[GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-user] Basic GIS course ideas

GRASS GIS GRASS GIS developer
,
1

Hi Maning,

I taught a combination of QGIS and GRASS a little while ago
and I think it went alright.
About one third of my students had no idea about GIS at all
and one third had GRASS GIS skills.

So I started by demonstrating some basic mapping, GIS file
format issues, projections, georeferencing etc. using QGIS.

From there, it was easy to start the GRASS plugin and introduce
students step-by-step to the underlying power of GRASS GIS.

The transition was quite smooth, as many tricky GRASS concepts
(like the region) have direct visual feedback in QGIS via the
plugin and things like data import and export from/to the GRASS
database get quite a lot easier using the GRASS toolbox.

I would recommend using GRASS GIS 6.2 and QGIS compiled natively
for Windows (there are some instructions by Radim Blazek
somewhere on the Wiki site).

For 3D-visualization, I used ParaView and that worked well, too.

For an extended course including things like point patten analysis,
you could also add R.

Best,

Benjamin

maning sambale wrote:

Hi FOSS GIS users,

I am a part-time instructor in a college teaching introductory gis
course. I have been advocating for the use FOSS GIS (particularly
GRASS and QGIS ) in our schools for the lab sessions.
This is the second term I am doing this and have been reflecting on
how did it go the first time.

The objective of the course is for students to understand basic gis
principles as well as practical applications in site planning, land
use, ecology and business.

Judging by the previous experience, it is a little bit difficult
introducing the student FOSS GIS especially the linux way of doing
things (CLI). We are using XP machines and most students probably
know computers as MS windows only.

Some are more interested in creating cool maps and not on the
underlying spatial analysis techniques (i.e. r.mapcalc) that were
used.

I wrote the list to ask GRASS instructors on any ideas in making the
course better. If you have any approaches/techniques/exercises you
might want to share please do. I firmly believe using FOSS GIS
especially in our country is very important. As a compromise though,
a suggestion from this list was to also introduce them to propriety
GIS package. We have a few arcview 3.2 in the lab so I might give a 1
or 2 sessions about it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Maning

--
Benjamin Ducke, M.A.
Archäoinformatik
(Archaeoinformation Science)
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
(Inst. of Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology)
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6
D 24098 Kiel
Germany

Tel.: ++49 (0)431 880-3378 / -3379
Fax : ++49 (0)431 880-7300
www.uni-kiel.de/ufg

2

I regularly teach a course in spatial technologies for anthropology grad
students. I have to start with an assumption that people know no GIS and go
from there. But I also want the students to be able to use GIS and related
tools in their research, not just to be able to push buttons and make maps.
This is consistently difficult, of course.

Beginning in 2004, I started to use GRASS in the course. I did both GRASS
and ESRI (both ArcView and ArcGIS in that year) as the software I discussed.
This was overly complicated and I probably will not include ArcGIS next
time.

In 2005, I did a similar course at the U. Valencia (Spain) with only GRASS.
This past spring, I co-taught a remote sensing course that included GRASS
(along with other software) as recommended tools. (The PDF's are available
on my website and can be used by anyone who wants to).

The one biggest issue in using GRASS has been that most students use MS
Windows and GRASS was difficult to install for them--and consistently had
Windows related problems of access and permissions. This has been magnified
in a lab setting.

GRASS works great for teaching fundamental GIS and image processing
concepts--if you can get it to run on your Windows machine. I also strongly
recommend QGIS for beginners. However, it is more limited for teaching GIS
research concepts--especially on Windows where (at least until recently) the
GRASS plugins were either unavailable or complicated to install.

The new Windows native GRASS will make a HUGE difference in this. One of my
doctoral students just did a 2 afternoon workshop for other grad students on
GRASS and GIS. Huidae Cho and Glynn Clements did the new WinGRASS just in
time and deserve a tremendous thanks. Although it is still an alpha version,
90+% works which is enough to teach with. Everyone used it in the workshop.

I've looked at QGIS 0.8 and it is very nice. With the continuing work, it
should also be an excellent teaching tool. When I next teach spatial
technologies in a year, I will be using 100% GRASS and QGIS. Students can
walk away from the course with full-featured software that they can use for
the rest of their careers--and possibly contribute to improving. This is
wonderful.

Michael
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

From: Benjamin Ducke <benjamin.ducke@ufg.uni-kiel.de>
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 10:41:53 +0200
To: GRASS devel <grass-dev@grass.itc.it>
Subject: [GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-user] Basic GIS course ideas

Hi Maning,

I taught a combination of QGIS and GRASS a little while ago
and I think it went alright.
About one third of my students had no idea about GIS at all
and one third had GRASS GIS skills.

So I started by demonstrating some basic mapping, GIS file
format issues, projections, georeferencing etc. using QGIS.

From there, it was easy to start the GRASS plugin and introduce
students step-by-step to the underlying power of GRASS GIS.

The transition was quite smooth, as many tricky GRASS concepts
(like the region) have direct visual feedback in QGIS via the
plugin and things like data import and export from/to the GRASS
database get quite a lot easier using the GRASS toolbox.

I would recommend using GRASS GIS 6.2 and QGIS compiled natively
for Windows (there are some instructions by Radim Blazek
somewhere on the Wiki site).

For 3D-visualization, I used ParaView and that worked well, too.

For an extended course including things like point patten analysis,
you could also add R.

Best,

Benjamin

maning sambale wrote:

Hi FOSS GIS users,

I am a part-time instructor in a college teaching introductory gis
course. I have been advocating for the use FOSS GIS (particularly
GRASS and QGIS ) in our schools for the lab sessions.
This is the second term I am doing this and have been reflecting on
how did it go the first time.

The objective of the course is for students to understand basic gis
principles as well as practical applications in site planning, land
use, ecology and business.

Judging by the previous experience, it is a little bit difficult
introducing the student FOSS GIS especially the linux way of doing
things (CLI). We are using XP machines and most students probably
know computers as MS windows only.

Some are more interested in creating cool maps and not on the
underlying spatial analysis techniques (i.e. r.mapcalc) that were
used.

I wrote the list to ask GRASS instructors on any ideas in making the
course better. If you have any approaches/techniques/exercises you
might want to share please do. I firmly believe using FOSS GIS
especially in our country is very important. As a compromise though,
a suggestion from this list was to also introduce them to propriety
GIS package. We have a few arcview 3.2 in the lab so I might give a 1
or 2 sessions about it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Maning

--
Benjamin Ducke, M.A.
Archäoinformatik
(Archaeoinformation Science)
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
(Inst. of Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology)
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6
D 24098 Kiel
Germany

Tel.: ++49 (0)431 880-3378 / -3379
Fax : ++49 (0)431 880-7300
www.uni-kiel.de/ufg