New Technology for a New Century
International Conference 
FIG Working Week 2001, Seoul, Korea 6–11 May 2001

Abstracts

Key words: curricula, assessment, competencies, trends.

Surveying education curricula in the United States varies considerably between the several universities that have educational programs for the profession. Surveying and mapping education in the USA has historically been rather fragmented. Each of the major areas of the profession, as practiced in the USA, cartography, cadastral survey, and geodesy are customarily taught as separate discipline majors, usually at different institutions. The subject area of cadastral or land surveying is sometimes combined with and/or taught within civil engineering programs. In the past there has been almost no coordination or interaction with the earth sciences and other related disciplines or personnel and business management. That is rapidly changing! Practitioners in the surveying and mapping fields are moving rapidly from being collectors of data to being managers of both data and business. They will continue to make intricate measurement and evaluate boundary evidence, for which they will need sound technical education, but they will also have to exhibit superior management skills. The advent of Geographical Information Systems technology and the development of new tools and methods such as global positioning require intensive study at the university level to encompass theoretical, practical, and management skills necessary to operate productively in today's environment. We need to encompass education that is adaptable to the ever-changing requirements of the information age that we are now progressing into. This puts a new level of importance on our curriculum design and assessment. As new methods of teaching strategies are designed and implemented, the assessment of their effectiveness must be undertaken. We are finding that we must continue to change our scheme of education as the profession that we are preparing graduates to enter evolves to fit the changing requirements of society.

CONTACT

Professor Julian "Jud" Rouch
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 South University Avenue
Little Rock
AR 72204
USA
Tel. + 1 501 569 8204
Fax: + 1 501 569 8206
E-mail: jsrouch@ualr.edu 

23 March 2001

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