The USC Center for Scholarly Technology (CST) has released a video featuring SSI Lecturer Kirk Oda and SSI Associate Director Susan Kamei entitled "Streamlining Online Course Design for Better Student Experience." The video, which is an outgrowth of a presentation by Oda and Kamei at the Center for Scholarly Technology last fall.
Dr. Oda, who holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Texas A&M University, has been teaching online courses since 2011. Along with Associate Director Kamei, Oda describes the SSI approach to developing a master course shell (template) to streamline and standardize course design to improve students’ experience across courses. As introduced in the video, SSI faculty have collaborated with the CST to leverage the online course delivery system (Blackboard) into a customized, flexible learning environment resulting in a replicable, adaptable model for distance-learning.
The USC Spatial Sciences Institute delivers a Geographic Information Systems and Technology Graduate Certificate and M.S. degree online. The program currently has 50 students pursuing the certificate and 150 pursuing the M.S.. Dr. Oda teaches SSCI 581 "Concepts for Spatial Thinking" and SSCI 589 "Cartography and Visualization" in the graduate program.
