Last week I asked the list for comments and suggestions about
MapInfo�s MapBasic training courses. I was particularly
interested in how people manage to teach such a large body of
statements, functions and techniques to a class of MapBasic
beginners in only two days. I was also looking for suggestions on
what changes could or should be made to improve the results.
I received several responses, both from students and trainers,
but since many requested anonymity, I won�t name any names. (But
thank you all anonymously!)
1. The first difficulty almost everyone noted was that to cover
so much in so little time that it is very critical that the class
be pretty much "on the same page" to start. Students must at
least know how to use MapInfo already, and they also should
understand GIS concepts to a similar degree. Most important is
that they really ought to have had similar experience with
programming (or script writing). Even so, that level of
programming experience could be as little as none, but for best
results the entire class should have the same level, or the
classes need to be small to allow the instructor to help the ones
who need it. Most people thought that class sizes should be no
more than six to eight, and one insisted that they be no larger
than four.
2. Material
The following suggestions relate to course material:
a.) Everyone should have their own machine to work on. Doubling
students up two to a machine works, but not well. People need to
learn from their own mistakes, and not watch their partners do
all the typing.
b.) Provide a floppy disk of the examples. Preferably include
more examples than are covered in the course, but make sure these
are coordinated with the lessons, or extend them in a clear
progression of increasing difficultly so that more experienced
students can go as far as they are able while waiting for the
others to catch up.
c.) The course workbook was considered by most students to be
good enough to be used after the class was over. Instructors all
had opinions that the workbook could be better organized.
One response (from an experienced trainer) really went to town on
the MapBasic course workbook. Having reviewing it myself now, I�d
have to agree on all this person�s comments. The "Fundamentals"
section is not well organized. For example, the concept of "User
defined type" is presented before there�s any talk of variables
themselves (and then types are never mentioned again), with the
only justification being that Types are usually defined at the
top of a code module (Q: If types have to appear first in a
program, must you also present them in a course first? A:
Definitely not!) User Defined Types, IMHO, are composite
variables, and shouldn�t be discussed with the simple variables.
Student should see (and work) an example first using only basic
variables (smallint, integer, float, string and string*n, date
and logical) before facing the Database and object variable types
(table fields, alias, obj, and styles) all BEFORE you show them
the composite ones (types and arrays.) Presenting them in order
of where they have to appear in code is backwards, I think.
The user interface section was considered to be pretty good and
again I agree with the responder. Students are surprised to see
how simple this is (at the basic level, at any rate). There�s a
lot here, and so an instructor doesn�t usually get much beyond
this chapter the first day.
The next day tries to cover the last 89 pages of the book, and
that appears to be too much. Thematic Mapping is a tedious one to
teach, as the shade statement is extremely overloaded and
complicated. It would be nice to be able to teach people how to
build "wrapper" functions so as to separate all the various
flavors of "shade" into more easily understood calls, but alas,
that�s an intermediate topic... Still, the examples in the "class
project" provide a good job of following the course up through
"Obtaining System Information", building one application from
scratch up to creating a thematic map based on a user choice
(that was a good idea!)
Unfortunately, the coordination with the examples stops when it
comes to object manipulation. This section is a bit thick for
beginners and the examples aren�t very good as instruction tools.
"Nearest neighbor" and "Disperse" are neat applications, but they
try to show too much and don�t follow the course all that well. I
think that "map objects" is a very important topic too, but this
chapter needs better organization. There�s too much in MapBasic
related to objects to teach it all in the time allowed, but what
to cut, and how to arrange it so that students have enough basics
to continue on their own?
Finally, the sections on the Animation layer, Event Handlers,
DLLs, and DDE, don�t belong in a beginners� class. Eliminating
these would allow more time for "hands-on" labs. The SQL chapter
does belong in an intro course, but for beginners, only the
basics of SQL should be covered, and that should be moved up to
be included on a (currently missing) table manipulation chapter.
Surprisingly, most "beginner programming" students have never yet
used the MapInfo "SQL Select" under MapInfo�s Query menu!
SQL select is a must-know topic if you are ever going to mess
with tables programmatically. Also, there are really two levels
of SQL that need to be mastered: basic table manipulation, and
the more complicated object manipulation. These probably ought to
be presented in two places. Just because they both use SQL
doesn�t mean they are in the same category. The first ought to be
concerned with manipulating data, and the second with performing
GIS operations with objects like (contains, within, intersects,
using buffers, etc.) Neither should get too deep into SQL for a
beginners� course. You could spend weeks on SQL if you wanted to,
so you need to draw the line somewhere.
3. Presentation
Most instructors just try to follow the course workbook, and some
of the problems that makes for presentation are touched on above.
However, beyond that, students� most often-cited issue on
presentation was that they wanted more hands-on experience. For
instructors that problem was also always acknowledged, and also
always with the lament that there�s too much to cover in such a
short time to leave much room for lab work. One student responded
positively to a UK course where they received about 10 minutes of
lecture followed by 10 minutes of hands-on examples. Maybe the
rapid back-and-forth method from lecture to lab is better than a
long lecture and then a long lab (where you have less control of
time.)
How to get more time to present everything? A couple of
possibilities come to mind. First, don�t try to cover so much in
an intro class. One experienced trainer suggested that for the
typical beginner, topics like the Animation layer, DLLs, and DDE
could be dropped and hardly missed. Maybe providing some examples
on a companion CD for the student to cover those topics later on
his or her own would be a better way to present these topics, or
move these into a more advanced course.
The lack of separate course tracks tailored to class interests
came up more than once. Students want such short intensive
courses taught in the context of their industry. This also saves
time if everyone is in the same industry, and gives them real
examples they can use immediately. Although I can think of
industry applications that emphasize certain tools and techniques
over others, I can�t think of many reasons why you can�t, for
example, demonstrate "object manipulation" with examples that
come from any industry. The down side to that is that providing
so many alternatives is expensive and requires even more ability
on the part of the instructor. I also got strong hints that a few
instructors are not even able to teach the basics let alone be
flexible enough to handle alternative tracks.
4. Alternative Education
One suggestion was to create a version of this course (and
others) on video tape. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, and
something worth considering.
Overall, most people responded positively to the mapbasic courses
they�ve taken or had to present, so it seems like it meets most
people�s goals, but it�s clear that there�s room to do it better.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my questions; you�ve given me
something to think about!
- Bill Thoen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
"unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
