Teaching Surveying Ethics by Distance

Steven Frank

Dept. of Surveying Engineering, NMSU

ABSTRACT

The Department of Surveying Engineering at New Mexico State University and the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of Maine joined to offer a one semester unit distance education class

-- Surveying Ethics -- starting in January 1998. The same instructor (the author) teaches the course at both universities. The course is available either over the internet of by video correspondence. Differences in registration procedures, course completion length and school policies between the two universities have been overcome with excellent staff help. At any one time there are usually 4 to 10 students enrolled in the course. To date about 30 students have gone through the course. Because the nature of the course is self-paced, many students fail to complete the course. The course is being used by several state registration boards as a condition of receiving or reinstating professional surveying licenses.

INTRODUCTION

The National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES), already endorsing an excellent ethics program for engineers at Texas Tech in Lubbock, put out a request for proposals to develop a surveyor-specific ethics education program in 1996. New Mexico State University put in a joint proposal with the University of Maine to develop the program under the investigation of Steven Frank, Dept. of Surveying, New Mexico State University (NMSU), Knud Hermansen, Dept. of Spatial Information Science & Engineering, University of Maine (UMaine) and Danny Scoccia, Dept. of Philosophy, NMSU. The proposal was accepted in 1996, but funding problems occurred that delayed ethics education program materials development until between February 1997 and April 1998. Funding from NCEES was arranged by NCEES asking for donations from state boards of registration and state professional surveying societies.

DEVELOPMENT

Two manuals specific to surveying ethics issues were written -- Professionalism and Ethics for Surveyors and Case Studies: Ethical Practices for Surveyors. Both manuals were peer-reviewed by a committee of five surveying practitioners located from New York to California. Input was also obtained from members of several state boards of registration for surveyors as well as other interested surveying practitioners. This course material is available in hardcopy, as HTML documents over the internet, or on videotape.

A one-semester continuing education course was developed jointly at NMSU and UMaine. Although have different course numbers, the syllabus and instructor are the same at both universities. The course is available either over the internet or by videotape. The University of Maine provides a website where all students -- registered either at UMaine or NMSU -- can take the course using the internet option. Those requesting the videotape option must register through NMSU. Approximately 15 hours of videotape were filmed at both NMSU and UMaine. Instruction in the course began in January 1998 at UMaine, but was delayed until March at NMSU due to incomplete videotaping.

The course syllabus and materials are exactly the same at both NMSU and UMaine, however administration policies are different. UMaine has developed an “asynchronous” schedule, allowing students to enroll at any date, from which date they complete the course in three months. These means that several students may be in the course at any one time but at different stages within the course. Since this is a continuing education course, student interaction with other students is minimal, if it occurs at all. However, each student must interact with the instructor through homework assignments and are encouraged to ask questions at anytime during the course.

The course at NMSU is taught twice per semester. Although students cannot take the course “asynchronously” through the registrar’s office, we have allowed them to do so in fact. A student who misses a registration deadline is told to register for the next session. Once fees are paid, materials are sent or a password given and the student can commence work. This approach appears to be working quite satisfactorily for both students and the instructor. To date (Spring 1999) approximately 40 students have enrolled in one of the two courses.

CENTER FOR SURVEYING ETHICS STUDIES

Surplus monies from the research were used to establish the Center for Surveying Ethics Studies at NMSU. This Center provides a means to publish and distribute both manuals as well as the videotape. Manuals are made available at $10 apiece. Cost of the tapes is $100, roughly the cost of duplicating and shipping the tapes. Students registering for the videotape option current must pay for the videotapes, but receive copies of the manual as a part of their course registration. One student taking the course by internet also purchased the videotape, which may have contributed to her receiving one of the highest grades in the course.

Sales of manuals and videotapes are also made available to state surveying societies, state boards of registration, other surveying colleges and universities as well as the general public. To date, the Center have generated enough funds to support a part-time student assistant.

STATE BOARDS OF REGISTRATION

NCEES, to obtain funding for course material development, contacted the state board of registration and professional society in each state to ask for a contribution to fund the project. Several state boards contacted us about using the course as an educational requirement for licensure, relicensure or reinstatement of license so we understood early on that the course would be used as a disciplinary tool for some state boards.

Each state board of registration and each state professional surveying society were sent gratis copies of the course manuals. To date, several students have confided that they are taking the course at the request of a state board. The State of Kentucky has mandatory continuing education which requires a course in ethics or professional issues every other year and surveyors from Kentucky are using this course to meet those requirements. Texas, with strict rules for pre-approving mandatory continuing education courses, has approved the distance course in that state. Two states, California and New Jersey, have purchased copies of the videotapes for internal educational efforts.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS

Surveying ethics seminars have been taught in several states using the developed materials. Some of the seminars have been taught by Steven Frank or by Knud Hermansen, but course materials are available to others who have also taught ethics seminars, notably in Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

The course materials are also used to teach SUR 401 -- Professionalism and Ethics in Surveying -- a two semester credit course required for Surveying Engineering students at NMSU. Manuals have also be sent to other surveying programs to be introduced into course materials for teaching surveying ethics in those programs. A gratis copy of the manuals were sent to the chair or coordinator of all the ABET accredited surveying programs and several other programs that appear to be seeking eventual accreditation. Both course manuals and videotapes have been ordered from other surveying programs.

The peer-review committee of five professional surveyors were granted a stipend under the funding proposal to NCEES. In each case, the reviewer asked that the stipend be kept by NMSU and contributed to either a scholarship or to student travel to national professional surveying conferences. To date, one student has used funds to travel and a scholarship is being prepared to be given in the spring semester of 1999.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

A distance education course in surveying ethics was developed with funding from NCEES. The course was developed and is being taught jointly by NMSU and UMaine. A Center for Surveying Ethics Studies was established at NMSU from surplus monies. State boards of registration are using the distance course or materials developed for the distance course for licensure, relicensure, reinstatement of licensure or mandatory continuing education. Materials developed for the distance course are also being utilized for seminars and for conventional surveying program courses within colleges and universities. Peer-reviewers for material development have contributed to educational help to NMSU surveying students. The course appears to be a success.