Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

Carsten Braun
,

https://carstenbraun.us/

cbraun@wsc.ma.edu

Westfield State College
a

Public four-year institution, primarily undergraduate

Summary

This is course is an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using ArcGIS as the primary software platform.

Course Size:

15-30

Course Context:

This is course is an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using ArcGIS as the primary software platform. This course has no pre-requisites, but serves as a pre-requisite for the Advanced GIS course. The course is taught online. The majority of students are regional planning or environmental science majors, although online courses tend to attract students from other majors as well.

Course Goals:

- Students should be able to create meaningful, intelligent maps using ArcGIS.
- Students should be able to download and use GIS data from websites.
- Students should be able to perform simple quantitative analysis and interpret spatial patterns.

How course activities and course structure help students achieve these goals:

The course is broadly structured around a popular GIS Tutorial, but supplemented with personalized assignments and short projects to reinforce important skills and concepts. Assessment is based on 9 homework assignments and three short projects.