Inside HigherEd: U Wisconsin-Stevens Point to Eliminate 13 Majors - The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point plans to address “fiscal challenges” with changes in the curriculum and staff. "Programs pegged for closure are American studies, art (excluding graphic design), English (excluding English for teacher certification), French, geography, geoscience, German, history (excluding social science for teacher certification), music literature, philosophy, political science, sociology and Spanish."
The University of Geneva offers a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Geomatics for a Sustainable Environment (pdf). The program includes a MOOC. The certificate program is limited to 30 participants. Via LinkedIn.
Depaul: Geo 140 - Mapping Workshop for Online Storytelling - "This 2-credit workshop introduces students from any major to software that enables the integration of online maps with text and images. Software packages such as Esri's Story Map, CARTO, Google Maps, StoryMapJS and Boundless will be introduced."
On and Off Campus
University of Arizona Project Navigate: This story map describes the Office of Naval Research project I noted in October 2016 which "encourages ROTC students and student veterans to pursue careers as scientists and engineers with the U.S. Navy." Among the topics covered in the story map: introductory courses designed for ROTC students, the land navigation competition, and student-veteran mentoring.
Washington Elm: Letter to the Editor: Concerns About Internship and Staff Wages - A Washington College senior speaks out about wages from the perspective of a worker in the GIS lab.
Palm Beach Post: Drone will allow PBSC students to explore untamed land and sea - Palm Beach State College bought a drone. "The college bought a Phantom 4Pro that can shoot photos and videos with 4K resolution. The college paid $2,199 for the drone, camera, batteries and needed accessories."
The University Star: Geography students research to develop trails - Texas State geography students map local trails for a non-profit.
"On Tuesday, February 12, 2018, geography students presented their original research on the millennial and student housing markets in Keene at a Keene City Council meeting at City Hall. Mark Landolina ’18, Kevin Salina ’18, and Kathryn Van Veen ’18, geography majors working with faculty mentor Dr. Christopher Cusack, completed a real-world project that will help the City navigate the changing housing demands of the community."
AZEDNews: Shadow Ridge High School Students Have an Eye for Architecture - "Created by teacher Scott Thomas, the Signature Architecture Program (SAP) at Shadow Ridge [High School, Surprise, AZ] is a four-year program of study in residential, commercial, structural steel detailing/modeling, civil and geographic information system (GIS) subjects. The SAP integrates STEM subjects along with other academic subjects to develop 'hands-on' industry-standard projects to demonstrate academic relevance to real world problem solving."
Hotsr: EAST students develop map system for housing authority - "The Hot Springs Intermediate School EAST Program recently partnered with the Hot Springs Housing Authority to create an interactive online map that housing authority employees can use to better track their properties."
Education News
TechCrunch: Coursera teams with 5 universities to expand its full masters and bachelors degree programs - Coursera is adding more degrees with partner schools: Arizona State University will offer a Master of Computer Science; Imperial College London, a Global Master of Public Health; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Computer Science; University of Michigan both a Master of Applied Data Science and a Master of Public Health. The University of London will offer of a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. The cost? ~20K. Launch is set for the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019.
MOOC-Learners is a company that provides "credit transfer among universities and industries, particularly for the mass open online courses (MOOC)." To date it has very few actual members. I count two universities (one from Dominica and one from the U.S., neither of which i've heard of) and five colleges (three are in Malaysia and one, Saylor Academy, which is not a college, in the U.S). To join, an institution or MOOC provider is asked to pay, via PayPal "USD 100 for registration and USD 100 for 5 years duration." From what I understand that means that the MOOC provider can claim it offers "transfer credit." It's not clear to me which institutions will accept that transfer credit. If you are serious about getting credit for MOOCs, I'd check out this article from MOOC Central with what seem like more mature solutions. H/T David DiBiase.
Resources
The Campus FM Technology Association (CFTA) shared a recording of a webinar on the Autodesk Esri partnership.
People
Altoona Tribune: Earth Matters: Late geography professor made a lasting impact - A student of Pierce Lewis reflects on his impact.