Integrating GIS into the undergraduate learning environment

Despite the promise of GIS, substantial barriers have prevented its widespr ead use in geographic education. Among the key factors are technical impedi ments stemming from software complexity pedagogic issues related to the lac k of experienced faculty and the shortage of curriculum materials, and syst emic issues associated with faculty motivation. This case study describes s trategies that were employed for addressing each of these barriers in a lar ge enrollment, multisection world geography course. Successful implementati on of those strategies has enabled large numbers of students in classes tau ght by instructors with no formal GIS experience to spend a substantial amo unt of time learning geography with the help of simple, easy-to-use GIS sof tware applications.