Joseph Holler's Open Source GIScience Resources at Middlebury College
Sep-14 : In this lesson, we will get an introduction and orientation to the course.
Middlebury College Geography Course GEOG0323
For assistance outside of office hours, your resources include:
In this course we will study geographic information science (GIS) with open-source software and critical GIS scholarship. In labs, we will practice techniques to include: data acquisition and preparation for analysis, spatial SQL database queries, automating analysis, spatial interpolation, testing sensitivity to error and uncertainty, and data visualization. We will read and apply critical research of GIS as a subject and with GIS as a methodology. Spatial data sources for labs and independent research projects may include remote sensing, micro-data, smart cities and open government data, and volunteered geographic information (e.g. OpenStreetMap and social media).
Prerequisite: GEOG0120 Human Geography with GIS or approval based on other experience in geographic analysis. Programming experience is not assumed or required! You just need to be willing to learn how to translate the spatial analysis that you know from desktop GIS (QGIS, ArcGIS, etc.) into code.
The major emphasis this fall will be learning how to manage a full GIScience research workflow in an open science framework. We’ll achieve this through:
Open science requires researchers, universities, and publishers to change the way they value intellectual work and intellectual property, and the same goes for instructors and students. Traditional means of evaluating and grading student work that are based on individualism, competition, and secrecy are counterproductive to an open science learning environment.
Throughout this course you will develop a set of your own personal pages and repositories on GitHub, containing all of your work for the course. You will receive qualitative feedback on your GitHub portfolio work from peers and from your professor throughout the semester, and you will be given opportunities to self-evaluate as well. My goal and expectation for your work is that through revision based on feedback, most students should develop a portfolio suitable to show potential employers or graduate schools, earning at least a B+ or A-. Your qualitative feedback throughout the semester serves as your roadmap to this level of achievement. I prefer for us to evaluate your portfolio in whole at the end of the semester for one final grade. However, if there are extenuating circumstances, I can also fall back on a more traditional weighted average of grades for each assignment. Qualities for your work are graded as follows:
| Gr | Description |
|---|---|
| A | Work is excellent, complete, and timely. Your work is ready to show to employers or graduate schools. In addition, you have contributed positively to the collective learning and knowledge base of the class.* |
| A- | Work is excellent, complete, and timely. Your work is ready to show to employers or graduate schools with very minor revisions. |
| B+ | High quality work. Your work is ready to show to parents and friends, and almost ready to show employers or graduate schools—pending minor revisions. |
| B | Good work. Your work needs a fair amount of revision to remedy errors and/or full effort to some more cursory components. You could use one more round of feedback and revision before sharing with employers. |
| B- | Decent work. There are a few significant errors and/or gaps that need addressing before you can share the work with a potential employer. |
| C’s | You have demonstrated learning and intellectual growth, but important components of your GitHub portfolio are not working or in need of complete revisions. C+ needs at least one additional round of feedback prior to sharing work with a potential employer, whereas C or C- may need more. |
| D | Work is incomplete and/or cursory |
| F | Not attempted |
*There’s no public record of your contributions in chats, GroupMe, or similar communication channels. If you’re using these, I suggest posting a summary in a GitHub Issue.
If for any reason we need a more traditional weighted grading arrangement, the weights shall be:
20% Quality participation in blog posts, class discussions & debates, and so on20% 7 Workshop accomplishments illustrated in blogs or short reports60% 4 Major Labs with reports, of which one is an independent replication or reanalysis study weighted equally with the other threeWorkshops
Labs
There is no required textbook.
Digital materials will be provided on this site and in other repositories of the GIS4DEV GitHub Organization, including a private repository for literature.
You must be willing to use a variety of free software and apply for/subscribe to a variety of free internet-based services, listed below. We will not install or sign up for all of these programs/services at once, but please attempt to get each one running quickly as you are prompted throughout the semester, so that we have ample time to troubleshoot or find alternative solutions. Remember all of your passwords
In weeks in which no lab is due, please write a short blog post reflecting on new class content (readings, discussions, activities, workshops) connecting them to their significance for you, in terms of any internships, independent research, other courses, personal experience, or career aspirations you may have. You could also take a less personal perspective by connecting content to relevant current events and societal / environmental issues. The most straightforward approach to organizing a blog post is in response to any of the discussion prompts from that week. To facilitate class activities, some weeks will include more specific direction for the week’s post.
The timing of this is flexible: you could reflect on readings prior to a class meeting about them, or extend the in-class discussions afterward. Post your thoughts by Tuesday of the following week.
Posts should include references to relevant readings by listing them at the end (similar to how I have done in this course site) and linking to their DOI, if one is available.