Guide to the geographic approach and GIS&T BoK

Two learning resources: UCSB and Esri teamed up on a 100-video #GIScience curriculum spanning ethics, theory, and technology. UCGIS offers the #GISTBoK (GIS and Technologies Body of Knowledge), an interactive knowledge base of 400+ topics, for a self-guided path through the field’s foundations.
Author

Ralph Straumann

Published

August 29, 2026

Two potentially interesting learning resources:

Guide to the Geographic Approach

The UCSB1 and Esri collaborated on a YouTube GIScience2 curriculum. Titled “Guide to the Geographic Approach”, the materials encompass around 100 videos ranging in length from 2 to 15 minutes each.

The Guide has 20 project-based modules combining GIS background, ethical lessons, technical skills, and problem-based labs, video lectures, ethics lessons, and a discussion board (the videos are on YouTube). It covers quite a wide range of topics.

A landing page, theuscbguide.com, offers more information:

Based on input from across the GIS community, it offers materials for teaching GIS and GIScience using the most up-to-date technologies and teaching approaches. The UCSB Guide emphasizes workflows, ethics, and cloud computing for applied problem solving. Built using project-based learning, the UCSB Guide integrates conceptual understanding and applied skills through case studies and hands-on activities. Developing a foundational skillset rooted in modern GIS will enable future professionals in any industry to apply geospatial thinking and analysis to solve new and existing problems.

The problem-based labs and technical skills use Esri-based examples, though not exclusively. If you are not a user of Esri products, the theoretical and ethical contents may appeal more to you than the more applied parts.

GIS&T Body of Knowledge

The UCGIS3, a non-profit organisation that creates and supports communities of practice in GIScience and whose membership consists of a large number of USA-based universities, offers the Geographic Information Science and Associated Technologies Body of Knowledge (or GIS&T BoK, for short). The GIS&T BoK is an online resource that explains GIScience concepts and theories (on average, in more technical depth than the Guide to the Geographic Approach, I would say).

Users can navigate through the following knowledge areas and discover topics and sub-topics interactively:

  • Analytics and Modeling
  • Computing Platforms
  • Cartography and Visualization
  • Domain Applications
  • Data Capture
  • Data Management
  • Foundational Concepts
  • GIS&T and Society
  • Knowledge Economy
  • Programming and Development

Overall, the GIS&T BoK holds more than 400 topics. A dashboard offers a map view:

Dashboard view of the UCGIS GIS&T BoK Living Textbook

From what I have seen, the GIS&T BoK is vendor-neutral.

Footnotes

  1. University of California, Santa Barbara.↩︎

  2. Geographic Information Science, the scientific study of the fundamental concepts, methods, and theories underlying geographic information systems and geospatial data.↩︎

  3. University Consortium for Geographic Information Science.↩︎