2012/2013 Programme Specification Data. GIS with Remote Sensing. Not Available

Transcription

1 2012/2013 Programme Specification Data Programme Name Programme Number Programme Award QAA Subject Benchmark Statements GIS with Remote Sensing MSc Not Available Programme Aims Programme Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and Understanding The MSc Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with Remote Sensing (RS) degree aims to provide an intensive educational opportunity designed to equip graduates from a variety of disciplines with the knowledge base and technical skills required to fulfil a professional role in the Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing (GIS/RS) Industry. The focus of the degrees is to develop high quality application specialists with practical skills in a variety of commercially available software, and excellent written and oral communication skills. The programme offers practical experience in the use of remote sensing and GIS techniques in the management, analysis, modelling and display of spatial/environmental data. The individual will possess postgraduate level intellectual, technical and communication skills as required by public service organisations, commerce, the exploration and environmental industries. Such an individual would have the professional philosophy and skills base to progress to senior posts within the industry, or to proceed to doctoral research. Knowledge and understanding of: The MSc GIS with Remote Sensing programme aims to: to inform students of the role and scope of GIS/RS in environmental analysis; to develop an informed understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of organisational and analytical procedures with the GIS/RS discipline; to develop students abilities in the practical procedures of GIS/RS from data acquisition and processing through to effective display of results; to develop the students capacity to make informed and critical judgements between alternative solutions to specific problems using GIS/RS; to develop a critical understanding of the limitations of GIS/RS methodologies;

2 Programme Learning Outcomes: Intellectual Skills to enable students to carry out independent research on a problem related to the acquisition, storage, manipulation, analysis and display of environmental data; and to produce a student who can contribute effectively to the use of image analysis and GIS techniques in an industrial and/or research context. On successful completion of the programme the graduates will be able to: make informed and critical judgements on technical issues relating to the acquisition, storage, management, analysis and display of spatial data; show their appreciation of the requirements of a variety of different user disciplines and enable the optimal use of GIS/RS technology; and Propose, plan, manage and report on project work, both as individuals and as members of a team. The programme specifically relates to subject knowledge in the following areas: Geographic information principles, which include spatial data structures their acquisition, pre-processing and analyses. Spatial data management and importance of metadata databases. Importance of effective visualisation techniques. Remote sensing sensors and platforms, their properties and calibration. Advanced spatial analysis of hybrid data in a varied range of subject domains. Image processing sequence and its importance in a remote sensing and spatial analysis projects. Programming and customisation of remote sensing and GIS software. Effective distributed deployment of spatial data using web technologies. B Intellectual skills: The MSc GIS with Remote Sensing programme require students to: Have become a GI expert with management and decision making skills; Make informed and critical judgements when faced with an issue concerning geographic information management; Appreciate and understand the spatial data and spatial analysis requirements of a remote sensing and/or GIS project; Analyse, synthesis and summarise geographic information requirement for a project; Apply knowledge and understanding to address a wide range of spatial issues; and Recognise the moral and ethical, as well as scientific issues that relate to geographic information and address these issues in context with current spatial data policies and strategies.

3 Programme Learning Outcomes: Subject Practical Skills C Subject Practical skills: The programme specification requires students to: have gained a practical knowledge of the range of techniques and strategies related to geographic information management; be able to understand the complexity of spatial data and their relationships with non-spatial information; be able to perform spatial analysis on a varied range of spatial data; have gained complete understanding of spatial data acquisition procedures; be able to quantitatively assess the quality of acquired spatial data; be able to analyse data and analysis requirement of a GIS and RS project; be able to design, develop and evaluate methodologies and develop critics of them, and where appropriate, propose new techniques for research. Programme Learning Outcomes: Transferable/Key Skills D Transferable/ key skills: The programme specifications refers to the generic skills required by postgraduate study at the University of Greenwich, specifically: the ability to reflect on the significance and inter-relationships of knowledge acquired both by study and from the professional experience of the student; the ability, on the basis of such reflection, to formulate original ideas and innovative proposals; the ability to initiate change on the basis of informed ideas and proposals, within the context of the student's personal professional activity; the capacity to carry out the activities outlined in (a) to (c) above autonomously, such that the individual has the ability to initiate, plan and organise his/her own professional development; the ability to see the relationships between different aspects of the programme and integrate information. This linkage between subjects is reflected in the way individual courses are taught. In relation to the ES3 benchmarking, the MSc GIS with Remote Sensing programme requires students to demonstrate an understanding and knowledge in the following transferable and key skill areas: Communication skills Interpersonal and teamwork skills Numeracy and IT skills

4 Programme Learning Outcomes: Graduate Attributes Teaching and Learning Methods None Self management and professional development skills A Teaching and learning: The programme uses a variety of teaching and learning approaches with a strong emphasis on student centred learning including: lectures, classroom based and computer lab based practical exercises, field based learning, seminars, tutorials, workshops, pastoral tuition, extra-curricular activities, guided independent study and the independent research project The combination varies between individual courses and individual teaching sessions. Teaching and learning strategies are linked to the learning outcomes of the respective courses and individual sessions. B Teaching and learning Intellectual skills are introduced, developed and tested in the formal taught sessions. Tutorial sessions support the taught courses and are designed to help students understand the intellectual skills required at masters level study. Courses such as Introduction to GIS expose students to current geographic information policies and management strategies, testing their awareness of such using evaluative essays. Courses in Applied GIS and Remote Sensing and Professional Practice for Geographic Information provide students with the opportunity to reflect on the interrelationship of knowledge between academic work and real world projects; and offer students exposure to research methodologies and their application in remote sensing and GIS. The final Research Project is regarded as the culmination of the development of intellectual skills at master s level. C Teaching and learning This programme contains a balance of theoretical and practical skills appropriate for GIS and RS managers. Practical skills are included in all core courses with the emphasis on the application of subject knowledge, methods, techniques, and approaches to real world situations. The theoretical and practical skills gained in the computer laboratory are put into effect during the field-based exercises. D Teaching and learning As indicated above a variety of teaching and learning strategies are used, which are designed to facilitate the development of postgraduate level communication, numeracy, IT, interpersonal and self-management and development skills. The introduction, development and testing of generic postgraduate key skills is embedded in the programme teaching and learning strategy. This is supported by 90 minute weekly tutorial sessions and the 15 credit course Professional Practice for Geographic Information.

5 Assessment Methods A Assessment Methods: The assessment methods for each course are detailed in the course specifications. Assessments are designed to test the learning outcomes of the course. Students are informed of the assessment requirements in the programme handbook and in the first lecture of each course. A wide variety of assessments are used, the emphasis is on assessments related to real world situations and approaches, and these include technical reports, critical and evaluative essays, journal papers, poster presentations, field notebooks and research proposals. Courses such as Spatial Database Management; Programming for GIS and Remote Sensing; Applied GIS and Remote Sensing and Professional Practice for Geographic Information have 100% coursework assessments. This is because the learning outcomes of the courses are best achieved by lab based technical work or field based analyses, requiring technical reports, evaluative essays and field reports, rather than examinations. Other courses, including Introduction to GIS, Introduction to Remote Sensing, Advance Image Processing and Advanced Spatial Modelling, use a combination of theory examinations, practical examinations and coursework. B Assessment Methods: As indicative above, a variety of assessment strategies are used across the programme. Assessments are designed to test students master s level intellectual skills, with a strong emphasis on demonstrating intellectual and critical understanding as well as subject knowledge. The assessments include critical and evaluative essays, journal papers, project proposals and project reports. C Assessment Methods: Most assessments test some subject practical skills, depending on the learning outcomes. Assessments include spatial database design, GIS software customisation, multi criteria evaluation projects, image analysis project, ground validation and site surveys. Some assessments require students to visit sites to collect and ground truth data. D Assessment Methods: A variety of assessment strategies are used across the programme, including the following: Communication skills Journal paper, essays, posters and other text based reviews. Oral presentations A mixture of technical and non-technical reports. Interpersonal and teamwork skills group based fieldwork group based mini research project group presentations Numeracy and IT skills collection and analysis of spatial and non-spatial data

6 use of a varied range of GIS and Remote Sensing software reports including geostatistics database management, design and implementation programming and software customisation Self management and professional development skills interaction and discussion with industry experts the final research project is particularly important in the development of professional management skills.