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Case study:
Forest management planning

Context/pedagogy

Subject area: Forestry

LTSN Subject Centre: Bioscience, University of Leedshttp://bio.ltsn.ac.uk [opens in a new window]

Applicability to other subject areas: This case study could be adapted for use in many land management and land-use planning applications, particularly agriculture and conservation.

Ease of transferability of ideas to other subject areas: Very few of the concepts and skills that are developed in this case study are specific to forestry; most are fundamental to the use of digital mapping in any land-use management application.

Level: The module is designed to provide an entry-level course in digital mapping for graduate students with a bioscience background.

Participants: The module is developed for a class of 20 M.Sc. students supervised by one tutor at Oxford Forestry Institute.

Independent study/group work: Students use independent study of web-based tutorials to develop their mapping and planning skills. Data is collected in the field through co-operative project work.

Study mode: Full-time graduate students

Pedagogical approach: Problem-based learning

Teaching methods: There will be no formal lecturing. Instead, computer-based self instruction, peer teaching and co-operative project work will aim to develop active learning.

Typical learning time: Five days

Prior knowledge required: Students will have a good knowledge of forest resource assessment methods.

Assessment:
Formative assessment:
1) monitoring of progress through achievement of project tasks
2) providing the students with guidelines and criteria they can use in judging their own progress and products

Summative assessment:
Submission of a management plan for a specified area of UK woodland prepared to the standards set by the Institute of Chartered Foresters. This contributes 25% of the marks awarded to the final degree.

Evaluation: The students will evaluate this module at three stages during the course, using a critical incident questionnaire. Feedback from these questionnaires will allow the tutor to respond rapidly to problems.

The tutor will evaluate progress through achievement of project tasks.

Prior experience: GIS and forest mensuration have been a core component in this M.Sc. course for over ten years. Students have been required to submit a forest management plan, including resource maps, as part of their final assessment for the last six years.

Last updated: May 30, 2003