Main Points: University

• Informed user / Awareness
• Analyst / User
• Programmer / Creator

The Informed User
This student is interested in geography and/or spatial concepts but doesn't know yet if they want to pursue it in more depth. They should be aware of certain important aspects of GIS including metadata and the benefits of it, but they don't need to know technical jargon or details.

Methods:
• Weave the concept throughout the course, particularly with the use of vignettes that apply to a situation the students can relate to
• Use of game exercises such as a scavenger hunt on the web

The Analyst
This student should have explicit knowledge not only of metadata but of the Starndard. Whether or not this student is going to become a GIS professional or professional in another field that uses GIS, they need to go through "pre-marriage counseling" pertaining to the pluses and pitfalls of the use of GIS. Therefore they should expect dull but necessary lectures like the "death march"

Methods:
• Students find certain aspects boring in lecture, such as projections and metadata: only touch on these during lecture, and then hit them with the specifics during exercises
• Have the students keep a log book as they work through their GIS project. Midway through the course, make the connection between the log book and metadata to drive home the importance of it.
• Have the students write their own "standard" by asking them what they consider to be the important aspects of data, and then compare answers between students to demonstrate the necessary complexity of the Standard
• Put them through an exercise where they have to suffer the pain of not having the necessary information about the data that they need to make correct decisions for development or analysis.

The Developer
This is a student (probably graduate level) with a strong background in computer science, programming and data management, that is either in GIS or switching over to GIS as his/her primary field.

Methods:
• Graduate seminar probably best delivery: seminar topics would include all the big metadata issues and issues in related areas such as digital libraries
• "Peer to peer" mentoring - direct one-on-one interaction between the student and a metadata expert
• A possible exercise would be to retranslate the Standard for a particular audience/need, such as Peter Schweitzer's "Plain English" translation

Desired products: University

Tools for educating the Informed User:

• A journal paper or an article in Geo Info Systems on educational methods that integrate metadata
• An intro-to-metadata website (that minimizes use of the word "metadata") containing different vignettes that would allow the student to relate to real world examples. Success stories, horror stories.
• Several example course syllabi (Intro to Maps/ Spatial Data; Intro to GIS, Applications of GIS), indicating which lectures/exercises where implicit and explicit references to metadata may be made.

Tools for educating the Analyst:

• A journal article on deconstructing the Standard - its intellectual foundations (could be a thesis project)
• Provide example exercises which can be easily customized for courses. Exercises should include metadata creation using one or more existing tools.
• An annotated version of theStandard, similar to the Green Book but with more examples/FAQs, with less technical jargon, or with a more "plain english" glossary. Make this a hyperlinked on-line version, if possible.
• Up-to-date list of metadata experts who would be willing to be guest lecturers
• Sample or actual data sets with "good" and "bad" metadata

General products:

• A workshop for professors interested in teaching metadata, to bring them up-to-date
• Employer survey. How important is metadata as a skill? - this would be a good motivator for professors to start incorporating metadata in their classes
• GIS Education conference with a metadata theme
• Identify experts in metadata in other fields (non-spatial): What issues have other fields encountered?
• Bring digital libraries people to a GIS meeting or vice versa
• Journal article: Empowerment - who creates data, who changes it?
• Journal article: Studio course implementing GIS and using metadata to facilitate data-sharing
• Explore avenues for incorporating metadata into the UCGIS model curriculum
• Explore avenues for reaching/motivating technical college programs

Main points: Self-paced and/or distance learning

• GIS Knowledge: novice to expert
• Application professional: novice to expert
• Software experience: novice to expert
• Metadata knowledge: novice to expert
• Metadata presence: hidden to fully-revealed
• Delivery: structured/synchronous to structured/asynchronous to unstructured/asynchronous

The "novice" is a new audience that is just beginning to emerge. Up until present, all metadata education assumed that the audience was GIS professionals - managers or technicians: people who should already have some basic spatial knowledge and background.

Method:
Web based, problem-solving approach
Teach the concept of three components of spatial data (spatial, attribute and meta)

Main Points: Workshop Group

• Determine appropriate content base on audience, venue, time frame, interest and skill level
• What is the most effective way to advertise and get students?
• How can I show costs & benefits of collecting metadata to management?
• What is the best way to follow up to ensure metadata gets on a clearinghouse?
• How to help people fill out difficult elements.
• How to make a person see their data set from a different point of view.
• What media are most effective for presenting materials.
• Measuring learning/application of training to create metadata
• How do I offer a range of achievable objectives which they can select as follow up?
• How does the trainer address multiple learning styles?
• How to develop operational plans to deliver metadata training over the long term?
• How to impart to the trainee to create metadata for the long term.
• What are the teachable moments?
• How do I impart a sense that there are useful resources and support available?
• How do I, as a trainer, know where the "best" materials are?
• Are there suggestions we can make to users for collecting metadata while developing data?
• How to be efficient in presenting the importance & implementation (standard) of metadata in a given time frame. (Methods)
• How do I help the students feel a sense of excitement, commitment, and value in the development of metadata?
• How to find low cost & appropriate facilities & equipment for a workshop.
• How to gain the trust of the participants.
• How to match the student with the appropriate presentation
• Overcoming the desire to complete minimally compliant vs. comprehensive metadata.
• What can (should be) the role and responsibilities of the trainer?

Audience / Level of Competence

• Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced
• Intro (AV), Professional (A/I), Management
• Familiarity with the standard
• Geographic audience / all levels
• Time-selected (repeatedly available in my geography, and people can come once, or again)
• Awareness - Interest - Desire - Action (BW)
• Day-long workshop where people can come to the beginning (overview for manager), partial
• (overview of tools), and full-day (hands-on)
• Subject-oriented (GIS vs. non-GIS, or project-focused)
• Discipline (biology, cultural resources)
• Trainer

Educational Objectives

• Make data available via clearinghouse
• Students should know why it is good to write quality metadata
• Managers should know why they should commit resources
• Solve roadblock issues
• Help them understand that it is not separate from data; dispel metafear; infuse metadata into daily activity
• Provide a hands-on experience

Content

• Definition
• Importance; costs & benefits
• The Standard, and its importance
• Other resources
• Content
  • Can include hands-on
  • Tools
  • Q&A & discussion of content
  • How to read
• Context
  • NSDI & Clearinghouse
  • Data management & information management
  • Validation & quality control

What Worked:

• Greenbook - a valuable resource, but it needs to be rewritten. Use it wisely
• Biting the standard apart. Present it in small pieces.
• Using a tool to complement the training. "Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I'll remember; involve me, and I'll understand."
• Help them understand tool types: stand alone, integrated with GIS, integrated with the Clearinghouse (web-based)
• Applying the standard to questions that people bring to the class
• Ask them what information that they would want to get from a data provider, then show them how their questions map to the Standard
• Price of admission to workshop: a dataset to document
• Provide prizes or certificates
• Provide out-of-the-box tool on a diskette they can take with them
• Send follow-up: thank you/great job/letter to boss
• Using evaluation form: get their beforehand knowledge and after-workshop assessment
• Use personal touch from personal experience
• Understanding the audience beforehand: make yourself one of them - they don't like to have "outsiders" teaching them. Some people want stuff which is beyond the standard (institutional and technical issues).
• Have management and team leaders present for part of training (implies a stamp of approval)
• Teach them how to read metadata for data sets that are applicable to them: overcomes that feeling of being overwhelmed by the standard ("metafear")
• Show them metadata within context of clearinghouse: data discovery
• Use visual examples - scale, different projections, clipped areas, color-coded standard
• Use higher-education co-sponsors for workshops to provide computer laboratories in exchange for reserving several seats in the workshop for students
• Contact attendees before hand to find out needs, ask them to bring data to class, and even get basic information from them so that when they arrive there is already a minimally-compliant document ready to motivate them
• Keep it small
• Give them resources to go away with

What doesn't work

• Saying "it really isn't all that bad"
• Don't do a workshop focused solely on the Green Workbook
• Be careful about input overload - vary the content of the workshop
• Don't leave the "hands on" portion to the very end
• Don't lecture after lunch, do "hands on" instead
• Don't do it all in one day!
• Don't be too dependant on technology - have hard copy backups
• Don't let the students run the show - control expectations, set out expected outcomes right away
• Try to avoid mixing students of too many different disciplines

Desired Products: Workshop Group

• Develop workshop curriculum based on time available: agenda suited for 10 minutes, 1 hour, half day, one day, etc.
• Train the trainer resources
• additional modules for audience-specific or topic-specific subject areas
• update the Green Book, inviting non-metadata experts to test the language
• Annual Tool Evaluation - part of GIS World
• Metadata Help Desk
• Training calendar
• Communication mechanism among trainers
• Trainers' web page resource list not open to public, list of existing hand outs and slides
• 1 day vendors' workshop on tools
• Trainers/Educator joint workshop