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March 2015
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
masters and Ph.D. levels. More recently, in response
to industry’s demands, Virginia Community College
member institutions developed the Geospatial Tech-
nician Education (GeoTEd) program (
). This initiative, led by David Webb (Virginia
Western Community College), Cherie Aukland (Thom-
as Nelson Community College) and Sandy Stephenson
(Southwest Virginia Community College), is supported
by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and the Geo-
spatial Extension Program at Virginia Tech.
GeoTEd builds academic pathways to employment
for GIS technicians at the community college level.
The program was initially implemented in Virginia,
and has since expanded to include community col-
lege faculty across a six state region (Virginia, West
Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Maryland). Project partners support community
college member institutional efforts to offer geospa-
tial courses and develop pathways to support local
workforce needs through professional development
and mentoring. As a result of the GeoTEd program,
at least 20 new geospatial technology-based college
courses are now offered through the Virginia Com-
munity College System (VCCS). Hundreds of new
students have been exposed to geospatial technol-
ogies through local community college courses and
high school dual enrollment programs. GeoTEd has
also influenced Virginia Tech’s academic strategy -
e.g., a well-established Introduction to GIS course
has been recently divided into two courses – one as
an entry-level geospatial class, and a second to ac-
commodate the growing need to support transferring
community college students.
Through GeoTEd, cohort members attend inten-
sive training and instruction over a seven- day peri-
od during the summer. The cohort receives mentor-
ing throughout the first year by program instructors,
before returning to another week long institute in
year two. Mentoring continues during their second
year. The GeoTEd program serves as a springboard
for community college faculty and high school teacher
participants to pursue additional workforce develop-
ment opportunities, including ESRI’s Teachers Teach-
ing Teachers GIS Institute (T3G)
) and
the Integrated Geospatial Education and Technology
Training (iGETT) program
.
At the doctoral level, Virginia Tech has made im-
portant contribution to geospatial education through
a Geospatial and Environmental Analysis (GEA) doc-
toral degree, and an Interdisciplinary Graduate Edu-
cation Program in Remote Sensing (RS-IGEP).
