Small is Beautiful but Large is Necessary: Internet GIS for the Masses

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Small is Beautiful but Large is Necessary
Internet GIS for the Masses

• Gemma Davies
• Duncan Whyatt
• Alan Blackburn
• Department of Geography, Lancaster University.
• http//gis.lancs.ac.uk email gemma.davies_at_lancast
  er.ac.uk

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Introduction and Aims

• Geog120 First year module in Cartography, GIS
  and Remote Sensing (New in 2003/4)
• Aims
• Introduce basic concepts of Cartography, GIS and
  Remote Sensing, drawing on links between them and
  how they fit together
• Demonstrate breadth of applications in human,
  environmental and physical aspects of geography

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The Challenge

• Provide hands on experience of Cartography, GIS
  and RS, but circa 230 students each year
• Formal practical classes impossible due to
  insufficient staff resources and space in
  computer labs
• Work is team marked hence needs to be straight
  forward, yet challenging enough to differentiate
  across the full range of abilities

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Practical Skills

• Cartography basic map design
• GIS spatial and attribute query
• RS introduction to a range of images, and
  information that can be extracted
• Examples drawn from SPEGIS

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SPEGIS

• Aims
• Develop an integrated GIS to enhance
  undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and
  learning in Geography.
• Collect as much spatially referenced data as
  possible for the Silverdale peninsula and River
  Kent estuary
• Data and application examples from this project
  used as the focus for this module
• Many outside organization have contributed data
  and research ideas to the project.

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Arnside and Silverdale AONB
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Delivery Meeting the Technical Challenge

• Hands on experience through a series of
  self-guided assessed practical sessions
• Web based GIS delivered using ArcIMS with Java
  based feature services in order to achieve
  functionality required
• Provide students with 24 hour access to practical
  material
• Support for practicals provided via an on-line
  discussion site, manned on a rota by a team of
  demonstrators

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Why ArcIMS?

• Provides simplified interface for students
• Can be linked easily to other supporting material
  within a web based environment
• Ease of access for students from their own
  machines in their own time
• Part of the ESRI product range used in subsequent
  years

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Practical Assessments

• Cartography Modify display properties
• of topographic and chloropleth map

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• 2. GIS Series of spatial and attribute queries,
  followed by short reflection on tasks under taken

Name the restaurant(s) within 2km of Arnside
railway station
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• 3. Remote Sensing Questions based on image
  interpretation

The land surface appears darker in the IR image
acquired at 1130 than in the image from 730.
Why?
In the true colour composite image areas of dense
vegetation appear green but in the false
colour composite they appear red. Why?
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Academic Limitations of ArcIMS

• Cartography - Unable to add legends, scale bars
  etc to maps and print quality poor
• GIS - Only very simple spatial and attribute
  queries possible. Little other functionality
• Remote Sensing No image processing available,
  unable to even query the value of a pixel

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Technical Issues

• To use ArcIMS Java feature services the local
  machine needs the right JRE and a viewer
  installing. This restricts where practicals can
  be accessed from
• Year 1 Ran fairly smoothly
• Year 2
• Feature services failed on regular basis
• Students failed to get ArcIMS working in their
  rooms and therefore restricted to working in
  departments main teaching lab, partly due to
  changes in JRE security
• ArcExplorer used as a back up

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The Student Perspective

• Overall students seemed to find the sessions easy
  to follow, despite technical glitches

The practicals were easy to follow, provided
time was allowed for ArcIMS problems. I am
looking forward to GIS?RS in the 2nd year
Have alternative locations to be able to do the
practicals as labs are often booked out for
lessons
When ArcIMS is working the practicals are
interesting, but it can be frustrating when it
does not work
Stability of ArcIMS only improvement required.
Especially on remote PCs, i.e. ones in study
bedrooms
I have bought a lap-top for completing computer
based tasks and expect to be able to use it
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Our Conclusions

• Despite its limitations, fairly happy with ArcIMS
  solution
• Fulfilled delivery of basic concepts evident in
  students progressing to 2nd year
• Assessment and marking seem effective
• Technical problems this years main concern
  need to resolve before next year
• Failed to provide 24 hour access expected

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The Future

• Intend to keep using ArcIMS, but remain open to
  alternative ideas
• Would like better ESRI support for use of feature
  based services in ArcIMS
• Increase sharing of experience with GIS community
• GEES forum for discussion for Web-based GIS
  applications?

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Any comments or questions?

• What are your experiences of using web based
  GIS or teaching introductory concepts to large
  groups?