Tempus Project Activities

1. Strengthening of the link between GIT education and the society in partner countries

The project starts with activities to strengthen the link between universities and the society. Results of such activities will provide input and guidelines for curricular development, equipment acquisition and different training courses. Three activities will be carried out.

1.1 Creation of an Advisory Board in each partner country

The Advisory Board will consist of representatives of stakeholders in each partner country in the field of geodesy, cartography and geographic information. Stakeholders can be national agencies, private enterprises and other potential employers of geodesy graduates. The Advisory Board will provide a direct contact line between universities and societies/users/employers; help to define relevant competences and technologies needed in the society and also function as an external monitoring and quality control body; The Advisory Board will be created in the first half year and will have annual meeting in the Spring semesters.

1.2 Analysis of society’s needs and requirements on geodesy and GIS education

The needs of geodesy and GIS competences and requirements on higher education will be analyzed through a survey among important stakeholders and potential employers. The survey will lead to creation of a database which contains information such as: name and contact information of the organization, main business activities of the organization, existing geodesy/GIS specialists and future needs, specific competences needed in the organization, comments on the present geodesy/GIS education in the country. Results of the survey will also be analyzed and summarized in a survey report.

1.3 Establishment of career service centres for students

Career service centres are intended to help students find employment during and after university studies. The service centres will directly connect geodesy students with labour market partners, hopefully also contributing to the development of new geodesy curricula which are more relevant and more market-oriented. In addition, the creation of service centres will attract students to actively participate in the Tempus project. The centre will be established in each partner university before June 2011.

2. Reform of GIT curricula in partner country universities

2.1 Modernisation of existing curricula and creation of new GIT curricula

Based on the analysis of the partner countries’ needs, new bachelor/master curricula in GIT will be developed for YSUAC. Curricula at other partner universities (except TUM) will be revised to introduce GIS courses, to increase courses on new technologies such as GPS and 3D laser scanning and promote courses on applications of geodesy and GIS e.g. in land management, environmental monitoring and urban planning. Curricular development will follow the Bologna declaration and introduce the three-level education system including the ECTS system in partner countries.

Curricular reform work will be done by partner country staff together with EU partner countries before June 2012, so that the new curricula/courses can start from Autumn 2012.

2.2 Development of new GIT courses

Course development will focus on creation of new GIS courses, courses on new technologies such as GPS and 3D laser scanning and courses on applications of geodesy and GIS e.g. in land management, environmental monitoring and urban planning. Preliminarily the following 10 courses will be developed:
• - Introduction to GIS
• - Geospatial databases
• - Geovisualization
• - GIS algorithms and spatial analysis
• - Land Information Systems
• - Applied GIS for urban planning and environmental monitoring
• - Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
• - Laser scanning and applications
• - Geodetic reference systems
• - Digital mapping

More new courses may be developed, depending on the results of curricular development. For each new course, the contents will be defined: a) course name, b) number of ECTS credits, c) course objective (i.e. what students should be able to do after completing the course), d) syllabes with a list of lessons, e) prerequisite and follow-ups, f) course literature.

2.3 Development of new GIT teaching materials

Development of new GIT teaching materials will directly support the new curricula developed for YSUAC and support introduction of new courses at other partner country universities. For each of the above-mentioned new courses, a new compendium will be developed mainly by partner country staff with the help of EU staff members. The new teaching materials will be developed in national languages or Russian language.

3. Establishment of 6 GIS Laboratories in 3 partner countries

Establishment of new GIS labs (in all partner country universities, except TUM) is necessary to support the reformed GIT education in general and introduce GIS courses in particular.

3.1 Needs analysis and equipment purchase

The need of new equipment will first be analyzed for each partner country university, with considerations on new GIT curricula and new courses to be started in Autumn 2012. The consortium will then investigate the GIS equipment market in all partner countries and invite tenders from well-known international manufacturers. All tenders will be carefully evaluated before the final winners are selected. Purchase orders will be placed in April 2011 to guarantee timely delivery in June 2011.

3.2 Installation and test of purchased equipment in partner countries

The delivered equipment will be installed and tested at the partner country universities, by partner country staff and EU staff together. After installation and testing, a short training course on the installed hardware and software will be given for teachers and students of the partner country universities.

KTH staff will be responsible for installation and training of geodetic equipment, while staff from HFT and UPV will be in charge of GIS and digital mapping software. Universities who will receive the new GIS lab will be responsible for the preparation of the lab premises including electrical installations and internet connection. All 6 GIS labs should become operational in August 2011.

4. Re-training of teaching staff of partner country universities

• Re-training of teaching staff of partner country universities will partly support the introduction of the new GIT curricula and new GIT courses, and partly to safeguard the quality of education in new technologies. Four 2-week intensive courses will be organized on the following topics:
• a) Introduction to basic GIS concepts (Valencia, April 2011) More details...
• b) Modern geodetic equipment (Stockholm, May 2011)
• c) GIS application for land management, environmental monitoring and urban planning (Yerevan, October 2011)
• d) Modern geodetic concepts (Lviv, May 2012)

KTH will be responsible to deliver the 1st and 4th course, while UPV and HFT will be in charge of the 2nd and 3rd course, respectively. As lead partner for this workpackage, YSUAC will coordinate course planning and practical implementations.

In addition to staff re-training, two-way student mobility will also take place. 2 students from each partner country university will spend 3 months in EU countries while 1 student from each EU partner will study for 3 months at one partner country university.

5. Introduction of new pedagogical methods and quality assurance mechanism in GIT education

To ensure success of the curricular reform, new pedagogical methods and quality assurance system will be introduced in all partner country universities. To start with, a workshop on new pedagogical methods will be organized at KTH for staff members in Autumn 2012. The workshop will devote special efforts to project-oriented, problem-based learning (PBL). Then each partner university will experiment on project-oriented, problem-based learning in one regular course in Spring 2013.

YSU will be the lead partner for this workpackage, due to its previous experiences from two Tempus projects on pedagogical methods and quality assurance. YSU will lead the work to develop a quality assurance manual on practical procedures of quality assurance, including a standardized questionaire for course evaluation by students. In Spring 2013, all GIT courses will carry out a compulsory course evaluation.

6. Set-up of web-based e-learning system for GIT education

E-learning provides new possibilities not only for regular, distance-learning students, but also for professionals who need to upgrade their knowledge in GIS or GPS. Partner country staff will first have a study visit to HFT to learn practical experiences on web-based e-learning. After evaluating different software platforms, a web-based e-learning platform will be installed at LPNU, YSUAC and TUM in Autumn 2012. Traditional teaching materials for 4 courses (Introduction to GIS, GIS Applications, GNSS and Digital mapping) will be adapted so that they can be offered through e-learning system. Adaptation of the remaining 6 courses will be done under 2013. HFT will be the lead partner in this workpackage. E-learning systems in all partner countries will have a common web-based platform. Teaching materials will be developed jointly by different consortium members, transformed into different languages and shared within the consortium to form an integrated e-learning package.