e-Tutor

E-Tutor received international recognition when it was awarded the first prize by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at their symposium in Japan on 20th June 2006.

The e-Tutor for GIS has been designed considering the requirements of wide range of users. The system has been made fully interactive and the users can proceed step by step. The GIS theory is categorized under 22 broad sections and each section has a series of subsections, explained through text and graphical illustrations, supplemented with hands-on exercises. A few GIS applications are showcased explaining the data used, methodology and the results. In addition to GIS theory, a few GIS functions such as network analysis, data base query etc. are illustrated through graphical animations A bibliography covering GIS related literature and GIS glossary are also provided. Uniqueness of this tutor is that it includes self-learning exercises along with a self-contained software package and sample data to provide hands-on training on GIS functionality. Macromedia Director MX was used in the development of the training tool as it supports hyperlinks between topics, display of graphical images and text with animations. The software tool was developed using VC++ 6.0.

Structure The e-Tutor for GIS has six major modules, viz.,Technical content, Animated illustratios for GIS functionality, Case studies showcasing GIS applications, GIS bibliography, Glossary and a self-contained software package with data sets for hands-on exercises.

Technical Content

The technical content is organized in an intuitive manner, to provide exposure to the student on spatial data concepts, models, data structures, database building, analysis, terrain modeling, map layout, applications and future directions. The content dwells at considerable depth on the issues pertaining to spatial data so that a new entrant to the field would easily understand the underlying concepts of geographical data. A wide range of analysis methods guide the user through this important subject that can be called the heart of GIS.

Hands-on Exercise
Any amount of reading text material from a book or e-Tutor requires hands-on practical sessions so that the reader can grasp the concepts better and is no longer intimidated by a technologically complex field. An elaborate set of tasks are included in the Hands-on module so that the user starts with data generation, performs different analysis and concludes with creating map layouts of the outputs.

Case Studies A set of successful casestudieshelp capture the imagination of the student. In our GIS tutor a sample of three case studies are includedto coverwaterresources, rban growth and rural land management applications. Detailed flowcharts maps, images and tablesprovide detailed information about the case studies.

Animated Illustrations Some of the operations are illustrated using animations to provide a glimpse of the underlying steps involved. For a newcomer, complex operations such as formation of a color composite of a remotely sensed image, computing shortest path in a network, delineation of the watershed given a DEM are demystified using the interactive animations to enhance the interest in the field.

Bibliography To supplement the material in the tutor, the reader is provided with a substantial list of books, journals, magazines, GIS companies and important websites.