UA Monticello adds virtual option to land surveying program

Robert Blakeley, the new University of Arkansas at Monticello Land Survey instructor, will help administer the hybrid learning concept which includes a virtual option. (Special to The Commercial/University of Arkansas at Monticello)
Robert Blakeley, the new University of Arkansas at Monticello Land Survey instructor, will help administer the hybrid learning concept which includes a virtual option. (Special to The Commercial/University of Arkansas at Monticello)


If you own property, are constructing a building or simply wanting to know whether your house is built in a flood zone, you've most likely used a land surveyor.

This fall, the University of Arkansas at Monticello will have a virtual option in its land surveying program.

Even though land surveyors play such an important part in daily life, most people have no clue what a land surveyor does. Surveying has been described as an element in the development of the human environment since the beginning of recorded history.

UAM's College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources (CFANR) offers one of the oldest and most well-established land surveying programs in the state. The college offers associate and bachelor's degrees in land surveying.

The UAM-CFANR will offer the new component to its land surveying program beginning in the fall semester. CFANR Dean Michael Blazier announced the college's new hybrid learning concept, saying the hybrid is an offshoot of what the school learned from its adjustments made during covid-19.

"It's not a fully online program," Blazier said. "It's introducing virtual class attendance as an option, with some attendance in-person at flexible times for important course activities. It's what we call a hybrid approach to instruction."

"This is a larger issue within higher education," Blazier said. "We are realizing that students are needing flexibility more and more. It's a lesson we are all taking from our covid period. During that time, there were forced needs to go at least partially online with instruction. If we have gone through that entire experience and don't take some positives away from it, then we haven't gained where we could have."

UAM learned a lot of lessons quickly on how it can offer coursework online, he said.

"Now that we are back to our regular operations, we want to marry together what we learned about online class instruction with what we traditionally have done. That is where this term 'hybrid attendance' comes from. We have our normal instruction but also co-offering some online flexibility," Blazier said.

To help administer the newly designed teaching format is Robert Blakeley, hired in June as UAM's instructor of surveying. Blakeley spent nine years as a land surveyor with the Arkansas Department of Transportation, where he performed control surveys, topographical surveys, construction surveys and boundary surveys.

The Hamburg native and graduate of the UAM surveying program is passionate about land surveying.

"One of my primary resources to grow the profession will be offering the degree programs through flexible virtual platforms," Blakeley said. "This will allow students who cannot attend traditional on-campus classes to receive the same content."

Blakeley said the technology has been all worked out. He will be on a microphone and widescreen classroom camera.

"If I have a PowerPoint presentation, they'll see everything full-screen that's on the PowerPoint. Not only can they log in and see it live, but those lectures will also be recorded so they can access them on their own schedules," he said.

Blakeley said that works well, especially if students have full-time jobs during the day. They can now view the lectures in the afternoon or evening. Blazier stressed that the expectations will be the same for students attending lectures virtually as for those attending in-person.

"When it comes to labwork," Blazier said, "students will still have to come to campus from time to time to exhibit proficiency in some of the lab assignments. We will also work with them on scheduling some flexibility on a set date."

Blakeley said there are some flexibilities for the traditional labwork.

"If the student is working for a professional licensed surveyor, that surveyor can work with me to administer how well the student displays competencies in lab exercises," he said.

Blakeley said the CFANR encourages students to become licensed professionals.

"Regulations were changed in 2017 about substituting years of hands-on experience for education. The law now requires any individual wanting to be a licensed professional to have an education, whether that be an associate degree or a bachelor's degree," he said.

Enrollment in the fall 2022 semester at UAM is open, and there is a campus-wide registration scheduled for the evening of Aug. 2. UAM classes start Aug. 17.

For registration details, call the UAM College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources office at (870) 460-1052, or email CFANR@umont.edu.

The University of Arkansas at Monticello and the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offer all of their programs to all eligible persons without discrimination.

Lon Tegels is with the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Arkansas at Monticello.

  photo  Skylar Stafford of Donaldson uses a Topcon Total Station in this file photo. Stafford graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Land Surveying degree at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, according to a spokesman. (Special to The Commercial/University of Arkansas at Monticello)
 
 


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