Published on GEOG 885: Advanced Analytic Methods in Geospatial Intelligence (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog885)

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Lesson 08: Analyst Challenge Exercise

Introduction

Introduction

Projects constitute an important component of the program because they teach higher-level cognitive and interpersonal skills. The approach of this seminar and the project you are undertaking provide considerable freedom of choice regarding both the exact nature of the task and the methodology by which this is carried out. The project can be a real-world project or one based on a simulated or artificial situation. As the name suggests, real-world projects are based on a real-life situation of some sort and generally involve some form of field work. The overarching theme for all the seminar’s problem domains (security, law enforcement, and business) is this:

"What are the common geospatial analytic thinking skills in the domains of security, law enforcement, and business?"

This theme allows the seminar participants to collaborate as a whole and work toward establishing at least the outline of a comprehensive analytic method. The project's specific objectives:

  1. To test your understanding by applying geospatial concepts, insights, and analytic skills covered in the seminar or your research.
  2. To become actively involved in the learning environment.
  3. To create a pool of example geospatial intelligence scenarios that facilitate the presentation of future analytical materials.
  4. To learn how to proceed through structured stages of analytical activities.
  5. To learn how to access diverse resources, how to evaluate their relative merits, and how to utilize such resources for specific ends.
  6. To collaborate within a team in the delineation, coordination, execution, and evaluation of individual research responsibilities as part of an overall project including providing (mutual) support, sharing resources, and constructive assessment of individual activities and findings.
  7. To present your "findings" in the context of the analytic process you followed.

Lesson Deliverables

By the end of this lesson, you will have:

  • Discussed the problem you will analyze.
  • Select and apply one of the contrarian techniques to the Luna case.

The Course Roadmap is intended to help you understand where we are in the overall learning process and to place our dual case study and project focus into context.

 Course Roadmap: see text description in link below for more information
Figure 1: Course Roadmap
Click for text description of figure 1

The image above shows a basic outline of assignments for all lessons in the course. Students are currently on Lesson 8. 

  • Lesson 1: Introduction and Review
    Case Study & Project
  • Lesson 2: Structured Geospatial Analytic Method (SGAM)
    Project
  • Lesson 3: Structured Analytical Techniques
    Project
  • Lesson 4: SGAM - Question and Grounding
    Case Study & Project
  • Lesson 5: SGAM - Hypothesis and Evidence
    Case Study & Project
  • Lesson 6: Diagnostic Techniques
    Project
  • Lesson 7: SGAM - Fusion and Conclusions
    Case Study
  • Lesson 8: Challenge Exercise
    Project
  • Lesson 9: Work Period
    Project
  • Lesson 10: Presentation
    Project

Lesson 8 is one week in length. (See the Calendar in Canvas for specific due dates.) To finish this lesson, you must complete the activities listed below. You may find it useful to print this page out first so that you can follow along with the directions.

Steps to Completing Lesson 08
Step Activity Access/Directions
1 Read the Lesson Overview and Checklist. You are in the Lesson 08 online content now. Click on the "Next Page" link to continue.
2
  • Read Lesson 08 online content.
  • Scan The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis [1]
  • Scan A Tradecraft Primer: Structured Analytic Techniques for Improving Intelligence Analysis [2]
There are three different styles of reading that are referred to in the lessons:
  • Scan: Do not deal with all of the content, but search through the material for a specific purpose or a specific word (or its synonym). Scanning is used for such purposes as finding the answer to a particular question.
  • Skim: To skim, read a page by reading the headings and first sentences of each paragraph or section.
  • Read: The purpose of this style is to understand the concepts and arguments that the text contains, and it should be preceded by the Skim reading style.
3 Complete the Analyst Challenge Exercise. Complete your use of a Contrarian Technique [3] for the Luna case. Post your results to your team's Canvas project dropbox. 

NOTE: All of the team's work will be contained in a single document file uploaded to the team's dropbox in Canvas.
4 Read Lesson Summary. You are in the Lesson 8 online content now.

Questions?

If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the GEOG 885 - General Discussion Forum. (That forum can be accessed at any time in Canvas by clicking on the Modules tab. The General Discussion forum is listed under the Orientation Section.)

Team Project: Apply a Contrarian Technique to the Tentative Conclusions

Team Project: Apply a Contrarian Technique to the Tentative Conclusions

Apply one of the contrarian techniques from A Tradecraft Primer: Structured Analytic Techniques for Improving Intelligence Analysis to explicitly challenge your project's tentative conclusions. Techniques include:

  • Devil’s Advocacy
  • Team A/Team B
  • High-Impact/Low-Probability Analysis
  • "What If?" Analysis

Post your results to your team's Canvas folder.

Summary

Summary

Continue to work on your project, and be prepared to make your presentation in Lesson 10.

Looking ahead

Lesson 9 is a work period.


Source URL:https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog885/l9.html

Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog885/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog885/files/geog885q//file/Lesson_08/PsychofIntelNew.pdf [2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog885/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog885/files/geog885q//file/Lesson_07/Tradecraft_Primer-apr09.pdf [3] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog885/node/2026