In addition to introducing some core concepts for this course, the orientation also serves as your guide to the structure of the course and to our online learning environment.
The course provides the geospatial information system professional with an overview of systems analysis and design with emphasis on the concepts behind the design process including: business use case modeling, business object modeling, requirements definition, analysis and preliminary design, and, finally, detailed design and deployment. The concepts of the geospatial software and database development process are introduced and the limitations of current modeling techniques are addressed within the spatial systems development paradigm. In a series of related activities, the student applies the methods, tools, and the concepts of the systems development process to document a portion of a geospatial system with Unified Modeling Language (UML), the standard graphical notation for modeling application needs. UML affords a common unifying framework that integrates database models with the rest of a system design. At the successful completion of the Course, you should be able to:
Arriving at a shared vision of a system's capabilities and effectively communicating a plan to arrive at these capabilities are the greatest challenges facing a team charged with the responsibility of bringing new geospatial technology capabilities to government and business. This course provides you the essential concepts, understanding, and knowledge, reinforced with problem-based learning, to improve the quality of the geospatial systems acquisition in your organization.
The course prepares you with the appropriate techniques that can help your organization improve the way it elicits, analyzes, documents, verifies and manages geospatial system (e.g., Geographic Information System) requirements. The concepts of systems requirements engineering will be taught, as well as practical methods. The outcome is to provide you the theory and practical knowledge of the tools to reduce project risk by improving the quality and control of the system requirements, thereby increasing the likelihood of a successfully completed project.
The course is a blend of on-line lessons, textbook readings, discussions, and problem-based work. Problem-based learning will give you experience in working with use scenarios, reviewing system specifications, preparing requirements, and writing a development proposal.
I strongly encourage you to use the message boards to communicate with other students and with me. Our message boards can be found under the Lessons tab (above) and also under the Communicate tab. Whenever possible, please use the message boards to request help with the course projects and activities, as the other students in the course will most likely benefit from your experiences (positive and negative) with the software. When you do so, please make certain that you use the specific message board established for that particular lesson.
GEOG 468 provides a structure for interaction among and between the faculty and students that leads to your learning. The readings and activities provide core information and steps for your efforts. You must be able to demonstrate a knowledge of the GIS design fundamentals and process. The course takes a problem-based learning approach with the assumption that learning emanates from solving a problem. It is a method that encourages independent learning and gives you practice in tackling situations and defining their own gaps in understanding in the context of relevant problems. In this way, they should be able to recall the material later in the real-world setting and encourages a deeper understanding of the material. In keeping with the overall objectives of this course, each activity should encourage you to develop an appreciation for the interrelated nature of GIS design that must be considered with each implementation. By participating in this learning format, you will become proficient in the process of problem analysis and the generation of learning issues that warrant further exploration.
In order to work through all of the course materials and activities together and in an "orderly fashion," we follow a set schedule each week. Yes, you will have the flexibility to work on the course on your own time, but you will be responsible for meeting set date/time requirements within the confines of a given week.
For most weeks, a similar format will be followed:
You will read a selection of book chapters and/or papers. All of the papers will be available via the checklist page (page 2) in a lesson.
Each week, you will have the opportunity to view a recorded online lecture.
Next, you will be expected to post comments and/or questions about the assigned readings and lectures in a structured threaded discussion. You are welcome to respond to someone else's posting, or to start a new "thread" yourself.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the Orientation Discussion Forum. (To access the forums, return to ANGEL via the ANGEL link in the Resources menu. Once in ANGEL, you can navigate to the Communicate tab and then scroll down to the Discussion Forums section.) While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
Each lesson in the course will have a list of "Steps to Complete." This checklist will always appear on the second page of each lesson.
To get started with the course, please follow the required steps below. the Course Orientation is one week in length. (See the Calendar in ANGEL for specific due dates.) You may find it useful to print this page out first so that you can follow along with the directions.
Step | Activity | Access/Directions |
---|---|---|
1 |
Read through Course Orientation. |
You are in the Course Orientation online content now. Click on the "Next Page" link to continue reading. |
2 | Complete the "Initial Course Survey" to help us learn more about your expectations for this course. | A link to the survey is located in the "Course Orientation" folder under the Lessons tab in ANGEL. |
3 |
Be sure your ANGEL account is configured the way you want it. | See the Course Management System section of the Orientation. |
4 | Introduce yourself to your instructor and your colleagues. | Please upload your resume to the dropbox. |
5 | If you haven't already done so, carefully review the course syllabus to learn about the course and its requirements. | The Syllabus is located in the Resources menu in the left sidebar. |
6 | View the online Critical Thinking, Analytic Writing, and use of PowerPoint material | Critical Thinking PowerPoint [1] |
7 | Begin the course! | Click on the Lesson 1 link in the Course Outline to begin the course. |
Registered students in the online Penn State courses that use this text need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:
Note that a link to ANGEL appears at left in the Resources menu off. In ANGEL, registered students will find one link back to this course web site under the Lessons tab.
Not registered? Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Information about registering for this course and about the online Master of Education in Earth Sciences is available at https://gis.e-education.psu.edu [4].
This course web site is presented in an open source content management system called Drupal (for information about Drupal, visit http://drupal.org/ [5]). One advantage to presenting the text in Drupal is that we can enable registered students to comment and ask questions directly on text pages. Another advantage is that Drupal allows us to publish the text openly, for the benefit of anyone who has access to the Internet, regardless of their ability to pay tuition or buy an expensive printed textbook (this is applicable to certain courses in our program).
Course Web Site Navigation Demo | This brief video [6] will orient you to the various sections of the course navigation. Further details about each section are listed below. Note: The video will play back in any standard web browser with Adobe Flash Player 6 or later installed. Get Flash Player 9 here [7]. |
Anyone with a Web browser and Internet access can view this text without logging into this Drupal site. Only registered students can log in. To log in, click on the "Log In" link on the left sidebar. Log in with your Penn State Access ID and password.
Orientation - familiarizes registered students with the learning environments used to conduct Penn State courses
Letter grades will be based on the following percentages:
Letter Grade | Percentages |
---|---|
A | 90–100% |
A- | 87.5–89.9% |
B+ | 85–87.4% |
B |
80–84.9%
|
B- | 77.5–79.9% |
C+ | 75–77.4% |
C | 70–74.9% |
D | 60–69.9% |
F |
<60%
|
X | Unsatisfactory (student did not participate) |
Percentages refer to the proportion of all possible points earned by the student.
Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of an successful online class. Our courses support several kinds of communication, as described below.
The ANGEL course management system supports several modes of communication, including discussion forums, course mail, announcements.
GEOG 583 uses four general types of discussion forums:
Registered students can post comments, questions, and responses to Drupal pages. You can also request to be notified of subsequent posts by "subscribing" to Drupal pages.
You can find the latest comments on the lower left hand side of each course page in the box titled "Recent comments".
Take a moment right now to post or reply to a comment to this page.
To post a comment, scroll down to the text box under "Post new comment" and begin typing in the text box, or you can choose to reply to an existing thread. When you are finished typing, click on either the "preview" or "post" button (post will actually submit your comment). Once your comment is posted, you will be able to edit or delete it as needed. In addition, you will be able to reply to other posts at any time
What is Jing? It is a program that is always ready to instantly capture and share images and videos from your computer to wherever you want.
To begin, download Jing from http://www.jingproject.com [11]. Once you download the software, run it. You will be prompted to create a Screencast.com account, which is a website that allows you to share your images and videos. Once all installation steps are complete, there should be a “sun” at the top of your screen. This allows you to capture images or videos at any time.
Once the “sun” has been identified at the top of your computer screen, scroll over it. Three rays will come out: capture, history and settings. The first one (far left) is capture – this is how you start your capture. The one in the middle is history – this is where copies of your captures are located. The last one (far right) is more – this is where you change settings.
In this course, you can use Jing to present material for assignments.
How you define and achieve success in an online course like the ones that use this text? It depends on your goals and perspective. A 19-year-old undergraduate student who registers for an online course in the hope of earning an easy “A” is unlikely to be successful, no matter how adept he or she may be with information technology. However, Palloff and Pratt observe that “in general, distance education has been applied to and seen as most successful in the arena of adult and continuing education” (Palloff and Pratt 2001, p. 109).
“Much of the research done on successful students in distance education programs suggests that students who are attracted to this form of education share certain characteristics, including that they are voluntarily seeking further education, are motivated, have higher expectations, and are more self-disciplined. They tend to be older than the average student and to have a more serious attitude toward their courses, education, and learning. They are what most would consider to be nontraditional students.” (Palloff and Pratt 2001, p. 109)
This is not to say that younger students can’t succeed in online classes. Indeed, “most [undergraduate] students today are older, are working, and need more flexible schedules” (Palloff and Pratt 2001, p. 109). The question is, assuming that a student is motivated to get the most out of an online class, and that the class is well-designed and led by attentive instructors, which attitudes and behaviors increase the student’s chance of having a satisfactory experience?
Swan and colleagues (2000) surveyed approximately 3,800 students enrolled in 264 online courses through the SUNY Learning Network. Of the 1,406 responses received, the researchers analyzed data associated with 73 courses for which there was a 40 percent response rate or greater. Among their findings were statistically significant correlations between student satisfaction and (a) perceived learning gains; (b) interaction with instructors; and (c) interaction with fellow students. Additionally, respondents who rated their own level of activity in online classes as high also tended to report higher levels of satisfaction.
Research results like these, along with lessons learned in our more than ten years of experience in distance learning, leads us recommend the following three study habits that will maximize your chances for success in your online class:
1) Devote sufficient time and effort. Time-on-task is a necessary--if insufficient--condition for learning (Gibbs 1999; Chickering and Gamson 1987; Bransford et al 2000). Schedule several blocks of time during each week to study the text, to work on project assignments, and to read and contribute to discussions.
2) Communicate effectively. Post succinct, specific questions and comments with informative subject lines. Whenever appropriate, share questions and comments with the entire class (through text commenting or discussion forums) rather than using private email. Read others’ questions and comments and replies. Compose project reports with the same care and skill that you’d hope your instructor or employer would devote to a letter of recommendation on your behalf. Be civil. If frustrated or angry, wait until the next day to post a message.
3) Approach learning reflectively. Be aware of your strengths and weakness as a learner. Students who develop strong “metacognitive” skills tend to be the most effective learners. Also, those who are able to relate what they learned to situations outside the classroom (real or virtual) are most likely to retain that knowledge (Bransford, J.D. et al 2000).
Bransford, J. D. et al (Eds.) (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, and Experience. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
Chickering, A. W., and Gamson, Z. F. (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7) 3-7.
Gibbs, G. (1999) Planning Your Students’ Learning Activities. In McKeachie, W.J. (Ed.) McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 10th Ed. Pp. 20-33. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Palloff, R. M. and Pratt, K. (2001) Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Swan, K. et al (2000) Course Design Factors Inflouencing the Success of ONline Learning. Proceedings, WebNet 2000 World Conference on the WWW and Internet. San Antonio TX, October 30-November 4.
True critical thinking is higher-order thinking. In order to think critically, one must be able to evaluate and formulate their own beliefs. Critical thinking involves the evaluation of existing beliefs and the formulation of new ones based on logical standards. Critical thinking is important because our life decisions are defined by what we believe and what we believe is guided by our thinking. Do you think you are a critical thinker? Try these sample critical thinking test items [17] to find out.
A critical thinker is someone who explores and considers as many possibilities as he/she can. A critical thinker also has the ability to understand a new concept and build upon prior knowledge without guidance. Critical thinking encourages students to think for themselves and develop, question, and test multiple hypotheses against known facts. Thus, critical thinking can be described as the scientific method applied by ordinary people to the ordinary world. Critical thinking is not automatically known. In order to understand critical thinking fully, one must be taught how to think, not what to think. Please spend some time looking at the material on critical thinking.
What is analysis? Analysis can be defined in many different ways. In a way that is important to this course, analysis is breaking a subject into its parts, determining the relationship between those parts and how they relate to the whole. Analytical writing encompasses those same ideas. To make your writing analytical you must analyze the subject matter for the reader. It is important to break your work down piece by piece to allow the reader to know what it means and what to do with it. Analytical writing also evaluates data and relates one idea and its details to another. Analytical writing is more than just writing. It also teaches students how to develop analysis methods to study a situation or issue. When using analysis methods, answer the questions “how” and “why” to get a broader look at the situation or issue. Why use analytical writing? Please spend a few minutes looking at the presentation to find out.
Analytical Writing Presentation [19]
Please read these additional readings from David Rossenwasser and Jill Stephen's Writing Analytically:
What is the intention of PowerPoint? PowerPoint was originally made for communication purposes with an audience. The biggest purpose is to communicate with the audience. Even though most people use PowerPoint for this reason, a lot seem to depend on PowerPoint to to communicate the information for them. It is the presenter’s responsibility to deliver the information and the PowerPoint’s job to support the communications process.
When done appropriately, PowerPoint slides can do an excellent job of supporting communications. Keep in mind the slides only support what you are saying -- they don’t communicate with the audience for you. Edward Tufte, a retired professor of Yale University, is well known for criticizing the way PowerPoint is used. Tufte considers PowerPoint to be a convenience for the speaker, but notes how it can be costly to the content and the audience as well.
Better content allows for better presentations. Tufte believes that presentations can “stand or fall” depending on the quality, relevance, and integrity of the content. Tufte also thinks that “PowerPoint Phluff” and “chartjunk” can doom a good presentation. PowerPoint Phluff is considered over doing the PowerPoint’s looks by using gaudy layouts, cheerleader logotypes, branding and corny clipart. Chartjunk is defined as the various ways PowerPoint templates mask the real meaning of data. “PowerPoint is Evil [23]” gives a excellent explanation of chartjunk and how Tufte feels about PowerPoint overall.
Use the following tips when making your next PowerPoint to ensure you will be able to deliver a good presentation. When making a PowerPoint, make sure to:
Things to avoid while making a PowerPoint:
The brain has two different sides. The right side of the brain deals with emotion and the left side of the brain deals with logic and information. When you give a presentation, which side(s) do you want the audience to be using? Hopefully, both sides. Seth Godin’s “Really Bad PowerPoint (and how to avoid it) [24]” gives excellent examples on how to make sure that your presentation connects with the audience in both ways. Here are some tips on how to improve your next presentation with PowerPoint:
Remember that your presentation provides the framework for your talk. It is not a teleprompter, don’t depend on your presentation to do it all for you. A good presentation strategy is to state what you will tell the audience and why, tell them the information and summarize by telling them what you told them.
Additional PowerPoint presentation resources:
Keep in mind, you are not required to follow these PowerPoint rules. These rules serve as guidelines that you may abide by when creating your next PowerPoint presentation. They also help give a structure to your presentation and a goal to achieve while making it. These might be difficult to adhere to, but please try your best.
References:
Godin, Seth. "Really Bad PowerPoint." Seth's Blog: Really Bad PowerPoint. 29 Jan. 2007. July-Aug. 2008 <http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html> [28].
Hyatt, Michael. "Five Rules for Better PowerPoint Presentations." Working Smart: Five Rules for Better PowerPoint Presentations. 21 June 2005. July-Aug. 2008 <http://www.michaelhyatt.com/workingsmart/2005/06/five_rules_for_.html> [29].
Reynolds, Garr. "Sample Slides." Sample Slides. 2005. July-Aug. 2008 <http://www.garrreynolds.com/presentation/sample1.html> [30].
Tufte, Edward R. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Connecticut: Graphics P LLC, 2003
Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, I'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other! Complete the activities below, then continue with the remainder of the Course Orientation.
We will use "The Lounge" (a discussion forum) in ANGEL to post, and read, self-introductions. To access The Lounge:
Need more help using discussion forums? Review the ANGEL discussion forum directions [8]. NOTE: The same discussion forums can also be accessed through the Communicate tab in ANGEL.
This survey contains questions about you and your expectations for this course. To access the Initial Course Survey:
If you understand what you've read in this orientation, and make every effort to follow these guidelines, than you'll be well on your way to having a successful experience this term. I look forward to interacting with you throughout the term, and hope you'll take every opportunity possible to get the most out of the learning experiences you encounter in this class.
You have reached the end of the Course Orientation. Double-check the lesson to-do list on the Course Orientation Checklist page (the second page of this lesson) to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there.
Click here [31] or on the Lesson 1 in the course menu to begin.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/files/geog468/file/Lesson_0/Critical%20Thinking2.ppt
[2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog583
[3] http://angel.psu.edu
[4] https://gis.e-education.psu.edu
[5] http://drupal.org/
[6] https://courseware.e-education.psu.edu/downloads/gis/drupal/drupal_tutorial.htm
[7] http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
[8] http://angelkb.ais.psu.edu/article.asp?article=1013&p=2
[9] http://angelkb.ais.psu.edu/article.asp?article=1012&p=2
[10] http://www.jingproject.com
[11] http://www.jingproject.com/
[12] http://blog.jingproject.com/2007/07/how_do_i_use_this_thing_called.html
[13] http://blog.jingproject.com/2007/07/select_something_to_capture_1.html
[14] http://blog.jingproject.com/2008/02/jing_quick_tip_adjusting_the_c.html
[15] http://blog.jingproject.com/2007/07/how_do_i.html
[16] http://www.jingproject.com/faq.asp
[17] http://www.insightassessment.com/SampleTest1.html
[18] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog468/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog468/files/Misc/Critical%20Thinking.swf
[19] https://courseware.e-education.psu.edu/downloads/geog889/Analytical%20Writing_skin.swf
[20] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog468/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog468/files/Misc/WritingAnalyticallyChap1.pdf
[21] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog468/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog468/files/Misc/WritingAnalyticallyChap6.pdf
[22] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog468/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog468/files/Misc/WritingAnalyticallyChap13.pdf
[23] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html
[24] http://www.sethgodin.com/freeprize/reallybad-1.pdf
[25] http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint
[26] http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/
[27] http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation
[28] http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html>
[29] http://www.michaelhyatt.com/workingsmart/2005/06/five_rules_for_.html>
[30] http://www.garrreynolds.com/presentation/sample1.html>
[31] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog468/../node/1877