Course Description
Fundamentals of geographic information science (GIS) concepts and techniques, and to foster students' geographical thinking in a GIS environment. Students will exercise concepts and techniques through hands-on practices in ArcGIS, a leading GIS software package.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
1. Identify a journal article about a GIS application, and
present it to the class.
2. An independent final project.
Athena Title
Introduction to GIS
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in GEOG 4370 or GEOG 6370
Non-Traditional Format
This course will be taught 95% or more online. Each topic has a dedicated module consisting of a PPT file of lecture notes, a recorded teaching video, a lab handout, a quiz, and a checklist of items to be completed. Review presentations and final project presentations are to be recorded by students with instructor-provided tools and resources. Each student is expected to have a computer running a windows operating system. A student version of ArcGIS will be provided to the student for installation.
Semester Course Offered
Offered summer semester every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students are expected to: 1. gain an understanding in modeling geographic phenomena in digital environments 2. compile, organize, analyze, and visualize geographic information with GIS software 3. be familiar with the leading GIS software ArcGIS 4. be able to develop a GIS project for a real world problem
Topical Outline
1. Introduction to basic concepts 2. Map projection and coordinate system 3. Digital representations 4. Input vector data and digitize 5. Georeferencing 6. Vector data analysis 7. Raster date input 8. Raster data analysis