AfricaGIS 2005 Presentation

1. Tuesday 1st November, Session 6b,
13:30 – 15:00, Ruby Auditorium
GIS Education and Training:
The Missing Link?
Dekolo, S. and Oduwaye, L.
Theme sponsored by:
Open Spatial Solutions

2. GIS EDUCATION ANDGIS EDUCATION AND
TRAINING: THE MISINGTRAINING: THE MISING
LINK?LINK?
Dr. Leke Oduwaye 1 and Samuel Dekolo 2Dr. Leke Oduwaye 1 and Samuel Dekolo 2
1Department of Urban and Regional Planning,1Department of Urban and Regional Planning,
University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, NigeriaUniversity of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria
2Department of Town and Regional planning,2Department of Town and Regional planning,
Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos, NigeriaLagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria

3. Summary
Building of infrastructure for geo-information is
gaining prominence in most African countries.
However the development and adoption of
Geographic Information Technologies requires
that potential users are made aware of its
benefits and that there exists a body of
adequately trained personnel at all levels to
implement, manage and operate the systems;
Only education and training can help achieve this.

4. Objectives
• This presentation examines the response
to GIS education and training needs in
Nigeria
• It draws from experiences gained in
developing GIS courses and curricula in
higher education
• It suggest the paper suggests a
framework for implementing GIS
education in developing countries.

5. SDI
Spatial Data Infrastructure is
defined as the technology, policies,
standards, and institutional
arrangements necessary to acquire,
process, store, distribute and
improve the utilization of geospatial
data from different sources and for
a wide range of potential users

6. Spatial Data
Infrastructure (SDI)
SDI
=
Geospatial data sets
+
Metadata
+
Clearinghouses
+
policies and standards
+
Human Capacity

7. Human Capacity=The Gap
• A major challenge facing Nigeria and most African countries
that inhibit the implementation of geospatial technologies at
this time is a lack of trained manpower.
• In most GIS projects, much concern is on cost of data,
hardware and software; less attention is given to personnel
• The key issue for success lies in the people responsible for
managing, implementing and using the systems.
• Without properly educated and trained personnel with vision
and commitment to the project, such project may not be
sustainable.
• Moreover, the human capacity is on major component of
SDI, without which the objectives of the GSDI will not be
realized.

8. Training and Education
Concepts
• The role of training and education is crucial to any GIS
implementation. Training and education are fundamentally
different processes which are used to accomplish similar but
unique objectives
• Education emphasizes the salient features of GIS and
imparts a conceptualization of the more generic GIS
• Training instills sufficient familiarity to enable the
development, operation and management of specific systems
• . One cannot be a substitute for the other, but complement
each other.

9. Training
• Training is an intensive process that is
generally delivered in compressed time
formats (e.g. Two days to two weeks),
which uses specialized instructions with a
practical emphasis and requires
concentrated attention on the part of the
trainee. It is geared to immediate
improvements in a trainee’s performance
skills.

10. Education
• Education on the other hand is a much
longer term process that results from
general instruction in a variety of areas,
which has a theoretical emphasis and is
geared to knowledge acquisition and
synthesis. Education results from general
courses and empirical experiences with
interdisciplinary and professional
orientations

11. GIS EDUCATION
FRAMEWORKS:
OBJECTIVISM OR COSTRUCTIVISM?
• Objectivism and constructivism are two paradigms that
have formed the basis of GIS teaching models: teaching
ABOUT GIS and teaching WITH GIS.
• Constructivism holds that knowledge is not transmitted
from one knower to the other but is built up (constructed)
by the learner himself
• Objectivism assumes that there is a real world and
knowledge can be transmitted from the knower (teacher) to
the learner

12. Objectivism:
Teaching ABOUT GIS
This is a training model, which focus
on GIS as a technology and students
are taught to use it.
Emphasis is on technical aspect of
GIS such as data handling and
information management.

13. Constructivism:
Teaching WITH GIS
The latter emphasizes the process of
geographic enquiry and learning to
reason spatially, whereby this helps the
students to construct understanding.
This will give students and teachers alike
the ideal environment to construct
understanding about complex geographic
relationships

14. Duality of GIS Education
In essence, GIS education
his concept involves the
two aspects; teaching
about GIS essentially
deals with either Spatial
DATA handling or
geographical
INFORMATION
management while teaching
with GIS concentrates
more on the inquiry of
geographical KNOWLEDGE
and the development of
spatial INTELLIGENCE

15. What is the difference
• A clear distinction is necessary among data, information,
knowledge, and intelligence.
• Data refers to a mere description of phenomena in the real
world.
• Information is the processed and filtered data with
coherent logical order.
• Knowledge is derived from the processed information by
imposing and testing a cause-effect proposition made
according to previous knowledge.
• Knowledge is converted into intelligence whenever it is
applied to derive new ideas or solve a real problem

16. Please Ponder on these
• Reflecting on GIS education in Nigeria or other African
countries; have we been concentrating on training or
education?
• Are we concerned on the technical aspect of the
technology or the application to solve problems (diseases,
poverty, environmental degradation, social imbalance,
conflicts, violence and others) that seemed to make the
Dark Continent darker?
• Except GIS education moves from objectivism to
constructivism, from training to education and from
technical issues to real life application, we may end up a
society data-rich, information poor, knowledge-starved and
intelligence-devoid

17. GIS EDUCATION AND
TRAINING PROVISIONS IN
NIGERIA
• Self teaching
• Vendor training
• Authorized training centres and
regional training centres
• Customized trainings
• Formal Education
(University/colleges instruction)

18. GIS in Higher Education
• Out of the 51 universities in the country,
none at present offers GIS as an
undergraduate degree course; only few
have GIS built into courses like geography,
urban and regional planning, land surveying,
and geology. Most of these courses run for
a semester or two and aimed at giving
introductory knowledge of GIS theory and
practice.

19. Universities with Postgraduate
Programmes in GIS
• University of Ibadan
• University of Lagos
• Obafemi Awolowo University
• Federal University of Technology, Minna
• Federal University of Technology, Akure
• University of Abuja

20. GIS at University of
Ibadan
The university developed its GISLAB in 1996
under a linkage program with Iowa University,
U.S.A. It runs a professional M Sc degree in GIS,
which lasts for 12 calendar months (2 semesters).
The course is open to graduates of all disciplines
and its main objective is to train candidates to a
professional level where they can apply GIS in
various field of human endeavour. Since the
inception of this course over 300 students have
been trained.

21. GIS at the University of
Lagos
• Department of Geography
GIS education has been very active in the Department of Geography of the
University of Lagos. The GIS and Remote Sensing laboratory was set up in
1988. GIS is built into the curriculum of 300 and 400 level students as
Computer Applications to Geography and Advance GIS.
The department also runs a post graduate diploma (PGD) and MSc in
Geoinformatics which is open to graduates of geography, surveying and
other environmental sciences. The PGD lasts for 2 semesters while the
MSc takes 3 semesters. Successful MSc students may be admitted to the
MPhil or PhD degree program
• Department of Survey and Geoinformatics
The department also has GIS in its undergraduate curriculum after which
students can to be admitted into a higher degree - MSc, MPhil or PhD in
survey and Geoinformatics. The department also runs a professional
Masters degree in Geoinformatics.

22. GIS in Polytechnics and
Colleges
Few polytechnics and colleges have already
developed and integrated GIS into their
urban planning and surveying curriculum:
Federal School of Survey Oyo;
– the Lagos State Polytechnic
– the Polytechnic, Ibadan and
– Yaba college of Technology
The Federal School of Survey also awards
post graduate diploma in Geoinformatics.

23. GIS TRAINING AND
EDUCATION IN
LAGOS STATE
A survey was carried out last year to last year at the Lagos
State Polytechnic with the following objectives:
• to determine the standard of GIS education in all the
universities and polytechnics in Lagos State
• the survey also wanted to establish staff capacities in the
Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban
Development
The result revealed that education and training was the
missing ingredient. In spite of enthusiasm and acceptability
of the technology, only 5% of the staff have the basic
education or training to operate or manage a GIS.

24. GIS EDUCATION
STANDARD
On the standard of GIS education, the survey shows that
teaching GIS in higher education is quite new and the
following were discovered:
• There is no coherent curriculum in all the schools, each
school developed a curriculum to suit their own objective.
• Shortfall in the number of faculty with GIS experience
• Inadequate or ill-equipped GIS laboratory.
• No Licensed GIS Software or none at all
• Inadequate funding of the GIS programmes

25. STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE
GIS EDUCATION
• Determine the need: Carry out a needs
assessment survey to determine users or viewers
who needs GIS training and education
• Develop a standard Curriculum at All Levels of
GIS Education
• Ensure Cooperation and Collaborations among
various educational commissions and institutions
• Re-emphasize Training and Technical Education

26. GIS Training and Education
Need in Nigeria
• Decision Makers and Politicians: This category is responsible for decision making
policies to adopt GIS or spend funds; however they are often neglected. Therefore
should get a general awareness of the potentials and benefits (ROI) of GIS
technology.
• Managers and Administrators: This category is answerable to donors (government or
private) and could be personnel from user departments; they must understand the
conceptual basis of GIS operations and analysis.
• GIS Researchers/ Scientist: GIS researchers are scientists that use GIS as a tool
in their discipline and use or develop specialized and advanced theories in GIS. While
the scientist focuses on advancing the science of GIS and develop new techniques.
These need post graduate research degree in GIS.
• GIS Managers/ Specialist: They are professionals responsible for the overall
system management and administration. Such requires a professional degree in GIS
and must have skills for knowledge in computers, systems implementation and
personnel management.
• GIS Systems Designers and Analysts: the former are responsible for identifying
the need; choose appropriate software; systems specifications and analysis of the
current systems. They need a minimum of BS degree in GIS and must have vast
knowledge in IT.

27. GIS Training and
Education Need
• Application programmers and Tool Developers: They implement system analysis
specifications as programs and develop customized applications
• Operators, technical, and maintenance personnel: These are computing technicians
responsible for daily use and maintenance of the hardware and software envi­
ronment. These may not necessarily be educated in spatial technologies but in
computer related areas up to college level.
• Spatial data technicians These are not professionals but have been trained to input
data, scan, and digitize maps; convert data and maintain data standards; make backup
copies of the spatial data. They need a minimum of college or polytechnic education in
spatial related courses.
• Other Users: these may occasional or frequent users of spatial information and may
not be responsible in any way for the production or modification of such information.
They need to have a general knowledge (at least access, view and manipulate) of GIS.
• The Public: They need to a general awareness of what GIS is and how it is used. This
may be done by introducing basic information technology instructions at pre-varsity
level; and teaching geography related subjects with GIS at elementary and secondary
level.

28. Suggested Levels of GIS
Education in Nigeria
KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED
Postgraduate level
University level
College level
Elementary level
Secondary level
LEVELOFGISKNOWLEDGE

29. Conclusion
This presentation is not extensive but a
snap shot introduction to GIS education
issues in Nigeria. It was able to examine
the development and efforts made so far
in GIS education and training. It
highlighted the gaps and suggested a
framework that will involve teaching
ABOUT and WITH GIS at all educational
levels, this could be adopted by developing
countries.