• Practical instruction that can be applied in real world situations
• An understanding of state and federal requirements that govern land development activities
• Problem solving skills and references to apply to existing and anticipated projects
• Hands-on exercises and scenarios for students to become comfortable with the guidelines, forms, and techniques
• Required for planning for and implementing land development projects impacted by various state and federal requirements.

Course Identification and Design
Geomatics Workshops has a select number of course topics that were chosen based on input from surveys of engineers and land surveyors and from the expertise of the course instructors. Questionnaires are disseminated at each workshop presented, asking students for additional topics of interest to be presented in future workshops.

Courses are designed by the individual instructor based on past practical experience, instructional experience and input form students. Most courses include a background/introduction section, practical problem solving examples and a final project or overall problem to be solved in individual group settings.

The content and method of presentation of each course is evaluated by students via a questionnaire disseminated near the conclusion of each workshop. Students are asked for their ranking of the method of presentation, course content, subject matter and relevance of the course to their profession. Courses are “tweaked” or revised based on input from students. Courses are also updated as the subject matter and course content change based on updates in the subject matter as warranted by updates in the profession.

Instructor Selection and Evaluation
Instructors are selected based on their years of experience in two categories:

• Professional experience in their field of expertise
• Experience in a teaching/instructional environment

Geomatics Workshops consists of three instructors with over twenty (20) years each of professional experience and at least 5 years each of instructional/educational experience. There are no plans to add additional instructors. If the need arises to add additional instructors, the minimum qualifications are at least ten (10) years of professional experience and at least five (5) years of teaching experience.

Instructors are evaluated based on three methods:

• Evaluation forms completed following each presentation of a workshop
• On site evaluation performed by the Geomatics Workshops Administrator
• Random emails or phone calls with follow up evaluation questions to students completing the courses.

Assessment of Learning
Each student is usually involved in group exercises which involves solving a problem or problems indicative of the course or topics involved. Each group presents findings to the class as a whole. Courses also involve “mini-exams” throughout the workshop in order to gage the participants knowledge of various topics discussed throughout the day.

Records Maintenance
Geomatics Workshops has been maintaining records of each course since its inception in 2002. Course records include the date and location, name and curriculum vitae of the instructor, the objectives and learning methods of the course, an outline of the course, the assessment methods, number of course hours, evaluations of the course and a list of licensed practitioners in attendance.