Geography 17 is a weekly course that uses hands-on experience to provide students with essential mapping and spatial analysis skills. Students are not expected to have prior experience with GIS, but basic computer skills and a desire to learn and explore are essential. This course is fast-paced and requires a large amount of independent work. It relies on student initiative and students are strongly encouraged to share experiences, knowledge and suggestions with the instructors and each other.
The Geography 17 course offers a balance of in-class lectures and demonstrations with applied homework assignments and final project research and development. Students will learn the fundamentals of desktop and web-based GIS applications through use of Esri's ArcGIS software suite and ArcGIS Online. The course's Canvas website is central to the organization of the course. It provides the syllabus and is routinely update updated with student grades, new assignments, links and hints as the course progresses. The Canvas site will also provide web links for data sources and additional information on GIS and analysis topics.
Geography 17 is taught as a hybrid course with weekly in-person class meetings. Students should be prepared to devote ~3 hours a week time to complete work outside of the classroom. The weekly meetings will provide short lectures and hands-on demonstrations to prepare students for the weekly assignments. Online lessons, in the form of videos and other forms of interactive training, will also be assigned. Students are encouraged to work in small groups to learn together, but each student will be responsible for his or her own assignments.