Making Maps That Matter With GIS

Catalog description

Despite its widespread use in thousands of organizations worldwide, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) remains for many an obscure set of technologies and professional practices. Even practicing GIS professionals may have limited awareness of the breadth of the field and its impacts in government, industry, and non-governmental and non-profit organizations. The course uses case studies of meaningful applications of GIS to reveal key topics across the spectrum of industry sectors defined by the U.S. Department of Labor in its Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM): Positioning and Data Acquisition, Analysis and Modeling, and Software and Application Development. Topics to be mastered include concepts like positioning frameworks, uncertainty, and geo-enablement, methods and techniques including the GPS positioning, spatial modeling, and geo app development, and relevant ethical, legal, and policy issues such as locational privacy. In addition to topical objectives, the course cultivates competencies associated with lifelong learning, a cornerstone of the GTCM. Students achieve educational objectives by searching, discovering, and evaluating information from a variety of sources, including, but not limited to, the Internet. Those with substantial professional experience are encouraged to share their perspectives. Students develop mastery through class discussions in which they collaboratively prepare to demonstrate individual mastery in tests. They also learn to craft case studies of their own by creating and presenting story-telling web apps using cloud-based GIS technology. They gain self-knowledge by assessing their individual competencies in relation to the GTCM. The awareness, knowledge and technical skills they gain prepare them for success in programs such as Penn State's Postbaccalaureate Certificate Program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Master of GIS graduate degree program, and for professional growth.