geo Computation (GC)
Cartography and Visualization (CV) Geospatial Data (GD)
Design Aspects (DA) GI S&T and Society (GS)
Data Modelling (DM) Organizational and Institutional Aspects
(OI)
BoK – knowledge areas, from [DiBiase et al]
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The European view
BoK is representing primarily a view from Geography (Reinhardt and Toppen, 2008)
BoK is not sufficiently considering SDI aspects like Geo Web Services, meta data etc.
Geo
grap
hy /
Pla
nnin
g
Geo
desy
/ S
urve
ying
Com
pute
r S
cien
ce
GI S&T BoK
Other disciplines
From
(Reinhardt and Toppen, 2008):
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Suggestions to extend knowledge areas
Background:
• Only minimal changes of BoK (max. compatibility)
• Deficits related to SDI should be eliminated
• Competences in implementation / application programming should be visible (as competencies in Data Management, Analysis …..!)
Analytical methods (AM) Data Manipulation (DN)
Conceptual foundations (CF) Geo Computation (GC)
Cartography and Visualization (CV) Geospatial Data (GD)
Design aspects (DA) GI S & T and society (GS)
Data Modelling (DM) Organizational and Institutional aspects (OI)
Spatial Data Infrastructure (SI) Application Programming (AP)
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Units of suggested knowledge areas
Spatial data infrastructures (SI)
SI1 General purpose and background, initiatives,
non-technical aspects, laws etc.
SI2 Metadata (purpose, models, challenges)
SI3 Introduction to Interoperability (syntactic,
semantic)
SI4 Basics of Services (HTTP, REST, SOAP)
SI5 Services I (basics, WMS, WFS)
SI6 Services II (advanced, WCS, WTS …)
SI7 Security of Services (authentication, access
control ..)
SI8 Relevant Standards (GML, Spatial Schema …)
Application Programing (AP)
AP1 General approaches
AP2 Open Source API´s
AP3 Proprietary APIs
…
First ideas
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GI S & T Body of Knowledge (BoK) – Core Units
BoK – Core Units, from [DiBiase et al]
Knowledge Area
Core Unit Knowledge Area Core Unit
Analytical Methods Geometric measures Data Manipulation Representation transformation
Basic analytical operations Generalization and
aggregation
Basic analytical methods Geospatial Data Earth geometry
Conceptual Foundations Domains of GI Georeferencing systems
Elements of GI Datum’s
Cartography and
Visualisation
Data considerations Map projections
Principles of map design Data quality
Map use and evaluation Land Surveying and GPS
Design Aspects Data base design Aerial imaging and
photogrammetry
Data Modelling Database management
systems
Satellite and shipboard remote
sensing
Tessellation data models Metadata standards and
infrastructure
Vector and object data
models
GI S&T and Society Ethic aspects of geospatial
information and technology
Organizational and
Institutional Aspects
Institutional and inter-
institutional aspects
Coordinating organisations
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Discussion of Core Units, some examples • core topics within AM, CF, CV, DA, DM, DN and GD should be addressed in any
case. Extent has to be adapted to the total number of credit points available for GI
and other subjects taught.
• The AM core units as well as the CF ones can be accepted as core also in Computer
Science and Civil Engineering. CF can be treated shorter than in Geography.
• Related to Computer Science the main focus in this field is visualization of
geographic and thematic data, not map making.
• Design aspects is interesting in these conjunction:
• In CS of course students are familiar with all aspects of data bases as well as
with modelling languages and so on
• In Civil Engineering it is the opposite, they have an introduction into object
oriented programming, but no DB knowledge at all…
• GD includes the highest number of core units but topics like SDI, Services,
Metadata, ISO and OGC Standards, Geo Web Services not represented adequately.
(in one single unit!) -> SI core topics to be added
• OI core units are for sure important for almost all subjects.
• See paper
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Deepness
Suggestion of an easy to use model:
• Students Know about it
• Students can apply it in their domain
• Students are able to use the concepts for the design and
implementation of any GI related application
Added as attribute to a unit!
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Considering Deepness in teaching
Scalable structure of the teaching material (as the concept of
GITTA / CH has foreseen it)
Core:
Addional:
Deepening:
Concept can be implemented on different levels, from modules
even down to slides
Also allows “scalability”
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Mapping of own study programs
• In „original“ BoK in both cases GD would be 55! The principle difference in the goals of the study program would not be expressable
• The structure also expresses whether a focus is given on applying or programming
Knowledge Area Content (%)
GD 45
AM 15
SI 10
DA 15
CV 6
CF 5
OI 4
Civil Engineering
Knowledge Area Content (%)
SI 30
AP 25
GD 25
DA 8
AM 6
CF 3
CV 3
Computer Science
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Conclusion
Questions asked above:
• What is the core of GI topics which should be taught in every course
with GI content?
To answer this, the BoK can be used, but it is influenced by factors like
extent (ECTS) and background / other subjects taught
• Is the BoK suitable to describe the content of GI modules in other
disciplines than Geography?
2 additional knowledge areas suggested
• Can the differences in the learning goals and the content be expressed
with the BoK?
Own examples and literature show it
Hope that further development of BoK is considering such aspects!