Curriculum Design for Upper- and Advanced-Level GIS Classes: Are New Skills being Taught and Integrated?

Abstract. Research in geographic information science has not yet found clear answers to the questions of what geographic information is about or what a geographic information system (GIS) contains. This lack of consensus makes it especially challenging to teach and learn GIS. Existing pedagogical approaches either focus on the representational level of data (e.g., “raster and vector”) or are too generic (e.g., “geo-referenced information”). This characterization of GIS and its content is difficult for learners to transfer and apply broadly. As instructors, we approach the challenge of teaching GIS from a conceptual basis. We describe our process to develop a set of core concepts of spatial information, which we use to redesign an undergraduate-level introductory GIS course. Our intervention focuses instruction on the kinds of questions that geographic information enables before training students to produce workflows and answers through system commands. The course redesign complements and informs ongoing research on core concepts of spatial information. Our results demonstrate that GIS courses can deliver more than software training, indicating both theoretical gains and didactic challenges.

The inherent geographic nature of displacement in refugee camps is requiring further use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology for community-based information and asset management. Additionally, refugees have a fundamental need for livelihood development in host countries due to the protracted nature of displacement. This paper presents our work on the Refugee GIS or ‘RefuGIS’ project that addresses these two topics via a training and capacity building education program and community mobilization efforts. RefuGIS is currently at the prototype level of development in the Za'atari Syrian Refugee Camp in northern Jordan. RefuGIS is the one of world's first efforts at enabling GIS capacity among refugees themselves and was funded by a grant from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Innovation fund. Specifically, this paper will discuss (a) design of the RefuGIS educational program via utilization of a non-profit GIS software donation, hardware procurement and customized GIS educational curriculum, (b) selection of refugee participants through spatial thinking aptitude testing, (c) practical experiences and lessons learned from education, training, and capacity building of refugees on the topics of GIS and related information technology skills, (d) insights into use of GIS as a community information and asset management tool by refugees themselves as demonstrated by evaluation of project outputs such as reference mapping products and field surveys conducted by refugees. Lessons learned from the RefuGIS project, even at the prototype stage, have potential to inform other refugee community information and asset management projects. Since creation of the project, refugees in Za'atari camp have been able to obtain cash-for-work GIS jobs in Za'atari using the skills learned via the RefuGIS project. The RefuGIS project demonstrates the refugee livelihood potential that training and capacity building around GIS can build as well as the empowerment effect that technology education and livelihood development can bring to refugees.

What influences geography teachers' usage of geographic information systems? A structural equation analysis

This study developed an interview-based critical spatial thinking oral test and used the test to investigate the effects of Geographic Information System (GIS) learning on three components of critical spatial thinking: evaluating data reliability, exercising spatial reasoning, and assessing problem-solving validity. Thirty-two students at a large state university completed pre- and post-tests administered during the 2010 fall semester. This study found positive relationships between GIS learning and critical spatial thinking. We argue that the improvement can be attributed to students' experiences in a GIS course.

The expansion of the aquaculture sector offers important economic opportunities but also presents significant challenges, particularly in disease management and prevention. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have become essential tools for supporting aquatic animal health activities. However, despite their benefits, GISs are still underutilized, particularly in developing countries. To promote the adoption of GISs among aquaculture professionals, a specialized GIS course was developed to improve the prowess of users, equipping them with geospatial analysis skills aimed at epidemiological surveillance and disease response in aquaculture. This study describes a GIS capacity-building initiative developed under the Aquae Strength project. The training approach focuses on the context-specific use of geospatial data and practical applications, and provides a learning environment that fosters autonomy through hands-on, problem-based learning. The program utilizes the open-source QGIS software version 3.28 and incorporates customized materials and exercises based on real-world aquaculture scenarios. The authors hypothesized that the course, due to its cost-effectiveness and use of open-source software, would be particularly beneficial in low- and middle-income settings. The methodological framework described is explicitly designed for easy replication, allowing aquaculture professionals worldwide to download all the course materials and implement similar GIS capacity-building initiatives. The project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and supported by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). It runs from February 2022 to February 2025, with a one-year extension.

A large proportion of American Indian reservation lands are owned by non‐Indian entities. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a powerful tool for visualising land tenure changes, and public participation GIS (PPGIS) is one approach for using spatial technologies to facilitate the identification and reacquisition of reservation lands by tribes. While some tribes have successfully harnessed GIS for land management and for systematically identifying lands for reacquisition, others struggle to implement land management systems such as GIS for these purposes. This paper situates PPGIS in relation to other forms of participatory action research and outlines our use of a PPGIS framework to engage undergraduate geography students in the mapping of land tenure status on ten rural Minnesota Indian reservations as part of a collaborative partnership with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF). A PPGIS framework allowed us to collaboratively define research goals in response to tribal community needs and provided structure for student work with partner reservations to develop and implement tailored mapping and analysis techniques. Two sets of findings are significant. First, the assembly of a standardised set of maps for American Indian reservations in Minnesota provides a tremendous visual and analytical resource for ILTF and individual tribes to pursue land reacquisition within reservation boundaries. Second, from a PPGIS perspective, we found that working with a coordinating or ‘bridging’ organisation provided key benefits by enabling education of both the student–faculty partners and the individual tribes. The PPGIS model empowered both partners by allowing tribes to harness a powerful technology to assist in visualising land‐based assets and allowing students to contribute to native land reacquisition efforts through application of their GIS skills. This mapping helps facilitate economic and cultural viability in tribal communities by providing an important visual catalogue of existing land‐based assets, in support of future land acquisition and economic development planning.

Dynamic Point Symbols in Earthquake Mapping: Visualization Research in Space and Time examines how animated symbols enhance digital map comprehension, particularly for earthquake data visualization. It provides much-needed empirical evidence for the understandability, usability, and utility of congruently using dynamic visualization to depict a particular dynamic environmental process. Through rigorous mixed-methods research combining online surveys and eye-tracking experiments, this book compares static symbols against various motion types across different cartographic tasks and provides evidence-based guidelines for implementing motion in maps, balancing innovation with usability. It serves as a practical resource with recommendations for cartographers and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) professionals.  Key Features: Combines large-scale data collection with detailed, lab-based visual behavior analysis, offering breadth and depth, and illustrates how people interact with animated map symbols in both natural and controlled conditions. Evaluates multiple motion forms like pulsation, vibration, and pictorial motion across tasks, helping readers understand what type of motion to use and when. Includes real-world applications in crisis mapping, emergency response, and public communication. Offers quantitative comparisons that allow practitioners to optimize both clarity and speed in their map designs. Provides recommendations on how to transform complex findings into ready-to-use guidance for cartographers, GIS specialists, and UX designers working with digital geovisualization. This book is an excellent resource for GIS professionals, researchers, academics, and cartographers interested in web mapping, emergency response mapping, real-time data visualization, and graduate students taking advanced GIS and cartography courses, and those aiming to enhance their existing skillset in geovisualization mapping.

Seeking consensus: Defining foundational concepts for a graduate level introductory program evaluation course

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, School of Accountancy invites applications from

Worldwide concern over the loss of biological diversity during the past decade has provided the impetus for the development of biodiversity databases and biological atlas projects in order to make information accessible. This Geographic Information Systems-based Atlas of Southern African Freshwater Fishes is the first of its kind for fishes in Africa and, as such, can be seen as contributing towards this global trend of consolidation and refining of biodiversity information. The technological advances made in computing systems over the past decade have facilitated the extraction and utilisation of much of the untapped information in museum collections. The size of most natural history collections had tended to prohibit any comprehensive applied use of the specimens on a large scale, but the computerisation of these collections has proved to be an invaluable tool to systematists, taxonomists and ecologists, by allowing faster and more efficient access to specimen record data of interest. With the automation of many biological databases, public attention has been brought to their potential contribution to biodiversity studies and conservation efforts around the world. The application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the field of southern African ichthyology and freshwater fisheries management has been limited, until now, by the lack of good-quality, comprehensive data sets, adequate budgets and GIS skills. Sophisticated investigations of fish distributions for conservation and management purposes need a powerful computing platform. This is realised in the Atlas of Southern African Freshwater Fishes, which has been tested and used for biogeographic analysis in the southern African region. The atlas was established using specimen records from nineteen museum collections, and currently contains 35145 geo-referenced specimen records, collected between 1885 and 2000 in eleven countries of southern Africa, which represent 254 fish species from 37 families. The Atlas of Southern African Freshwater Fishes was developed with the objective of being a dynamic, powerful information system. It has been constructed to allow the import of additional information at any stage, and it is designed to be as accessible and as user-friendly as current technology allows. This Atlas is the product of the successful integration of fish distributional information with other spatial data layers to provide a new tool for the study of freshwater fish in southern Africa.

Geographic information systems (GISs) as a technology have been studied and reported extensively and, not unexpectedly, in the field of geography. The various ways of capturing spatial data, arranging attribute data into appropriate database structures, and making the resulting large data sets efficient to store and query have been extensively researched and reported (Densham, 1991). However, the geographic research community has only recently noted the need to study how GISs are used as decision tools, especially with regard to how such decision making might be related to a decision maker’s cognitive style (Mennecke, Crossland, et al., 2000). As an example, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science called for research examining how geographic knowledge is acquired through different media and by users with different levels of experience and training (University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, 1996). Researchers in the fields of decision sciences and information systems have more recently begun to make contributions in the area of decision making with GISs. When a GIS is employed as a decision support system, in these studies the resultant system is often referred to as a spatial decision support system, or SDSS (see Crossland, 1992; Crossland, Perkins, et al., 1995; Mennecke et al., 2000). A geographic information system in its simplest form is a marriage of accurately scaled digital maps with a database. The digital maps comprise spatially referenced details such as natural elements (lakes, rivers, topographic elevation contours, etc.), manmade objects (buildings, roads, pipelines, etc.), and political boundaries (city limits, state and county lines, international boundaries, etc.). These natural elements are typically referenced, with varying degrees of precision, to latitude/longitude coordinates on the earth’s surface. It must be noted here that the degree of precision and, more importantly, differences in degrees of precision for the various elements are the subjects of much research and user consternation in applications of GISs to solving problems. The database, in turn, catalogs information about the various spatial elements (e.g., the names of rivers, names of buildings, building owner, operator of a pipeline, etc.). These descriptive entries in the database are often referred to as attributes of the various spatial elements. A GIS may be paired with the global positioning system (GPS), from which real-time, satellite-derived location information may be derived, as provided by an appropriate GPS receiver.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are the systems that store location based data and analyze them. In this study, GIS is defined and its importance and functions are described. Usage of GIS in marketing area is explained in details and finally number of academic publications about GIS in general and in marketing literature for decades are analyzed through five different and some of the mostly used databases in social sciences, which are Ebsco, ProQuest, Sage, Springer and Science Direct. Since the importance and usage of GIS in marketing applications and literature increases, however its ratio in total GIS literature is not sufficient yet.

In a previous study, we investigated a framework for teaching abstraction in computer science (CS) in the context of an introductory CS course for 7th-grade students. The framework was found effective for developing CS abstraction skills. In this paper, we describe a study that investigated teaching abstraction in CS to 7th-grade students through the perspective of gender. Specifically, we compared the CS abstraction abilities of boys and girls taking the introductory CS course in 7th grade (using the Scratch environment). We also examined the difference in the effect of the teaching strategy on CS abstraction abilities between boys and girls. Our findings show a significant advantage of girls over boys regarding several aspects of CS abstraction. We also found that the framework for teaching CS abstraction, which was already established in our previous study as effective in the context of an introductory course for 7th-grade students, has an enhanced effect in this context when it comes to girls. This enhancement was manifested by a better overall performance by the girls, when comparing boys and girls that took an introductory CS course in which this framework was used. It was also manifested by the girls' deeper and more reliable perception of CS. We conjecture that this framework has the potential to affect girls' self-efficacy, and as a result to create a positive effect by encouraging and motivating girls to pursue CS education beyond this introductory course. That is, this framework has the potential to contribute to solving the issue of underrepresentation of females at the different stages of CS education, or in other words, to widening the CS pipeline for females.

Population management is difficult and complex due to its dynamic and complexity. When we talk about demography, we talk about human population in a defined geographic area, meaning, demography is a spatial science. Geographic Information System (GIS) is a modern tool used in many fields, to manage attribute data and spatial data, including population management. The aim of this study is to present the size of population for each county and urban/rural area on two different years: 2012 and 2020, and the estimation of population growth until the year of 2050. Used for processing spatial data, ArcGIS package from ESRI, allows spatial and geostatistical analysis, mathematical calculations and the visualizations of data. Modern cartography is using GIS technologies to create maps in an easier and flexible way. GIS can use the existing analog maps after digitizing them. Using GIS, specialists can create maps at any scale, centered on any location and showing any selected information. ArcGIS tools permit to visualize, query and overlay the data bases related to the maps. Using ArcGIS applications, we determined the counties which present an increasing of population, and those presenting a decreasing of population, as well as the evolution of population in urban and rural area. In order to determine which counties are affected more by the population decline, we calculated the growth rate using the three major demographic variables: Birth, Death and Migration. In conclusion, we can say that the population in Romania has decreased in the past 8 years and is going to decrease even more in the next 30 years. This happened due to the low birth rate and high emigration rate.

The application of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in education is becoming increasingly vital for enhancing digital literacy and spatial analysis skills. Rahmatullah Lempake Islamic Boarding School in Samarinda is one of the educational institutions with significant potential to utilize this technology in supporting the management of its environment and local resources. The initiative aims to provide students with training in GIS, enhancing their knowledge and skills in spatial data management and geographic analysis. The training employed a combination of lectures, discussions, and practical sessions using GIS software. It was attended by students aged 12 to 15 and covered foundational topics, such as an introduction to GIS, mapping applications, and data analysis techniques. The results of this training demonstrated a notable improvement in the students' understanding and basic GIS skills, as well as increased awareness of the technology's potential applications in their local environment. The integration of GIS into the educational process offers significant benefits, particularly in enhancing students' technological literacy and spatial analysis capabilities, which can be applied to environmental management activities within the Islamic boarding school. In conclusion, the GIS training at Rahmatullah Lempake Islamic Boarding School has effectively developed the students' foundational skills in technology and geographic analysis, offering practical benefits for future resource management and environmental planning endeavors.