Where can one get Mapbasic training materials for cheap? No money to pay
MapInfo their rather high fee for a couple days training.
Dick Hoskins
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Thoen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "MapInfo-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 2:29 PM
Subject: MI SUM: MapBasic training courses - Pro and Con?
> 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
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