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:
By the end of this lesson, you will have:
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.
The image above shows a basic outline of assignments for all lessons in the course. Students are currently on Lesson 8.
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.
Step | Activity | Access/Directions |
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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 |
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There are three different styles of reading that are referred to in the lessons:
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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. |
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.)
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:
Post your results to your team's Canvas folder.
Continue to work on your project, and be prepared to make your presentation in Lesson 10.
Lesson 9 is a work period.
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