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Ohio students demonstrate impact of World Campus on their work
	Julie Gerhart shows David DiBiase, senior lecturer in the Department of Geography, maps of gas pipelines she and her team created from Columbia Gas’ pipeline database. In the bottom photo, Sandra Thacker demonstrates for DiBiase the software interface she helped develop for digitizing gas pipeline data. Both women are enrolled in the Penn State World Campus Certificate Program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). They work for Columbia Gas in Columbus, Ohio, where they are involved in converting the company’s paper gas pipeline records into a digitized computer format. When their work took them to the company’s State College office last May, they used the opportunity to meet with their World Campus instructor and show him how they are using the knowledge they are learning in the GIS courses to help them on the job. DiBiase, who directs the George F. Deasy GeoGraphics Laboratory at Penn State, is the faculty coordinator for the Certificate Program in GIS. The four 10-week courses are delivered through the World Wide Web, CD-ROM technology and print materials. Students communicate with each other and their instructors by e-mail and threaded discussion groups, which are similar to electronic bulletin boards. “Most of the students in the Geographic Information Systems certificate program are already working in this field, but they lack formal training,” DiBiase said. “The World Campus program offers them an opportunity to gain the background knowledge that will help them do what they do better.” An outreach program of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences