Geography and Environmental Management Self-Assessment Collection: A Self-Assessment Package for GIS

Geography and Environmental Management Self-Assessment Collection (GEMSAC), endeavours to bring selfassessment and speedier independent learning to large numbers of students This interactive computer-based package was devised to give students taking an introduction Geographical Information System course (GIS) the opportunity to measure their progress and obtain immediate feedback. Geographic Information Systems draw from many disciplines and techniques and so require a great deal of diverse knowledge, even at a basic level. In addition to this particular consideration the challenge was to reach large groups of students having varied educational backgrounds and skills. The success of GEMSAC depends on students getting ready access to it via the fatuity-student network which consists of a number of libraries or banks of questions. By logging on to the network, the student is presented with a set of objective-type questions selected at random from these banks. Formative assessment is presented with each question answered. Because of the random selection, each test consists of a different set of questions. A pilot study was carried out on 60 students during 1997 and after revisions; it was used again in 1998.