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Syllabus

Basic Course Information for Fall, 2014

Office Hours

Regular office hours:

Please contact me by email to make an appointment or by phone you cannot make these times or have an urgent issue.

Course Information

From the catalog: Introductory course in Geographic Information Science and spatial analysis involving collection, manipulation, display, and analysis of geographically referenced data. Raster and Vector data, overlays, buffer, proximity analysis and SQL queries.

Prerequisite: GSP 101: Geospatial Concepts or equivalent. To do well in the class, you'll need:

Description

This class will cover everything from acquiring data through producing final, publishable products that contain spatial data (maps) and analysis results (tables and graphs).

The lectures and labs for GSP 270 are based on common, general GIS tasks geared toward a diverse audience of students. The specific data you use may be outside your area of interest, but the knowledge you gain and the skills you'll learn can be applied to any spatial field.

The class covers the concepts behind GIS and touches upon cartography, remote sensing, and the use of GPS handheld. GSP 370 is a natural follow-on to this class and will go into more detail in the concepts behind GIS and additional analysis techniques. Please see the other geospatial classes for additional learning opportunities.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course it is expected that you will be able to:

Course Requirements

Learning Modules

Note: You're the first class to try a new set of "Learning Modules" created for and primarily by our diverse student body's interested. I believe these are the most engaging labs in a GIS class and hope you enjoy them. At the same time, I know you'll find some problems along the way. Please email me when you find problems and we'll address them as quickly as possible.

The class elements are organized into "Learning Modules" where each module covers a single topic in depth. The modules include:

All of the learning modules are on this web site under the "Calender". Each week, you'll want to read ahead to the next learning module so you can start the reading and activities for the next week.

In addition to the learning modules, there will be:

Readings

The readings are critical to covering the full depth and breadth of knowledge in GIS. Please make sure you read the assigned readings each week before the first lecture session. There will be presentations by the instructor and a few visiting experts. There will also be interactive discussions so feel free to ask questions and participate (it is part of your grade). The labs are when you'll get down to business learning to do GIS hands on.

Presentation/Discussion Sessions

The class sessions will include presentations but you're also encouraged to participate in discussions on the current GIS topics.

Labs

I believe the best why to learn GIS is by doing. Thus, the labs are really the core of this class. The readings, lectures, and discussions will give you the knowledge, information, and probably solving ability to tackle just about any GIS task that can be tackled. The "presentations" are really discussions where I'll bring up a topic and review any "tricky" parts of the material and then we'll talk about the implications. If you have problems, please raise them inside of class and out. You'll be surprised how many other students have the same problems.

Other Activities

You'll other in-class activities and ones you can do on your own in the learning modules. If you know of other activities the class might find interesting, please let the instructor know.

Quizzes

The quizzes will focus on recent material covered in class and in lab but will also include previous material, particularly concepts that students are struggling with. This is to both help reinforce the important concepts in GIS and to provide feedback to student and the instructor to help improve the class.

Projects

At the middle of the semester, you'll start on a small GIS project and will create a professional, final report. See the Project page for more information.

Final Exam

There will be a traditional final exam for the class. You can choose to take a "one-question" final instead if you miss one or less quizzes and miss one or less labs during the semester.

Textbooks

Book cover of GIS Fundamentals by Bolstad GIS Fundamentals by Bolstand is required for the class. We'll be covering most of the book but skipping sections that will be covered in more advanced classes.

Grading

Below are the weights for each of the graded elements of the class:

Labs and Projects will be each be graded from 0 to 100 points while quizzes are worth 10 points each. The overall lab score will be computed by adding up the points from all labs (except the Final Lab) and dividing by the number of labs during the semester. The overall quiz score will be completed in a similar way. Participation points will be deducted for missing classes and lab sessions. The final percent grade will be computed with the equation:

Percent Grade = Overall Lab Score * 0.5 + Overall Quiz Score * .35 + Final Project * 0.1 + Participation * 0.05 + Extra Credit Points

Your final grade will be determined by using the Percent Grade to find the letter grade based on the ranges below:

The scores may be curved if needed.

Moodle will be used to post results of labs and tests as they are graded but letter grades are not assigned until the end of the term.

I do not take attendance but there are in class quizzes and in-lab turn in assignments so to do well, you need to attend class and lab

The labs are due by the start of the next lab. Students are constantly trying to fix something in a lab before they turn it in and then miss getting started on the next lab. This can lead to you falling further and further behind. There will be 10% off automatically for labs that are late by even a few minutes. Then, another 10% will be removed for each additional day the lab is late.

Late Assignments

Assignments can be turned in late without deductions if you have an excused absence. Excused absences must be accompanied with appropriate documentation. Examples:

Extra Credit

Extra credit is always available. You can gain one overall grade percentage point by just attending a seminar that includes spatial content and writing up a short (one paragraph) summary of what was presented. You can gain another point by writing up another paragraph with your constructive criticism of the content.

Academic Integrity

GIS is best done as a team sport and you are highly encouraged to seek help from your fellow students and just about anyone else. At the same time, you are responsible for your work and must complete each assignment independently.

You can copy material from web sites and other sources in many cases but you must cite the sources properly.

If you cheat on an assignment or a test, you will be given zero credit for that task. If you cheat multiple times, you will be given a grade of "F" for the class and asked to stop attending.

Additional Information

The Most Important Information Is at the Bottom of the Page!

Note that for your labs, we always put a "turn-in" sections at the bottom of the page so they are easy to find.

To Be Successful

To be successful in the class you need to:

You will need to spend about four hours a week reading and three completing the lab assignments. Sometimes the labs will take quite a bit longer when you get "stuck".

Explore GIS!

I can only cover a small portion of the exiting and growing world of GIS. I encourage all of you to find additional resources on GIS within your area of interest. The Internet is a great way to get started to see who is out there in the GIS world and what they are doing.

Challenges

All of us have things we are good at and things we struggle with. Being a GIS professional requires a variety of knowledge and skills. This includes being able to connect with the outdoors, to working effectively with computers, and communicating results to a diverse audience. When you find something that is hard for you try some of these techniques and then look for more that I can add to the list:

Final Notes

Contact Info

HSU Geospatial Sites

Geospatial information

Previous Year's Content