Title: A GIS Core Curriculum for the 2-Year College An increasing number of Geographic Information System (GIS) technician positions are being created by industry and public sector users of GIS. Community Colleges are attempting to create GIS programs that will meet this demand. This project addresses the need for a supporting resource for the GIS curriculum design and course building activities taking place in a number of the two-year colleges. The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) in collaboration with a number of community colleges and current NSF Advanced Technological Education Projects will develop a GIS Core Curriculum for Technical Programs (CCTP). This World Wide Web-based resource will support efforts to develop discipline-specific GIS materials by providing access to the fundamental elements of GIS theory and practice as they relate to efforts to provide GIS technician education in the community colleges. The CCTP will be patterned after the successful NCGIA Core Curriculum in GIS developed for university level GIS curriculum development and will also draw from the experience of the current effort to update and create a World Wide Web (WWW) version of the Core Curriculum in GIS. NCGIA and an Advisory Council, including GIS specialists from community colleges, the GIS industry, and the GIS user community, will select GIS educators from the community colleges to participate in a week-long Work Session to create a framework for the CCTP. The framework will outline the essential units of material and a format for the CCTP. Following this session, each unit will be written by an individual with expertise in the unit topic. The completed set of units will be compiled as a WWW resource and will be tested in a number of community college GIS curriculum development and GIS instructional activities. Following a detailed evaluation from the sites testing the CCTP, it will be edited and made widely available via the WWW and CD-ROM.
