International IT Conference on Geo-spatial Education, Hong Kong, July 2000. Self-paced Learning of Plane Surveying Concepts and Field Procedures Mark Shortis, Cliff Ogleby and Allison Kealy Department of Geomatics, University of Melbourne, AUSTRALIA Abstract Plane surveying has been taught at the University of Melbourne for over 100 years. For the first 80 years the method of instruction was consistently “stand and deliver” lectures and tutor-led practical classes, influenced only by incremental changes in survey technology. The next 15 years saw the introduction of computers and a consequent change in the practice of survey computations that had impact on teaching, but perhaps little influence on learning. Only in the last 5-10 years has there been a new direction in pedagogy that heralds a fundamental change in the teaching and learning of plane surveying. This change has been enabled by the technological advances in computing that have produced the Internet and multimedia presentations, but the changes have been driven by the demands of the university and the expectations of teaching staff and students. This paper describes the planning and implementation of a multimedia development project that takes advantage of the new technology to transform the curriculum delivery of plane surveying at the University of Melbourne. Introduction Traditionally plane surveying has been a major component of surveying, land information and geomatics courses, typically positioned in the entry level and second years of the courses. Whilst it is also typical that the entry level also contains curriculum material that is a generic introduction to all aspects of geomatics, the primary introduction to measurement science is based on plane surveying. The material is widely considered as foundation studies that underpin later, specialised material such as geodesy, the cadastre, GIS and mapping. Plane surveying at the University of Melbourne is taught to approximately 300 undergraduate students in entry level geomatics courses and service courses. There are eight units with full or part curriculum devoted to plane surveying taught across five discipline areas, namely geomatics, civil engineering, building, forestry and archaeology. The five separate subject streams which deal with plane surveying in whole or in part are currently taught as conventional three or six hour per week units, with lectures on plane surveying principles and mathematical processes, tutorials on calculation practice, and field work on measurement acquisition with surveying instruments. In common with many geomatics programs at tertiary level, the proportion of the course devoted to measurement science, including plane surveying, has been shrinking in response to a number of factors (Williamson and Ogleby, 1999). The first of these is pressure on the number of contact hours in engineering and science courses due to the wide perception of “over-teaching”, which leaves little time for students to engage in elective studies and a more general education at university level. The second factor is the proliferation of combined degree courses, allowing students to graduate after five or six years with two degrees that, when taken separately, would require three to five years each. Although there is commonly some overlap of material between closely aligned disciplines, inevitably some geomatics material is removed from the combined degree programs due to the pressure of time. The third primary factor is the change in emphasis in geomatics courses, such as the course at University of Melbourne, moving away from the more technical skills associated with plane surveying toward higher level design and planning expertise associated with GPS, GIS and land management (Trinder and Han, 1999). Service courses taught to other disciplines are not immune to this pressure, and have also reduced the amount of material on plane surveying. The teaching of plane surveying has had to be adapted to the reduced time available, concentrating on the more common tasks and re-orienting the material toward design and analysis, rather than the mechanical skills of field surveying.