Inter-Field Cooperation in GIS Education in the US

Abstract: Cooperation among different fields of study is important in developing a systematic method of GIS education. We examined inter-field cooperation, particularly that between geography-related and computer/information-related fields for education programs at US colleges and universities that award GIS-related degrees or certificates. Academic fields were classified using ten major classes of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. In the 2007-08 academic year, about 40 % of GIS education programs were based on cooperation between two or more different fields, and about 20 % involved cooperation among more than three fields. Approximately 10 % of GIS education programs were based on cooperation between geography-related and computer/information-related fields, most of which also involved some other fields in various disciplines. Inter-field cooperation in GIS education in the US is considerably more advanced than that in Japan