Meeting & Agendas

George Strebel discussed the responsibilities and length of term. Committee Member Richard Wade expressed his willingness to serve as Chair. Committee Member Thomas Brown expressed his support for Richard Wade as Chair. Committee Member Kristi Teykl made a motion nominating Richard Wade as Committee Chair and Committee Chair George Strebel seconded the motion. The motion made by Committee Member Kristi Teykl to nominate Richard Wade as Committee Chair was approved by unanimous vote. Newly elected Committee Chair Richard Wade thanked members for the opportunity to serve and asked members to introduce themselves.

ACC GIS Department Chair Sean Moran updated the Committee on enrollment; awards; internships; new hires; Service Learning Projects; the 2018 Spring Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) workshop; mapping Mission Concepcion; and ACC GIS Micro Courses. See below for slides from the ACC GIS Program Update. Mr. Moran also discussed the new computer labs at Riverside and Highland Campuses. Committee Chair Richard Wade suggested holding the next meeting at the Highland Campus. Committee Member Richard Wade mentioned the intern program at TNRIS and how it may be expanding. Committee Member Emily Cowles added to the discussion by describing her job at Indeed and how she and two of her GIS analysts were once GIS interns.

Mr. Moran explained how the current GIS Level II award plan offers a GIS restricted elective where students select three of five GIS Level II courses. The restricted elective was created after the Texas Legislature and ACC mandated that all AAS degrees be 60 hours. Because the GIS Level II is stackable certificate within the GIS AAS degree, the GIS restricted elective is embedded within both awards. Unfortunately, the ability for students to select three GIS courses from a pool of five GIS courses has resulted in some courses ‘stealing’ students from other courses. This has led to the cancellation of some GIS Level II courses because of low enrollment. Mr. Moran noted that GIS Level II courses are only taught once a year. If cancelled, that means a GIS Level II course would not be offered for two consecutive years. Mr. Moran discussed three possible solutions to stabilize enrollment listed below and outlined in the attached memo provided to Committee Members prior to the meeting. No action and hope that enrollment in Level II courses improves. Dissolve the GIS Restricted Elective by removing two of the five courses from our GIS awards. The three remaining courses would be required for students seeking their GIS Level II Certificate and/or AAS Degree. Dissolve the GIS Restricted Elective by: Replacing ITSW 1307 Introduction to Database:Access in the GIS Level I curriculum with GISC 1421 Intro to Raster-Based GIS. This would also require replacing EDUC 1300 Effective Learning (3 credit-hour) with online EDUC 1200 Effective Learning (2-credit hour) so that the GIS AAS Degree satisfies the 60-hour associate degree requirement. Combine the curriculum for GISC 2459 Web-Served GIS and GISC 2479 Geospatial Data Management into a single enterprise GIS course. The course would still be called GISC 2459 Web-Served GIS to maintain compliance with the Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM). Require that all students seeking their GIS Level II Certificate and/or AAS Degree award complete GISC 1401 GIS & GPS; GISC 2435 Programming for GIS; and GISC 2459 Web-Served GIS. Mr. Moran mentioned that other colleges across the United States offer Raster-Based GIS in their GIS Level I certificate. In the follow-up discussion, Committee members conveyed the need for a database component in the GIS Level I Certificate but agreed that something has to go. ACC Professor Stephanie Long mentioned that ArcGIS Pro does not support personal geodatabases - which is based on Microsoft Access...the desktop relational database management system used in the ITSW 1307 Introduction to Database: Access course. Committee Chair Richard Wade inquired about the possibility of taking no action while ramping up our marketing effort. Committee Member Diana Martin inquired about moving GISC 2479 Geospatial Data Management course down to the GIS Level I Certificate. Mr. Moran explained that if we move GISC 2479 Geospatial Management down to the GIS Level I Certificate, we would need to combine two other courses in the GIS Level II Certificate. He said it would strengthen enrollment but we’d lose the enterprise database component of our Geospatial Data Management (i.e. Microsoft SQL or MySQL are too advanced to teach in an introductory course). Committee member Christi Teykl questioned the importance of GISC 1401 GIS & GPS course. She felt that students can learn GPS on the job and that not knowing GPS would not prevent a student from getting hired. ACC Professor Sally Holl mentioned the idea of removing GISC 1421 Raster-Based GIS but including more raster-based projects in the Intro to GIS and Intermediate GIS courses. Mr. Moran explained that some topics that are cut from the curriculum could be taught as an ACC GIS Micro Course. After some discussion, the Committee coalesced around the following option: Remove ITSW 1307 Introduction to Database: Access from the GIS Level I Certificate. Move GISC 2479 Geospatial Data Management from the GIS Level II Certificate to the GIS Level I Certificate. Dissolve the GISC 1401 GIS & GPS course and keep GISC 1421 Introduction to Raster-Based GIS, GISC 2435 Programming in GIS, and GISC 2459 Web-Served GIS as required GIS Level II courses. Committee Member Martin made a motion to proceed with the proposed option and Committee Member Cowles seconded the motion. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor and 3 votes opposed.

Ms. Long explained the format of the program and when it began. She also presented statistics with the current number of students and whether they are entirely within the CBE program or are attending courses both online and in the classroom. She explained how all students are interviewed prior to enrolling in the CBE program to gauge their level of comfort with computers and ensure they’re a good fit for an online program. Ms. Long shared a few student success stories about students who were only able to get the level one certificate because of the CBE program as they were not able to attend courses held in a classroom. See below for slides from the CBE Program Update.

Ms. Holl discussed the first three micro courses offered this semester and how the GIS department would like to offer a total of five in the spring. Mr. Moran explained the cost of each course is $95 per student with $15 going to ACC and $80 going to the instructor. The committee had several suggestions for future micro courses including GPS, Geospatial Interpolation, Enterprise, QGIS, Python, Management, Public Health, Business, Oil & Gas, Collector and ListServe.