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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B6. Istanbul 2004
accessible GIST teaching material, the SVC project GITTA
(Geographic Information Technology Training Alliance,
http://www gitta.info) wants to create modular web-based
learning material for basic and specialised study programmes in
GIST.
1.1 Project Partners
The GITTA project consortium unites the majority of institutes
from Swiss Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences
teaching GIST. It encompasses members from three different
language regions and from different application domains,
including geomatics, geography, cartography, forestry, civil
engineering and landscape architecture. The main motivation
for collaborating in the GITTA project lays in exploiting
synergies, increasing the teaching capacity and improving the
quality of courses. This is done by developing and redesigning
learning material on a modular basis that offers high flexibility
in time and content, adaptable to the students needs.
Msc emen
Figure l. Locations of the GITTA project partners in
Switzerland (University of Zürich, University of Fribourg, ETH
Zürich, EPFL Lausanne, University of Applied Sciences (FH)
Muttenz, FH SUPSI Manno and FH Rapperswil, KOGIS
Wabern)
2. ORGANISATION
2.1] Premises
The GITTA project has been started with the following
premises defined.
- A complete curriculum accepted by all partners needs to be
designed and developed. GITTA shall not be a single course
but cover a complete GIS education. The original project
proposal planed to create learning matc.:al for 31 ECTS
(European Credit Transfer System) points.
- The materials shall be useable for distance and blended
learning and teaching. Theory and practical elements need
to be included.
- Modularity and flexibility in form and in regards to content
need to be maintained.
- A sound didactical concept shall be developed and
implemented in suitable IT structures.
107
2.2 Information
The flow of information and their management are central
clements of a project of this scale. Important is the easy access
to all relevant and current information and documents like, for
example, news and discussion boards, tutorials or manuals. In
GITTA this is achieved by the use of a common BSCW-
Groupware Server (BSCW 2004).
The project progress is efficiently monitored through monthly
reports of all partners. Additionally, the partners meet once a
month on a fixed date to discuss the progress and problems.
Specific internal workshop are arranged for the continuing
education of content authors or IT personnel.
Experience revealed that face-to-face meetings are the preferred
way for passing resolutions. However, virtual environments
like, for example, desktop collaboration software, are used
preferably for informal collaboration and information exchange.
ec
2.3 Distance
In GITTA not only spatial but also professional, linguistic and
cultural distances are to be bridged.
The spatial distance is rarely a problem as Switzerland is quite
small. However, professional distances emerge when trying to
develop a single curriculum which all the different institutes
from the different universities can agree to. The didactical and
structural approach chosen in GITTA allows to compose a
course from single lessons. This makes it possible to use the
material in different ways.
The linguistic distances in the project team are bridged by using
English as the official project language. Nevertheless, each
author writes the learning materials in his or her own language
and later translation is needed.
Interesting differences can be found from a cultural point of
view. The learning and teaching scenarios in different language
regions of Switzerland and on different institutes differ
considerably. The partners, however, find these differences
interesting and gain from them. Tolerance is not just a phrase
but has to be applied.
2.4 Time
Bridging the previously mentioned distances results in some
loss of time and it is difficult to keep to the planned timeframe
of the project. Discussing problems and finding consensus
among all partners is often difficult. Additionally, the effort for
translating material, the initial effort for developing a suitable
IT structure (described below) and the ongoing effort of
creating interactive learning elements had been underestimated.
2.5 Organisational Structure
The GITTA consortium with its 11 partners is one of the most
extensive and most heterogeneous of all SVC projects. The
creation. of the learning materials is spread over different
project groups according to their subject area. For an efficient
distribution of the organisational tasks between the partners
several boards have been established which define functions
and responsibilities. Additionally, a set of rules of operation
have been agreed upon.
