Open Access to GIScience
Course Materials
Listed below are links to substantial bodies
of open access classroom materials for courses on GIScience topics.
Materials from both traditional classroom settings and distance education
settings are intended to be included in the links below.
Invitation to
Submit Materials: Professors teaching
courses on GIScience topics are invited to provide web links to their course
materials through submission of a web link and a short description in accordance
with the Submission Guidelines.
Invitation to
Use Materials: Students, other
professors, and the general public are invited to view and use the course
materials linked below under the condition that any copyright statements or licenses
accompanying the course materials are respected and full attribution is granted
to the contributor. If no copyright statement accompanies the linked material,
copyright law assumes that permission must be obtained from the copyright owner
prior to copying or distribution of the material.
Open Access GIScience Courses
Course 1
Course
Title: SIE 525 Information
Systems Law
Date:
Fall Semester 2001
Course
Description: Reviews the current
status of information systems law in regard to rights of privacy, freedom of
information, copyright, work product protection, confidentiality, security,
legal liability, and a range of additional legal and information policy topics.
Focus is on databases and, more specifically, spatial databases.
Materials
Description: (1) Power Point slides
for all class periods, (2) streaming video of all lectures and (3) web links to
all reading assignments other than books.
University:
University of Maine
Program:
Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering
Instructor:
Harlan J. Onsrud
URL:
http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~onsrud/Courses/SIE525/SIE525syllabus.htm
Course 2
Course Title: tba
Frequently Asked Questions
If I make my complete course content available to the world, won't students stop taking my course?
The value of a university course to a typical student is the credential provided by the university and instructor that the student has completed all the material assigned and has performed at a satisfactory level in exhibiting their mastery of the material. We have public libraries filled with books and teaching materials and yet these have failed to decrease the demand for university courses. Indeed, the widespread availability of such materials has increased the thirst for further knowledge. For most professors, having your course materials substantially or completely available on the web is likely to attract increased numbers of students to your program since potential students are now better able to judge whether they will gain something of value.
If I make my complete course content available to the world, won't others steal my material without giving me credit for my contributions?
For instructors worried about having your name disassociated from your work, you might want to place your materials on the web in a form that makes it difficult for others to print or link other than the entire document you have posted. For instance, if you post items in pdf format simply set the File > Doc Security > Security Settings such that copying or printing only segments of your notes becomes far more difficult. Of course no security system is fail proof. Just as people might take material out of a textbook or article you publish without giving you credit, they may go to extra lengths to disassociate you from your work. However this is not true for the vast majority of people that might be interested in your materials. The rewards of posting teaching materials tend to far more than offset the potential drawbacks. For instance, a recent article in Nature noted that articles available online are cited four and a half times more than those available only in paper form. The same is likely to hold true for course materials. If you want to be recognized for your scholarly contributions, it makes sense to place those contributions online so the whole world can see them and take note.
How does this project differ from the core curriculum project of the NCGIA?
The 1990 Core Curriculum in GIS developed by through NCGIA is a thousand plus page document organized into three volumes - 1. Introduction to GIS, 2. Technical Issues in GIS and 3. Application Issues in GIS. Each volume contains sufficient materials for a one term length course. Some of that material is dated and difficult to maintain continually over time. Course materials linked through the Public Library of Geographic Information Science are maintained by the individual professors teaching the courses and thus are updated typically each time the professor teaches the course. Rather than materials for three courses, the goal is to link materials for numerous courses.
How does this project differ from distance education courses in geographic information science?
If you want to actually enroll in a course using distance education technologies, you will of course need to enroll in the course (typically for a fee), study the required materials, do all of the assignments and take all of the exams. Several sites maintain links to GIS distance education courses.