Teaching GIS outside of geography: a case study in the School of International Development, University of East Anglia

Abstract

The importance of developing employability skills of graduates has become a strategic priority in higher education. Knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools is a valuable skill for graduates both in terms of the specific skillset it provides and of the wider transferable skills. This paper discusses the importance of GIS as an interdisciplinary and employability skill within the setting of a weeklong intensive GIS course taught in the School of International Development at UEA. GIS as an employability skill within a commercial setting is discussed, with the focus on how to teach GIS most effectively in this setting.

Keywords::

• GIS
• teaching
• employability
• interdisciplinary
• international development

Acknowledgements

We thank the four cohorts of students who have taken part in the course and given us very valuable feedback. We also thank Oliver Springate-Baginski who has helped us run and develop the course within DEV, as well as Patrick Rickles, Claire Ellul and two anonymous reviewers for their assistance and comments. The European Centre for Environment and Human Health (part of the University of Exeter Medical School) is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013 and European Social Fund Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. ArcGIS 10.0, http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis

^2. QGIS 2.0.1, http://www.qgis.org/

^3. Students go to Facebook without knowing that the URL for Facebook is http://www.facebook.com by searching Google for “Facebook” and clicking on the first search result.

^4. Cartogram Geoprocessing Tool 2, http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid = 15638.