2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Geographic information systems (GIS) technology is a platform for creating, managing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data. As GIS technology continues to evolve, its use among engineers is increasing across subdisciplines of civil engineering, particularly in designing and managing of civil infrastructure. A GIS course in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at XXXX University was created with an overall objective of teaching civil engineering concepts and software skills through integrated projects in ArcGIS Pro. This project integration includes a collection of smaller, individual projects (IPs) that provide students with the skills necessary to complete an integrated core project (ICP). This semester long ICP is a group project that thematically ties together CEE concepts, guiding students through the sequence of a residential site development project. Part 1 of the ICP requires a comprehensive assessment of the existing site, including topography, slopes, land use, soils, and zoning calculations, which provide real constraints and regulations for the students to adhere to when developing a conceptual site plan layout. Once provided with a final site plan design for Part 2, students apply spatial analysis tools to evaluate drainage patterns and earthwork volumes, cut profiles from existing and proposed surfaces, calculate quantities for a materials cost estimate, and create a web application to manage an asset inventory of the development’s storm and sanitary utilities. The first two offerings of this course have used two different ICP sites, both actual development projects designed by a local engineering firm and subsequently built. All projects in this class use real data, with students prompted to solve a problem, analyze a data set, or design a solution from the perspective of the engineer. Thus, the integrated projects link GIS tools and skills to real engineering context, an approach that has proven valuable to student learning. Two semesters of assessment data based on anonymous post-course surveys have shown that students overwhelmingly appreciate the project-based structure of this course. Additionally, survey data has shown that regardless of the ICP site used, students find a core project to be extremely helpful in contributing to their learning and that the core project effectively connected concepts throughout the course. While the perception is that this is a software class, students have agreed this course has helped them learn civil engineering concepts in addition to GIS skills. Thus, the integrated, project-centric approach employed in this course is an effective model that may be translatable to similar, software-focused courses in civil engineering or other technical fields.