MAPTUTOR: A MULTIMEDIA TUTORIAL ON MAP MAKING FROM SPACE

Transcription

1 MAPTUTOR: A MULTIMEDIA TUTORIAL ON MAP MAKING FROM SPACE Christine Pohl International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands, Tel.: , Fax: , pohl@itc.nl, KEYWORDS: Multimedia Tutorial, Open Learning Tools, Training and Education, Space Maps, Image Maps ABSTRACT The usefulness of multimedia in training and education is being recognised amongst trainers and students. The recent technological development offers a wide range of possibilities in training and education in particular in environments where digital information is being dealt with. Therefore, remote sensing and the processing of digital images form an ideal topic to be converted into the multimedia environment. This paper describes the implementation of a subject in the field of remote sensing using satellite images in mapping. The paper focuses on tutorial highlights and the challenge in multimedia for training in remote sensing. 1. INTRODUCTION Multimedia technology and access to the Internet has opened a new world in the environment of training confronting teachers and students. Information technology can play an important role in the process of educational change. It opens the access to a wealth of information and facilitates the process of inquiry with a high degree of flexibility (Quick and Castro, 1998). Teachers are asked to re-think and re-design their lecture and training material. This investment is considered to be vital for the future of training especially in developing countries (Harasim, 1998). Students are enabled to follow a course at their own pace and time at their own location. The trend of higher education goes to open learning (Latchem, 1998) which means that the learning approach is based on the needs of the individual student rather than on the interest of teaching institution. Students obtain control over what, when, where and how to learn. The courses using information technology including multimedia such as video, audio, text and animation provide divers knowledge transfer capabilities and plenty of interactions to keep the student interested. Even though the implementation and transform of teaching material into the multimedia, interactive environment requires more skills and consumes a lot of resources those flexible learning packages are used with lots of success. ITC has become involved in the development of various types of distance learning and multimedia courses. The following sections will present an overview on the multimedia and distance learning course developments conducted by ITC in cooperation with other organisations, describe the experiences gained and provide an outlook on future projects. 1.1 Multimedia Tutorials ITC is involved in the development of various types of distance learning and multimedia courses since The tutorials are being used in the new Professional Master and Master of Science courses offered by ITC having started its new course programme in September this year. In 1998 the ITC Division of Applied Geomorphological Surveys (AGS) issued the second version of the very successful implementation of a multimedia tutorial on Remote Sensing Image and Data Fusion - FuseTutor (Gens et al., 1998) that has been delivered to the Western European Union Satellite Centre (WEUSC) in Madrid. At the WEUSC image analysts receive a core training to adjust to the image exploitation practices at the WEUSC. After having gained experience in multimedia tutorial development ITC produced two other tutorials: - Multispectral Image Processing - Map Making from Space The latter one forms the subject of this paper.

2 1.2 Content of MapTutor The multimedia tutorial on Map Making from Space (i.e. MapTutor) covers a wide range of subjects in remote sensing for image mapping including a detailed introduction in the basics of cartography. The project was carried out in cooperation with the Cartographic Institute of Cataluña (ICC), Spain. The tutorial is structured into eight chapters each followed by exercises and self-tests that enable the student to assess her/his newly acquired knowledge. Subjects like Cartographic Concepts, Map Projections, Categories of Maps, Image Processing for Image Maps, Presentation of Information, Production of Satellite Image Maps and Applications of Satellite Image Maps are covered in these chapters. Emphasis is put on the use of satellite remote sensing images for mapping and the required image processing for image mapping. The last chapter on applications contains many case studies to illustrate the usefulness of 'space maps'. For the production of image maps SSC Satellitbild provided a complete production chain and example images for the various intermediate steps required. The tutorial has been implemented in Authorware, an authoring tool for multimedia products. MapTutor is now existing as Beta Version and currently being finalised. coverage which puts high demands on the navigation concept of the tutorial. The user must be able to maintain his/her orientation and to follow the subject of study with some logic. Due to the variable nature of actions and links when jointly using different media the designer of the tutorial has to provide a clear structure. Therefore, it is a pre-requisite to include the current chapter and section title on each page as visible in Figure 1. In addition, each page includes a direct link to the table of content of each chapter ( Menu ) which then allows to return to the main menu of the entire tutorial at any time. Forward and backward movements are possible using the back and next arrows. Some links such as the Example button (also shown in Figure 1) lead to a sub-page that contains only the back-button in order to return to the section page level. 2. CHALLENGES IN MULTIMEDIA AND OPEN LEARNING TOOLS Even though that a substantial effort goes into the development of open learning tools the resulting efficiency and flexibility of using these tools brings advantages to teachers and students. Especially in domains where the 'world' is already digital the use of information technology is of benefit to the illustration of complex relationships. With the technological development the perception of information is facilitated. Now, there is more than one way to explain a matter. The advantage of a combined use of text, illustrations, animation, audio and video becomes obvious. The challenge of designing interactive and digital educational material such as tutorials on a CD-ROM is that the user can decide what to study when and where. A multimedia tutorial is different from a book where the order of subjects and sections is pre-defined and not changeable. An interactive CD-ROM allows the student to selective and random method of topic Figure 1: Navigation tools The inclusion of audio and animation in conjunction with text and imagery provides such a wide range of possibilities that it makes the tutorial attractive and interactive to the benefit of the effectiveness of the learning process. As shown in the example page of MapTutor displayed in Figure 2 the elements text and audio are used in conjunction an animation to illustrate the basic idea of map projections. The right part of the page is build up along with the explanatory audio when the user launches the action button displayed at the bottom of the page. In addition, the user can read more additional text that has complementary facts. This page is attractive because it offers interaction (the user has to launch the animation and audio by pressing a

3 button) and it contains moving images along with audio that make it easy to listen and watch. there is the main page that contains the table of content leading to the eight different chapters (see Figure 3). Then, each chapter has a starting page containing the sub-headings of the individual sections of the chapter itself. After that there are the regular tutorial pages with lead to one further sub-level containing more detailed information regarding the subject discussed. The fourth level can only be accessed in the forward direction with a return to the page from which it was launched. It is reserved for illustrations and examples that the student can access if desired. Figure 2: Text, Animation and Audio With the use of multimedia and interactive approaches also in conjunction with the development of Internet facilities interactive multimedia is becoming an everyday matter. Students as well as teachers increase their expectations regarding the extravagance of representation of information. The advantage being that people become more used to multimedia and the perception of digital information using the computer. An important element in training and education is the need for evaluation and assessment. This is valid for the tutor as well as the student. In case of MapTutor the inclusion of self-tests and interactive exercises provides the necessary immediate feedback to the user who can assess him-/herself the comprehension of the material studied. The student s performance is stored separately and accessible to the teacher who has herewith the proper means to supervise the students. Figure 4: Self-Tests (Multiple Choice) - with time constraint Figure 3: Main Menu: Table of Content Multimedia learning tools allow the implementation of different levels of detail regarding the subject to be taught. In this way, different types of students can be addressed at the same time. Depending on the course level or the knowledge of the student he or she can select the appropriate information to further his/her understanding of the matter. In the case of MapTutor The linkage to Internet and other online resources opens up an unlimited amount of information and presentations that extent the existing training material if so desired. For this the trend of standardization and platform independence of such learning materials is a pre-requisite and therefore desired.

4 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF MAPTUTOR In cartography related subjects the use of multimedia evolved from the need to present geographical information in an intuitive manner (Cartwright and Peterson, 1999). The use of remotely sensed images for map updating and map making is well understood by the remote sensing and GIS community. Even in not technically related organisations or institutions the potential of Earth observation imagery is now being recognised. The need for training in this field is constantly increasing and has to be addressed. The following sections describe the content of MapTutor along with the explanation of its implementation using multimedia. Even though there are different fields of applications of the information provided by images any analysis or interpretation requires the presentation of results. One type of presentation is formed by image maps and cartographically processed data. Therefore, a large part of the tutorial on Map Making from Space concentrates on the introduction of cartographic concepts that are necessary to produce perceptual representations of information. The following sections describe the content of MapTutor in more detail. The first chapter spends time on introducing terms and elements that are necessary in cartography in general. Apart from the definition and illustration of graphic and geographic variables Chapter 1 explains the concepts and necessity of generalisation. 3.2 Map Projections The next chapter introduces Map Productions which form the basis for any map, conventional or image map. This chapter has incorporated a vast amount of data in order to facilitate the comprehension of this essential and complex matter. It forms one of the major chapters of the tutorial. Apart from other illustrations three video sequences show how the basic map projections really work. 3.3 Categories of Maps Chapter 3 deals with the different types of maps. It puts the image or space maps in the right context. It contains plenty of examples to illustrate the information given (e.g. Figure 6). 3.1 Introduction and Cartographic Concepts Figure 6: Example of Map Types 3.4 Digital Image Processing for Image Maps Figure 5: Introductory video to present the topic The tutorial starts off with a general introduction of the subject itself and relevant definitions to provide a general basis for the understanding of the subsequent sections (see Figure 5). In the case of using remote sensing data for image mapping there are a number of necessary and optional processing steps required to obtain the desired result. These two groups of image processing tools are explained in Chapter 4. Emphasis is put on the geometrical aspects as that form an essential part in the map production process. Different data types and processing options are shown (see Figure 7).

5 3.6 Production of Satellite Image Maps The basis of this chapter was formed by the contribution of two operational image map producers: SSC Satellitbild, Sweden Catalunian Cartographic Institute (ICC), Spain SSC Satellitbild provided an entire production chain illustrated using SPOT imagery from the raw data to the final image map. ICC described the production chain and provided a number of examples showing different results based on different processing algorithms. Figure 7: Example of Image Processing Chapter 3.5 Presentation of Information Chapter 5 is related to the design of map sheets in terms of layout. It is pointed out how important this aspect is for the perception of information in the appropriate way. The use of good and bad examples demonstrate the issue. Figure 8 displays a page containing such illustrations. 3.7 Applications of Image Maps Finally, the use of real-world examples provided by a whole range of organisations including the WEUSC give the student a very good overview on how the knowledge gained can be applied to real cases. In total this chapter contains five case studies with plenty of material that can be explored. In this chapter the tutorial makes use of other software applications that are linked into the document (e.g. PowerPoint). 3.8 Conclusions The last chapter summarises the entire tutorial and draws the attention to a number of critical issues in space mapping. An appendix provides the ancillary information such as references, acknowledgements, links to other sources and a glossary. 4. CONCLUSIONS Figure 8: Use of Symbols for Intuitive Perception of Good and Bad So far, the tutorials are being used with a great deal of success. Future developments at ITC will include the extension of these modules to an even more open use in education and training using Internet facilities. We are just starting to appreciate the use of multimedia in training and education. The potential has definitely not yet been fully explored in the field of remote sensing and GIS. Furthermore, we lack experience on the effectiveness of these tools. This would require specific research in order to specifically assess the benefit of this investment. It has to be stated that these tools are currently been used in conjunction with conventional classroom teaching. The future will show how the allocation of time to the various

6 methods is going to develop towards a more efficient and qualitatively better training and education. 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The tutorials mentioned in this paper were developed by staff of the AGS Division at ITC in cooperation with other institutions, such as Earth Observation Sciences Ltd. in the UK, the Free University of Brussels (VUB) in Belgium, and the Catalunian Institute of Cartography (ICC) in Spain. Some of the case studies and examples were provided by the WEUSC in Spain, Dresden University of Technology in Germany, the Joanneum Research Institute in Austria and SSC Satellitbild in Sweden. 6. REFERENCES Cartwright, W. and Peterson, M.P. (1999): "Multimedia Cartography". In: Multimedia Cartography, Cartwright, Peterson and Gartner (Eds.), Springer: Berlin, ISBN , 343 pages, 1 CD-ROM. Gens, R., Vekerdy, Z. and Pohl, C. (1998): Image and data fusion concept and implementation of a multimedia tutorial, Proceedings EARSeL Conference on Fusion of Earth Data, Sophia Antipolis, France, January 1998, pp Harasim, L.M. (1998): The Internet and Intranets for education and training: a framework for action in Education in the Information Age, C. de Moura Castro (ed.), Inter-American Development Bank: New York, ISBN , pp Latchem, C. (1998): A global perspective on flexible delivery in Virtual mobility: New technologies and internationalization of higher education, M. van der Wende (ed.), NUFFIC June 1998, ISBN , pp Quick, S.A. and de Moura Castro, Claudio (1998): Lessons from the seminar in Education in the Information Age, C. de Moura Castro (ed.), Inter- American Development Bank: New York, ISBN , pp