Progress 09/15/01 to 09/14/06
Outputs
The adoption of geospatial and precision technologies requires adequately trained agricultural professionals and natural resource managers that can collect, manage, analyze, display, and interpret spatial data. Essential to the successful implementation of precision farming techniques is a sound understanding of the global positioning system, remote sensing, variable input application, and geographic information systems. The training of competent and skilled professionals was a central goal of the 2001 USDA/NASA Interagency program for Application of Geospatial and Precision Technologies. Our project appropriately addressed these goals through an effective outreach program targeted at the general public, end-users and future trainers. The Geospatial and Precision Technologies Regional Education Initiative (GPTREI) developed and transfered effective, science-based education to end-users through a series of training modules, short-courses, computer training, and field
exercises delivered through the North Caroling State University Geographic Information Systems Education Laboratory. The end-user short-courses were focused on enhancing problem solving skills and appropriate uses of geospatial data and precision technologies. A key component of the GPTREI project was the development of an content management system (CMS) that would allow for the open sharing and distribution of information associated with the training programs. The CMS is accessible at the url http://OpenAg.Info During the course of the project, the content management system was expanded to include functionality that would allow sharing of data. Soil surveys were designed and developed to improve management decisions in production agriculture systems. These datasets are available in a variety of formats suitable for use in common geographic information systems. Data included with the GIS files covers attributes important for site-specific agricultural production. Specific attributes
are: surface percent sand, silt, clay and organic matter; plant available water holding capacity at 4 depths; soil chemistry properties such as pH, cation exchange capacity and salinity; and yield for more than twenty important agronomic crops. With the development and delivery of the OpenAg.Info Precision Agriculture Soil Surveys, agricultural consultants, farmers and other natural resource managers now have access to value-added products from 2,007 counties in the United Sates. This amounts to an outreach effort of the GPTREI project that ultimately effects two-thirds of the counties in the US. Late in the project, the CMS was expanded the to include a photograph indexing and archiving system that has proved to be one of the more widely used components of the overall OpenAg.Info system. The indexing tool includes categories focused on geospatial and precision agriculture technologies and soil science. Currently, the index contains approximately 1000 images in about 50 categories.
Impacts
The Geospatial and Precision Technology Regional Education Initiative was focused on education and outreach. We chose three pathways of achieving the goals outlined in the original proposal: the NC State University GIS Academy, the PrecisionAg@NCState, and the OpenAg.Info courseware management project. All three of the components of GPTREI are interrelated in that educational materials we use in the GIS Academy are ultimately made available to other users through the open courseware component. Likewise, educational materials and data we use through our PrecisionAg@NCState extension and teaching programs, are made available through the OpenAg.Info project. Although funding has since ended, internet delivery of learning objects for development of education materials continues to be a central focus of the project. At this time, efforts are underway to migrate materials from OpenAg.Info into the larger eXtension system that is currently being implemented by Cooperative
Extension nationwide.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
In 2005, we had a successful year with regards to delivery of research based knowledge to end-users. Through a combination of short courses and field days, more than 350 people received training in the use of geospatial technologies for agriculture and natural resource management. In addition, during 2005, ten new short courses have been developed for delivery in 2006. The courses include new topics such as GIS and GPS applications in waste water management, soil erosion and sediment control, and land use management. Internet delivery of learning objects for development of education materials continues to be a central focus of the project. We have expanded the OpenAg.Info website to include a photograph album. The album includes categories focused on geospatial and precision agriculture technologies and soil science. Currently, the photo album contains approximately 1000 images in about 50 categories. In March 2005, OpenAg.Info was expanded to include custom built
soil surveys. These datasets are available in a variety of formats suitable for use in common geographic information systems. Data included with the GIS files covers attributes important for site-specific agricultural production. Specific attributes are: surface percent sand, silt, clay and organic matter; plant available water holding capacity at 4 depths; soil chemistry properties such as pH, cation exchange capacity and salinity; and yield for more than twenty important agronomic crops. Currently, OpenAg.Info has more than 2000 soil surveys available, covering approximately two-thirds of all counties in the United States. We are continuing to develop materials on the OpenAg.Info website and are in the process of developing a Geospatial Technologies and Precision Agriculture Encyclopedia. The Geospatial Technologies and Precision Agriculture Encyclopedia includes materials about GIS, GPS, spatial statistics, variable-rate technologies, yield monitoring, and many other topics. The
encyclopedia is developed using wiki technology that allows anyone to revise all previous work. As a result the encyclopedia is a continually evolving document that is never truly completed.
Impacts
The Geospatial and Precision Technology Regional Education Initiative is focused on education and outreach. We have chosen three pathways of achieving the goals outlined in the original proposal: the NC State University GIS Academy, the PrecisionAg@NCState, and the OpenAg.Info courseware management project. All three of the components of GPTREI are interrelated in that educational materials we use in the GIS Academy are ultimately made available to other users through the open courseware component. Likewise, educational materials and data we use through our PrecisionAg@NCState extension and teaching programs, are made available through the OpenAg.Info project. And, as authors from around the world make their contributions to OpenAg.Info, we will incorporate those materials where appropriate. The end goals is a continually evolving Geospatial and Precision Technologies curriculum.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04
Outputs
Significant progress has been on the Geospatial and Precision Technologies Regional Education Initiative in 2004. The OpenAg.Infor content management system (http://www.openag.info)) has undergone fine tuning to ease the uploading of open-courseware and open-content. This year we had another successful round of end-user workshops offered through the NC State University GIS Academy. The GIS Academy has been expanded to include more than eight unique courses. Participants in this years training included traditional grain farmers, crop consultants, animal waste managemers, regulatory agency personnel, rural development agency personnel, state and federal agency personnel working in the area of natural resources management, and faculty from other universities.
Impacts
The Geospatial and Precision Technology Regional Education Initiative is focused on education and outreach. We have chosen three pathways of achieving the goals outlined in the original proposal: the NC State University GIS Academy, the PrecisionAg@NCState, and the OpenAg.Info courseware management project. All three of the components of GPTREI are interrelated in that educational materials we use in the GIS Academy are ultimately made available to other users through the open courseware component. Likewise, educational materials and data we use through our PrecisionAg@NCState extension and teaching programs, are made available through the OpenAg.Info project. And, as authors from around the world make their contributions to OpenAg.Info, we will incorporate those materials where appropriate. The end goals is a continually evolving Geospatial and Precision Technologies curriculum.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/02 to 09/30/03
Outputs
Significant progress was made on the Geospatial and Precision Technologies Regional Education Initiative in 2003 with much effort having gone into the development of the course management system OpenAg.Info. This system, available on the Internet at http://www.openag.info, is the hub from which all other components of the Geospatial and Precision Technologies Regional Education Initiative originate. For example, in spring 2003, the PrecisionAg@NCState team co-instructed a senior/graduate student level class entitled Geographic Information Systems in Production Agriculture which used materials subsequently released through OpenAg.Info. Those materials are now available through the PrecisionAg@NCState OpenContent license to other faculty or extension personnel around the world for use in their education and outreach programs. This year we had another successful round of end-user workshops offered through the NC State University GIS Academy. Four extension workshops were
held through the NC State University GIS Academy, with participants including traditional grain farmers, crop consultants, regulatory agency personnel, and faculty for other universities. One new course, Using GIS Resources on the Internet, was added to the list of existing workshops offered. The focus of that workshop was locating on and downloading from the Internet data sets that are of use in solving production agriculture problems. Two of the topics addressed in the workshop focused directly on products of the Geospatial and Precision Technology Regional Education Initiative: the North Carolina Soils Explorer and the PrecisionAg@NCState data distribution system. The North Carolina Soils Explorer is a Internet based soils survey viewable from browsers that meet the standards established by the World Wide Web Consortium. On-line soil surveys are available for 75% of North Carolina's counties. The PrecisionAg@NCState data distribution system is an Internet based index of more than
77,000 links to geospatial data sets for North Carolina.
Impacts
The Geospatial and Precision Technology Regional Education Initiative is focused on education and outreach. We have chosen three pathways of achieving the goals outlined in the original proposal: the NC State University GIS Academy, the PrecisionAg@NCState, and the OpenAg.Info courseware management project. All three of the components of GPTREI are interrelated in that educational materials we use in the GIS Academy are ultimately made available to other users through the open courseware component. Likewise, educational materials and data we use through our PrecisionAg@NCState extension and teaching programs, are made available through the OpenAg.Info project. And, as authors from around the world make their contributions to OpenAg.Info, we will incorporate those materials where appropriate. The end goals is a continually evolving Geospatial and Precision Technologies curriculum.
Publications
- Crouse, D.A. 2003 The NC State University GIS Academy: http://www.precisionag.ncsu.edu/gisacademy Verified Last: 28 Dec 2003
- Crouse, D.A., F. Bridges. 2003 PrecisionAg@NCState Geospatial Data Distribution System. http://www.precisionag.ncsu.edu/scripts/links/index.php?viewCat=51 Verified Last: 28 Dec 2003
- Jenkins, J., D.A. Crouse. 2003. OpenAg.Info: Your source for geospatial and precision technologies courseware. http://www.openag.info Verified Last: 28 Dec 2003
- Crouse, D.A., 2003. GIS in Production Agriculture. http://courses.soil.ncsu.edu/ssc440 Verified Last: 28 Dec 2003
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Progress 10/01/01 to 09/30/02
Outputs
Initial planning and project design was completed in 2002. We developed the first outline of course material, incorporating suggestions from our Advisory Committee and External Review Committee. In developing the course outline, we decided to use an approach to material development that allows for expansion and scalability in the future. A Web-based system of Need to Knows (NTKs), which are the starting points for courseware development, allows anyone to submit material for development. We expect the number and variety of submitted NTKs to constantly increase the amount and range of topics covered. After the initial NTKs were developed, we chose to use the GPS module as an initial test of our development process. All materials developed for GPS by our team are either out for review or published on the Web, ready for access by end-users. A GIS module is ready for review, and work on Sampling and Statistics has begun. Courseware materials include a text decription
explaining the NTK, information for creating slides, questions for testing the revelant material, and images and animations where relevant. As more material is developed and published, we're developing an online courseware management system to allow users to view, combine, and download the materials into courses or presentations for their own use. All courseware created is released under an Open Content License we developed in consultation with N.C. State's legal affairs office. The license allows for the free use and redistribution of all materials released under the license for almost any purpose. We hope that these materials will become the foundation for many precision farming related education and extension programs. Once changes are made, we ask users to allow us to have a copy of those changes to make available to the wider community. In this way, educational materials will expand into a library of information that anyone can use to develop new materials specific to their
situation. We are developing our materials to comply with specifications of the IMS organization, a group that sets standards for the distribution and use of distance learning materials. Standards include metadata cataloging, question and test interoperability, and learner information collection. Compliance with these standards will allow the integration of our materials into a wide variety of distance learning applications. We feel that the combination of Open Licensing and IMS standards compliance will dramatically increase the use of materials developed for the GPTREI project. So far, our plan for content development is a success. As we continue to develop materials for our first outline of materials, revisions and additions to previous modules are occuring. We fully expect completion of our objectives as specified in the proposal.
Impacts
A large part of the GPTREI project focuses on education and extension. As we develop our courseware materials, we are also offering classes and workshops related to precision agriculture. In the spring semester at NCSU, we offered a class titled Geographic Information Systems in Production Agriculture that used material developed for the GPTREI project. Six extension workshops were also held through the NC State University GIS Academy (www.precisionag.ncsu.edu/gisacademy). The workshops offerend in 2002 included: Introduction to GPS and GIS; Managing Spatially Variable Soil Fertility; Spatially Measuring and Estimating Crop Productivity; and Crop Management Zones. Each of these workshops have incorpoarted instructional materials developed through GPTREI. Two major extension activities this past year were the Eastern North Carolina Precision Farming field day, held in Plymouth, NC on August 7th, and the Central North Carolina Precision Farming Field Day, held in
Wilson, NC on November 21. Members of the GPTREI team and invited speakers presented topics and gave demonstrations on a wide range of precision farming issues.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/00 to 09/30/01
Outputs
na
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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