Short description

Land surveyors are essential for many building and construction projects, for property surveying and for general mapping. This course is unique in among Norwegian university colleges, and fulfills a pressing need for learning at practical and professional levels

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Course Background and Concept

The main idea of the course is to combine geomatic themes such as land surveying, GIS, 3D/terrain modelling and land law in order to fit students to undertake responsibility for carrying out different types of professional surveying tasks. The course is suitable as basic technical land surveying training. The course is also well suited for further professional development for those who have already completed other higher education.

Duration

This is a further education course designed to be completed in one residential year giving 60 ECTS Credits.

Completing the course does not qualify for any formal educational degree, but successful candidatesare able to continue with further studies in GIS, or to join the three-year Geomatics course with its bachelor degree.

Expected learning outcomes

On completing the course, students will:

• Achieve basic knowledge of land surveying theory and practice
• Good skills for handling surveying instruments and software
• Basic skills in geographic information systems and land law
• Practical knowledge relevant to the building and construction industry, the surveying industry, and to the public sector's activities within geodata
• Be fitted to lead and manage more advanced functions in the above mentioned areas of activity in both the public and private sectors concerning mapping, surveying, building and construction.

Target Group

• Upper school leavers
• Engineers from University Colleges from all appropriate course lines
• Engineers fromearlier two-year courses
• Graduates from tachnical colleges
• Candidates with other similar qualifications and work experience

Admission Criteria

One of the following admission criteria is required:

• Higher Education Entrance Qualification
• Completed Technical College studies
• Appropriate vocational experience

Course Structure

The course is designed to fulfill society's needs for practical professional land surveyors.

Teaching Methods:

The aim is to motivate students through modern interactive teaching methods.Topics are introduced in lectures and followed up by guided individual or group exercises and more independent problem-solving projects.

Students are strongly encouraged to develop the ability to work independently. Electronic teaching techniques are being developed continually, with the result that the need for formal lectures is reducing. Wherever possible, student tasks and projects are designed to support and contribute to on-going research and development projects. Most individual topics on the course are studied together with student groups taking other courses.

Personal computers (PC) are used extensively for parts of the course. Students are therefore required to have, or be able to quickly acquire, good skills in the use of conventional PC tools for text processing, spreadsheet processing, electronic mail and the internet. Reelevant market-leading software packages are extensively used. It is advantageous for students to have their own portable PC which can be connected to the College's wireless network. This however is not a requirement.

Course Content:

The topics included within this course are shown in the table below.

Quality Assurance:

The quality of the course is based on:

• The technical and teaching competence of lecturers
• Formal systems for involving lecturers and students together in reviewing performance
• Learning by investigation
• Independent review and assessment of course content

Learning by Investigation:

During the course, students are introduced to methods and techniques which will enable them to undertake simpler research and devlopment projects. Weight is given to being systematic, to literature search and review, and to quoting sources.

Students are thus drawn into contributing to the teaching staff's on-going research and development projects, and in so doing are required to work and report in accordance with a number of performance standards.

Employment Opportunities:

There are many job opportunities in both the public and private sectors: local authorities, national mapping, road and other authorities, building and construction concerns, engineering consultancies, mapping and charting concerns, public utilities, sales, and slef-employed. Tasks are many and widely varying and demand the ability to work independently, both indoors in the office, and out in the field. There are opportunities for extensive travel and for the use of very advanced equipment and software.

Further Studies:

Compleing this course qualifies students for entry to the one-year Geographic Information systems (GIS) course. Students completing both the Land Surveying and the GID courses are then able to join the 3rd year of the Bachelor of Geomatics degree course.

Internal/external examiner

Student assessment methods are chosen as best fitted for the individual course topics. In some cases, a written examination with an external assessor in the usual way is most appropriate. However, external assessors are being used more and more to review individual topic conents to ensure that they continue to be relevant and that they keep in step with technological developments.

Project assessment with oral presentation and defence are being used more frequently as a means of assessing student gradings.

External assessors are carefully selected with more weight being given to their practical competence than to their formal or scientific records. This is applicable especially with respect to projects that are requested by external cooperative partner organisations.

The following table lists the individual course topics, together with the method of assessment and how external assors contribute.

( J = periodical external assessment, E = gradingby the topic lecturer, I = internal assessor, T = external programme supervisor)

Internationalization

There are no specific arrangements for exchanges with foreign educational institutions during this course.