Award Title: The Geospatial Technology Advantage: Preparing GST Technicians and GST-enabled Graduates for Southern Illinois Business and Industry

Federal Award ID: 1304531

Goal 1:  The grant team was able to utilize resources produced by the NSF-ATE Geo Tech Center in developing courses and curriculum to meet workforce needs in geospatial technology. Using GeoTech’s model courses, the team created industry-focused short certificates in law enforcement and drafting to meet emerging workforce needs in these related fields. These smaller mini-certificates address the growing needs identified and documented by Kaskaskia College’s Geospatial Technology Advisory Board. The Board clearly identified a demand for entry-level skills and internships in geospatial technology.  There is evidence that producing a Geospatial Technology professional with a discipline-specific certificate or degree was simply beyond the scope of current labor market needs in rural Southern Illinois.  The primary need was for working professionals in related industries like agriculture, law enforcement and drafting to acquire basic-level geospatial technology skills to support the use of the technology in those fields.

Goal 2:  Three individuals were successfully placed with regional employers, and one of them was subsequently hired.  The quality of the internship experience allowed students to effectively utilize and expand their skills with ArcGIS software.  For example, the student who was later hired was assigned to work in the tax assessment division in one of the counties in the Kaskaskia College district.  The Supervisor of Assessment commented on how quickly the student intern learned new tasks, working well with software programs and completing the mapping of parcels in the county.  Such student achievements demonstrate the success of the Geospatial Technology Program in preparing interns for responsible positions in this growing field.  Future interns will be expected to work in a variety of settings, including agriculture, law enforcement, engineering, and tax assessment.  In addition, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis has expressed a strong interest in hosting student interns as well.     

Goal 3:  Workshop and professional development events indicate the successful integration of geospatial technology into the classroom by STEM faculty.  Teachers indicated the web-based approach of accessing maps, data, and exercises through web platforms, requiring no special data installation or  software purchases, was a key to the successful use of the technology in exploring issues in STEM areas including healthcare, social science, agriculture, and earth science. The grant team documented a variety of integration approaches, ranging from the inclusion of geospatial technology labs/modules to the addition of geospatial technology applications to course syllabi. (See image 3 for High School and College Professional Development Workshop Agenda)

Goal 4:  Two high profile professional development workshops - The Power of Imagery and Big Data and Local Decisions - were conducted to promote a greater awareness of geospatial technology among regional industries and specific economic sectors.  Workshop participant numbers were strong and survey results documented a very high level of participant satisfaction.  Key outcomes of these events, hosted in the summer of 2015 and 2016, included networking among important state, regional, and national partners in support of the College’s Geospatial Technology Program.  The following partners assisted Kaskaskia College in marketing and disseminating geospatial technology opportunities impacting regional industries, students and faculty (See attached images 2, 4, and 5):

•    NSF-ATE GeoTech Center
•    Illinois GIS Association (ILGISA)
•    Urban and Regional Information System (URISA)
•    Eastern Illinois University
•    Southern Illinois University
•    National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)

Among the resources developed during the grant project was a career awareness video series produced by some of the industry leaders presenting at these regional conferences.

Goal 5:  The Kaskaskia College Geospatial Technology Advisory Board was very active throughout the grant cycle.  Feedback from meetings and surveys clearly contributed to curriculum shifts and program modification.  Industry-driven input from the Board on the evolving nature of geospatial technology and its influence in shaping workforce needs, exerted an important impact on the evolution and development of the program.  Their feedback directly influenced the decision to move from the development of an AAS in Geospatial Technology to creating short certificate-level credentials requiring fewer courses which, in turn, elevated the role of work-based learning opportunities by including them earlier in the curriculum sequence.  (See attached image 1 for last Geospatial Technology Advisory Board Meeting). 

Last Modified: 11/29/2017
Modified by: Mike Rudibaugh