DEVELOPING A HOLISTIC VIEW OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION-SYSTEMS

This article considers ways of improving students' understanding of Ge ographical Information Systems (GIS) which they often perceive to be f ragmented entities. An attempt was made to counter this view by presen ting students with an assessed end-of-course project, designed to acco mmodate all the requirements of the 'deep learning approach'. The proj ect was implemented using a groupwork format. Project evaluation throu gh a student questionnaire produced feed-back has revealed that the pr oject design, implementation, learning format and environment were eff ective. It also has revealed that the central objective of establishin g a holistic overview of a GIS as one entity was fulfilled. Furthermor e, the project was found to enhance and add to student knowledge and u nderstanding of GIS, provide a mechanism to reflect on the whole proce ss (starting from sampling the real world and ending by applying the f indings to the real world) and to build confidence regarding GIS usage .