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FeaturesChapter Sequence
The book contains an introduction and 15 chapters. Each chapter includes roughly one week's work for a typical three-credit semester course, although Chapter 15 is best covered over two weeks. This book intentionally contains somewhat more material than the average GIS class can cover during a single semester, in recognition of the fact that instructors vary in their consideration of which topics are most important. In the author's introductory GIS course, we work steadily on the material in the book for 11-12 weeks, and the remainder of the semester is devoted to project work. The remaining chapters provide helpful information for student projects or material for continued study after the course is over.
An introductory chapter describes GIS and gives some examples of how it is used. It also provides an overview of GIS project management and how to develop a project and proposal. The remaining chapters can be divided into five basic sections: I. Basic Skills: Chapters 1-5 introduce basic skills on working with GIS data, including learning the ArcCatalog and ArcGIS interface, creating maps, working with tables, and generating map layouts and reports.
II. GIS Analysis: Chapters 6-8 introduce different analysis techniques, including queries, spatial joins, and map overlay. Chapter 9 shows how to create map layouts.
III. Data Entry: Chapters 10-12 teach geocoding and editing. Chapter 11 provides the critical skills needed by most people to do basic data entry; Chapter 12 can be considered optional and covers more advanced ways to manipulate features.
IV. Advanced Topics: Chapters 13-15 introduce advanced data management and analysis, including working with geodatabases and using networks. Chapter 15 provides an introduction to raster analysis for those with the Spatial Analyst extension.
The first five chapters are best followed in order to ground the student in critical skills. After completing these basic skills, some variation in chapter order is fine. Those preferring a more project-oriented approach, for example, might wish to use the following order: Chapters 1-5 on basic skills, Chapter 11 or 11-12 for editing, Chapters 6-8, 10, 14 and possibly 15 for studying analysis, and Chapter 9 for presenting the results. Minor adjustments to the exercise problems may be needed if the chapter order is varied.Chapter layout
Each chapter is organized into the following sections:
Concepts: provides basic background material for understanding the principles and techniques involved in using ArcGIS. A set of review questions follows the concepts section.Tutorial: contains a step-by-step tutorial demonstrating the concepts and skills learned in the chapter. The tutorials begin with detailed instructions, which gradually become more general as mastery is built. Every step in the tutorial is demonstrated by accompanying video clips.Exercises: presents a series of problems to build skill in identifying the appropriate techniques and applying them without step-by-step help. Through these exercises the student builds an independent mastery of GIS processes. The problems are graduated in difficulty from the first to the last, and end with a Challenge problem. Answers or solution methods are included for selected exercises. Skills Reference: provides step-by-step instructions for carrying out the most frequent and important tasks being learned. This material is similar to the program documentation but is organized by topic and demonstrated with video clips.
The CD-ROM contains all the necessary data and documents to follow the tutorials and complete the exercises.
Instructors should use judgment in assigning exercises, as the typical class would be stretched to complete all the exercises in every chapter. Assign about half of them as a starting point, and adjust if necessary. A very good student can complete the entire set in 3-5 hours, most would need 6-8 hours, and a few would require 10 or more hours. Students with extensive computer experience generally find the material easier than those who make only limited use of computers. |
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2006 McGraw-Hill Higher Education