ako victoria 18 th april 2011

1

A Tale of Two Cities: The case for blended learning for GIS at Masters

level for Victoria and CanterburyMairead de Roiste, Victoria University of Wellington

Femke Reitsma, University of Canterbury

Ako Victoria 18th April 2011

2

Outline

• The Why?• The What?• The How?• And the unexpected…

GIS at VUW

3

GIS Lecturer

GIS Technician

GEOG 215: Introduction to Geographic Information Science and Systems (GIS)

GEOG 315: Advanced GeographicInformation Science and Systems (GIS)

PHYG 415: Introduction to Geographic Information Science and Systems (GIS) for Postgraduates

Contributions to:Research Methods courses in Earth Sciences and GeographyFirst year course in Physical Geography

4

Personal Motivation for Collaboration• Students with more advanced GIS

knowledge at Masters and Honours level

• Tailored courses for postgraduate students

• Attracting quality students with similar research interests

• Reaching out!– Sharing resources and research

collaboration

5

Industry Interest

6

Development of the MGIS• 2006. Idea for a joint Masters in GIS first raised

• 2009. UC gets funding to advance a Masters in GIS from the NZ Tertiary Education Commission (TEC)

• 2009/2010. Consortium of universities work on the pilot- 2x workshops (course development and pedagogy)

• 2010. Decisions made for new course application for 2011. Canterbury and Victoria ready to start, Otago and Auckland needed more time.

• 2010. Interdisciplinary Masters in GIS (and PGDipGIS) developed that will run at UC in collaboration with Victoria in 2011.

7

Initial Barriers• Institutional approval

– VUW Pilot 2011– Canterbury full steam ahead 2011

• Multiple locations– Remote technologies

• A cohesive cohort?– The student experience

• Staff interactions– Remote technologies

8

Outline

• The Why?• The What?• The How?• And the unexpected…

9

ProgrammeYear 1Semester 1 Semester 2Core CoreGISC 401: Foundations of GI ScienceGISC 404: Geospatial Analysis

GISC 402: GI Science ResearchGISC 403: Cartography & Visualisation

Electives (choose 2) Electives (choose 2)GISC 405: GIS Programming and DatabasesGISC 406: Remote Sensing for Earth ObservationGISC 411: GIS in Health1 local approved elective

GISC 410: GIS 2.0GISC 412: Spatial Algorithms & ProgrammingGISC 413: Special Topic: Geomatic Data Acquisition1 local approved elective

Year 2GISC 690: Research Thesis

MGIS team

10

Femke Reitsma

Greg Breetzke

Simon Kingham

Peter Day Wolfgang Rack

Mairead de Roiste

Kelvin Barnsdale

The technical team!

Marcus Andreotti

Amber Pearson

Carl Cerecke

11

Outline

• The Why?• The What?• The How?• And the unexpected…

12

Pedagogy• Blended Learning• Intensive residential + ongoing virtual• Short burst in person + ongoing virtual• Weekly synchronous in-person/virtual

13

14

15

Field course: Round 2

MGIS students and staff from Canterbury, Victoria and Otago at the second chance field course in Living Springs (20 minutes outside of Christchurch)

16

Field course: Group Work

17

Field course: Field Techniques

18

Course Example

19

Teaching TechnologyKARENKiwi Advanced Research and Education Network

Scopia Desktop Access Grid

20

Outline

• The Why?• The What?• The How?• And the unexpected…

21

Dealing with the Unexpected

22

Benefits• Students

– Greater variety– Alignment with research interests and future career paths

• Teaching staff– Specialised teaching– Alignment of student projects with research interests– Research collaboration potential

• Wider Schools– Taking non-VUW courses – Reducing over reliance on staff

• Institutions– Attracting quality students, esp. internationally– Industry scholarships– Response to industry demand

23

MGIS 2012-onwardsThank You!Any Questions?

Further information: www.mgis.ac.nz