Developing a Plan for the National Coordination

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Developing a Plan for the National
Coordination Of Geospatial Technology Education
A Community College Perspective
Deidre Sullivan Department of Geosciences Oregon
State University December 6, 2007 Marine
Advanced Technology Education (MATE)
Center Monterey Peninsula College dsullivan_at_marine
tech.org
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Presentation Overview

• Introduction
• What are geospatial technologies and why are they
  important?
• Challenges for the educational system
• Project rationale
• Project goals
• Issues critical to GST education
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion and Conclusions
• Acknowledgements

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What are geospatial technologies?

• GIS, GPS and remote sensing (GST)
• Assist the user with the collection, analysis and
  interpretation of spatial data
• Cross cuts nearly every sector of the economy
• 5 billion industry in 2002, 2005 gt 30 billion
• Projected to increase to 700 billion by 2015
• A U.S. Department of Labor high growth job
  initiative
• GST are transformative technologies

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Transformation of Oceanography
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Transformation of Military Operations
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Geospatial Technology Awareness
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Hurricane Katrina a disaster on many levels
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Google Earth is exponentially raising GST
awareness
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Challenges for the Educational System

• GST are a variety of integrated technologies
• Many more people will need to be educated in GST
• Steep learning curve plus the software and
  hardware are continually evolving
• In the past it was used by a cadre of specialists
• Now it is becoming a system-wide integration at
  all levels and practically all sectors of the
  economy
• GST lacks DOL occupational titles and industry
  definitions

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Project Rationale

• There is limited coordination of GST workforce
  and educational activities - especially at the CC
  level
• Duplication of effort apparent in NSF/DOL grants
• Emerging trends are not adequately addressed and
  integrated into the curriculum
• The two existing GST academic organizations
  (UCGIS and NCGIA) are university-based and are
  not addressing the needs of CCs
• Most professional societies do not have strong
  connections to CCs
• There is a lot of investment in GST education but
  very little coordination of what is being done

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Project Goals

• Long-term goal is to establish a national GST
  Center that will improve the quality, relevance,
  and accessibility of geospatial technology
  education (primarily at the CC level)
• Identify barriers to effective GST education at
  the community college level
• Review past and current GST workforce and
  education efforts
• Produce a plan for the national coordination of
  GST education at the community college level
  based upon broad consensus in the GST community
• This NSF study is being led by two existing
  technology centers

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Issues Critical to GST Education

1. Workforce needs
2. Core competencies
3. Professional certification
4. Curriculum development
5. Educational pathways
6. Professional development
7. Communication
8. Awareness and reaching underserved audiences
9. The role of GST education in supporting college
   administrative tasks and entrepreneurialism
10. Future trends in GST

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Community College Education

• CCs have been around about 100 years
• Prepare workers for nations expanding industries
• Drive social equality
• CC Students
• Traditional Transfer (A.A.) and Occupational
  degrees (A.S.)
• Developmental (Welfare to Work, GED)
• Incumbent Workforce (professionals, career
  transitions)
• Greater student diversity (age, socio-economics,
  ethnicity)
• Tend to be more responsive to local workforce
  needs
• About 42 of credit students are CC students.
• So why invest in Community Colleges?

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GST and Higher Education

• More than 2,000 of the 4,165 colleges and
  universities use GST software
• More than 400 of the 1,157 2-year colleges offer
  instruction in GST
• GST is both an academic and occupational program
• Difficulties with articulation

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Methods

• Survey of the GST education community
• 170 GST educators responded to the survey
  in October 2006
• Conduct background research on the ten critical
  issues
• Researched literature and reviewed
  survey responses to produce a synopsis of the
  current state of each critical issue
• Hold a national forum on GST education
• - January 5-7, 2007 in Monterey, CA
• - 40 GST professionals attended
• - Produced recommendations for a NGTC
• Validate and rank the forum recommendations
• Produce a report and a list of high priority
  recommendations for a NGTC

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Results
The following recommendations for each issue are
paraphrased and represent a sampling of the top
recommendations for a NGTC.
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1. Workforce Needs
A NGTC should

• Make best use of existing studies and disseminate
  the information in a user-friendly format
• Develop strategic partnerships with other
  workforce-related organizations
• Collect and compare DACUMs
• Implement additional workforce studies as needed

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2. Core Competencies

• Core competencies define the knowledge and skills
  required to carry out specific tasks that are
  common to a particular profession or occupation.
• Core competencies are critical links between the
  workplace and the classroom, since they connect
  job requirements to educational subject areas
• Core competencies provide a framework for
• efficient curriculum sharing
• benchmarks for program accreditation
• articulation agreements
• exam-based professional certification
• effective screening and placement of new workers
  into the workforce
• Core Curriculum Core Competencies

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2. National Core Competency Efforts

• Geospatial Workforce Development Center
• GST Competency Model (2003)
• University Consortium for Geographical
  Information Science
• Body of Knowledge (BoK) (2006)
• DACUMs (many grassroots efforts) (1997 2006)
• Texas Skill Standards for GIS
• Geospatial Information and Technology Association
  (GITA)/ Association of American Geographers (AAG)
  
• Defining and Communicating Geospatial
  
• Industry Workforce
  Demand (2006)

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2. Core Competencies

• Of the 170 GST educators surveyed in phase 1
• 63 felt core competencies are needed for
  national coordination
• 33 were unsure
• 4 felt that core competencies are not needed
• Assist UCGIS and AAG in continuing and expanding
  the BoK and making it more user friendly for
  undergraduate teaching and educating the
  incumbent workforce.
• How well does the BoK embody two-year
  community college GST programs that are
  responding to local and regional workforce needs?

A NGTC should
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3. Professional Certifications

• Certification is recognition by ones colleagues
  and peers that an individual has demonstrated
  professional integrity and competence in their
  field. GISCI Professional Certification, ASPRS
  Certification, and SPACE STARS Certification
• Serve as a repository of certification,
  accreditation, and licensing information
• Evaluate certification options
• Join organizations that offer certifications to
  represent CC views

A NGTC should
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4. Curriculum
A NGTC should

• Create an online clearinghouse that encourages
  submission, review, and search capabilities for
  geospatial curriculum materials
• Develop an introductory course or modules that
  provide the fundamental geospatial skills as
  outlined in the BoK

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5. Articulation/Educational Pathways
A NGTC should

• Develop an online forum and white paper that
  discusses strategies for achieving articulation
• Organize, compile, and compare articulation
  agreements
• Develop career pathways that provide guidelines
  for a seamless education in geospatial technology
  from secondary to community college to university
• Develop standards to integrate GIS into AP
  geography courses

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6. Professional Development

• Of the 170 educators surveyed, 84 indicated that
  they are self taught by reading literature.
• 67 lacked membership in any professional
  organization.
• Barriers to professional development include the
  cost, lack of time, travel distance, lack of
  opportunities, and a lack of administrative
  support.
• Organize, compile, and disseminate up-to-date
  information on professional development
  opportunities

A NGTC should
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6. Professional Development(continued)

• Offer geospatial technology professional
  development in a variety of formats
• Identify the major barriers to professional
  development through surveys and other feedback
  mechanisms
• Keep abreast of geospatial technology trends and
  make recommendations on the type of professional
  development needed
• Build partnerships with 4-year universities,
  professional societies, government agencies,
  industry and NGOs to promote, encourage, and
  expand professional development opportunities

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7. Communication
A NGTC should

• Act as the representative body for two-year
  colleges, faculty, and students in the field of
  geospatial technology
• Act as a collective voice to promote community
  college interests in professional societies,
  workforce-related studies, core curriculum
  projects, certification and accreditation
  efforts, and other activities of importance to
  community college audiences
• Create a comprehensive website and listserve to
  facilitate communication

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8. Awareness and Reaching Underserved Audiences
A NGTC should

• Promote GST as a mainstream scientific tool for
  community college education
• Disseminate stories of successful geospatial
  awareness events and identify effective GST
  education tools
• Identify effective student recruitment approaches
  for GST programs

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9. The Role of GST Education in Supporting
College Administrative Tasks and
Entrepreneurialism
A NGTC should

• Develop a searchable clearinghouse with how-to
  templates, standard data models, and best
  practices to support community colleges in
  workforce/economic development, institutional
  research, grant writing, student marketing, and
  facilities management.
• Serve as a clearinghouse for geospatial data as
  it applies to community college demographics,
  enrollments, economics, etc.

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10. Future Trends in Geospatial Technology

• Include information technology instruction within
  the
• geospatial curriculum, largely relating to
  the evolution
• of GIS to enterprise GIS.
• Increasing need for web-based instruction and
• web-based data delivery.

• Assess and disseminate trends in the geospatial
  industry in order to project changes in the
  industry and workforce
• Assist community colleges with adapting their
  curricula to future trends

A NGTC should
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Discussion

• GST workforce development is critical to our
  economy
• A GST growth rate of 35 a year (DOL)
• GST is ranked at the top with nano and
  biotechnology (DOL)
• Growth driven by GST tools and high quality data
• Challenges
• No standard occupational titles or industry
  definitions
• Education system is poorly coordinated and
  communication among community colleges is not
  good.
• University and community college approaches to
  education can differ
• A common language (core competencies) needs to be
  established, agreed upon, and validated by
  working professionals that will meet the needs
  for many entry level positions

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Community college educators want

• A NGTC that will
• Represent their interests at national venues
• Act as a clearinghouse to provide easy-access to
  current curriculum and workforce information
• Provide access to professional development
  opportunities

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A NGTC should NOT

• Become a geospatial technology certification-grant
  ing organization
• Be an organization that provides educators with
  evidence (certification, certificates or
  licenses) that they have satisfied the minimum
  qualifications specific to teaching geospatial
  technology
• Be an accreditation body for geospatial programs

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The Future of a NGTC

• A NGTC has been proposed to the National Science
  Foundation by one or more collaborative groups
  largely consisting of community colleges.
• The status of a NGTC will not be known until
  early 2008.
• But, regardless of which group is funded, its
  success may very well hinge on its ability to
  follow the recommendations of this study.

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Conclusion

• If we as a nation are to remain economically
  competitive, achieve greater understanding in
  protecting our resources, and reduce the chaos
  and loss of life associated with manmade and
  natural disasters, we will need an efficient,
  responsive, and well-coordinated GST educational
  system with good communication between all levels
  and a better understanding of the knowledge and
  skills workers need to be successful in the
  workplace.
• It is essential that some organization,
  presumably a NGTC, end the community college
  silence and act as a collective voice to promote
  community college interests in issues and
  activities of national importance.

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Acknowledgements

• My committee
• Dawn Wright (major advisor)
• Jim Good (minor advisor)
• Julia Jones
• Alex Sanchez (OSU Community College Leadership
  Program)
• Geosciences faculty, Office Staff and the
  Graduate Office
• Jill Zande at the MATE Center
• Karen Haberman at Western Oregon Univeristy
• The National Science Foundation (NSF/DUE 063424)
• Co-PIs Ann Johnson and Terry Brase
• Environmental Systems Research Institute
• Agrowknowledge Center
• MATE Center
• Oregon Sea Grant
• My parents

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Backup Slides
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Project Management and Funding

• Project Funding NSF/DUE/ATE 130,760
• Project led by two existing centers
• Project Team
• Project Director (PI)
• Two Co-PIs
• Nine working advisory committee members
• Web site support
• Graphic artist and publication support
• Significant in-kind contributions from
• ESRI
• Agrowknowledge Center
• MATE Center

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Convergence of GST Education and Workforce
Efforts

• GITA/AAG study made recommendations for improving
  the GeoWDC GST Competency Model with reference to
  the UCGIS BoK
• The USGIF is using the BoK for program
  accreditation
• This study reviewed 4 DACUMs and mapped portions
  of these DACUMS to the BoK

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Seminal education efforts in GST
National Center for Geographic Information and
Analysis
1988 NCGIA formed to advance the understanding
of geographic processes and spatial
relationships through improved theory, methods,
technology, and data. NSF
1990-1995 NCGIA Core Curriculum NSF
1992 - present NCGIA Remote Sensing Core Curriculum NSF/NASA/ASPRS
1995-1999 NCGIA Core Curriculum for Technical Programs NSF
1995 -2000 NCGIA Core Curriculum for GIScience NSF
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Seminal education efforts in GST
University Consortium for Geographical
Information Science
In 1994 the UCGIS was formed to provide a
unified voice for the GIS research community
1998-present UCGIS Model Curricula Project Multiple sources/industry
2006 UCGIS Body of Knowledge in GIST in published by AAG
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Seminal workforce efforts in GST
2003 GeoWDC Geospatial Technologies Competency Model NASA
2004 GIS Certification Institute is formed URISA/Independent
2006 GITA/AAG study, Defining and Communicating Geospatial Industry Workforce Demand, Phase I report is released DOL-ETA
2007 US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation program accreditation criteria released
2007 Texas Skill Standards for GIS Technicians State of Texas Based upon DACUM.
GITA recommendations occupational titles,
industry definitions, methodology for estimating
GST workforce demand, actions for closing the
workforce supply/demand gap.
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Convergence of GST Education and Workforce
Efforts

• GISCI is using the UCGIS BoK to see if it may
  serve as a backbone for an exam-based
  certification program.
• I don't mind using a few items from the core
  knowledge areas for GIS from the GIST Body of
  Knowledge, but I found that document to be loaded
  with doctoral thesis topics rather than everyday
  applications of GIS technology.

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Learning to Think SpatiallyGIS as a Support
System in the K-12 CurriculumNational Research
Council, 2005

• Spatial thinking must be recognized as a
  fundamental part of K-12 education and as an
  integrator and a facilitator for problem solving
  across the curriculum. With advances in computing
  technologies and the increasing availability of
  geospatial data, spatial thinking will play a
  significant role in the information-based economy
  of the 21st-century.