Instructor: Hojat Yazdanpanah
Office: Geography 215C
Lab: Geography 121
Office Hours: See Canvas.
Secure messaging: Via UBC Canvas

Lecture Meetings

Class is from 3:30 to 5:00 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays in Hebb 114.

We expect you to attend and engage the material, including through interactions with me and with your classmates. Active engagement is how to learn and succeed!

Lab Meetings

Labs are an excellent place for learning, for getting to know others, and for getting work done. You must sign up for a lab section and attend your own lab's time unless the TA grants you permission otherwise. The TA, David, will be available in person at that time and may have important things to discuss, to announce, or to demonstrate. This is also a forum to ask questions and to have them answered. If they are one-off questions, they can be answered individually, but those that are more general may be answered for all those who are attending to benefit from. You can also use geography computers over the internet to do your work, as explained in the next section.

Learning Objectives

My hope is that in taking this course (that is, listening to the lectures, working on the labs and completing a project) you will gain knowledge and experiences in:

• Cooperating with fellow students in the process of achieving goals (e.g., in the team-based projects and in break-out sessions);
• Active learning (e.g., solving practical problems presented in the labs);
• Developing respect for the diverse talents and ways of learning brought to the course by each of you.

Questions to ask yourself when taking this course:

• What new knowledge, skills and attitudes do I hope to develop (e.g., advanced spatial analytical skills, data handling)?
• How do I ensure that I gain those skills and knowledge?
• What resources are available?
• How can this course help my future (e.g., portfolios)?

Many online resources provide valuable insights into the subjects covered in this course. However, please keep in mind that the exam will primarily draw questions from the lectures and Labs presented during class. Nevertheless, I still think that having a comprehensive textbook that explores these topics in depth and includes supplementary resources could be advantageous.

We are recommending that you obtain access to (and reference, if not read!) a copy of Geographic Information Systems & Science (Links to an external site.) by Longley, Goodchild, Maguire and Rhind (4th Ed.).  You can read a copy of it for free over the internet because it has been licensed by the UBC Libraries.   

You can get a paper copy for your professional bookshelf via below link:

https://www.wiley.com/en-ca/Geographic+Information+Science+and+Systems,+4th+Edition-p-9781119031307#download-product-flyer (Links to an external site.)

Other options:

A good general overview is provided by Chang, Kang-Tsung. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. Ninth Edition. University of Idaho. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2019.

Or this : Geographic Information Basics , which covers much of this course.

For more detailed insights I will highlight supplemental open resources that you should review, such as the Fundamentals of Mapping (Links to an external site.) produced by the Australian Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) [for cartography and map projections]

and the online text Geospatial Analysis (Links to an external site.) (6th edition) by Michael J. de Smith, Michael F. Goodchild and Paul.

McGrew, J.C., Lembo, A.J. and Monroe, C.B. (2014). An Introduction to Statistical Problem Solving in Geography. Waveland Press, Inc. (available for purchase on VitalSource)

Manuel Gimond, (2021), Intro to GIS and Spatial Analysis, available online(https://mgimond.github.io/Spatial/index.html (Links to an external site.)

* Please note that, in order to receive a passing grade in this course, all of the labs must be handed in at a basic level of correct completion and a project similarly completed.

** The final marks for the course must, however, follow Department of Geography and Faculty of Arts guidelines for the distribution of marks (see this interesting discussion here by a UBC Psych prof.) We will do our best to avoid having the administration be in a position of requesting the rescaling of the grades.

Lab Materials and Instructions:

The lab instructions and further details about labs can be downloaded here as they are available.

Lab Fee: A $20 lab fee is required to cover some of the costs of running the computer lab. More information on Geography labs can be found here.

Lab Remote Access:

Please see these instructions on how to get access to the labs online from your computer anywhere you have internet. You are able to use 'Remote Desktop' to go from your computer, whatever and wherever it is, to access the UBC Geography computer labs. There, you can run ArcGIS Pro and other course-related software.

You can use the remote lab computers during nights and weekends to do your lab and project work; during lecture if we are during an activity together; and you can even 'share screens' of your lab computer with friends or partners on projects over Zoom so you can work and learn together.

Reading over the project description and starting to think of a potential topic area (and identifying potential project partners), sooner rather than later, will help you enjoy this course. Your course project can be team based or individual based. Working in teams may significantly help your grade.

The project proposal is to be submitted on Canvas by March 3rd.  The project itself is due in April (exact time to be announced after the finals schedule is available). Final project presentations are the final week of classes. Final project presentations are worth 3 of the marks assigned to the project (in total, the project is worth 30 marks).

Your course project is described in detail and many examples are available on the Course Project tab.

A closed-book final  exam will cover the entire course--readings, lectures and lab materials.  Nevertheless, it's important to note that the exam will primarily focus on questions derived from the lectures and labs conducted in class." There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions in a review beforehand.

Learning to engage in collaborative work and publish in the era of the Internet are important to the learning objectives of this course. Contemporary GIS/ci involves specialized internet-based services that you should gain experience and facility with. Additionally, to help you learn, I employ carefully chosen educational technologies.

You'll want to stay safe and respect others when online. FemTechNet has [curated] some good suggestions. We will touch on some of these issues, and where we haven't, I'm happy to have us discuss them in class.

For now, I'd like to discuss one set of issues further. Much of your digital interaction will be with Department, University and/or Canada-based computers. However, some sites/services you will use will be on the open internet and/or some will send data to/from servers outside of Canada. These services may include, but are not limited to:

• ESRI servers and websites, including ArcGIS Online
• Other sources of GIS data
• Online GIS forums
• Ways of hosting material you produce in this course (e.g., UBC Blogs, which has the capability of publishing to the open internet).
• Other services that you elect to use in your work for the course.

Some of these services request you to register or provide you with contexts in which you may be able to share personal information. UBC cannot guarantee security of your personal information on servers outside of Canada. In general, please exercise caution whenever using personal information on the internet. Please know that in this course you are not required to share any personal information with online services where your data may leave Canada. If at any time you have questions about your privacy in this course, please do raise them with me before acting, and we will work together to find appropriate paths of action or alternatives. Please also keep the following in mind:

• On non-UBC services that require registration, you can complete this course if you register with a pseudonym, non-personally-identifiable email address, and with other information that cannot be used to identify you. Some students may elect to register for a particular non-UBC service in a way that can identify them (and their work) to individuals outside of this course, perhaps as part of building a body of work that future employers or graduate schools might recognize (e.g., a blogging/website hosting platform), but this is entirely a matter of one's own choice. As a practical matter in this class, it is entirely sufficient for me to be told your usernames, whatever they are, via secure Canvas submissions (n.b.: UBC's Canvas is hosted by Amazon Web Services in their Montreal / Canada (Central) Region datacenters.)
• Even more generally, when you are using internet services for 370 other than those that UBC itself provides for teaching and learning, this course does not require you to write your name, CWL, UBC email, or student ID; use your photograph; or offer any other personally-identifiable information at any time. The obligations of the course can be met without typing or entering anything that may be able to identify you. This is good practice, especially if you are unsure about whether a service protects your personal information to the degree that you, UBC, B.C. law, and/or Canadian law envision.

If you have further concerns that these or other issues raise for you, please contact me as soon as possible (and while Add/Drop is easy) so we can determine what accommodations are feasible that will let you take and meet the objectives of this course.

Respect: It may seem obvious, but your classmates must be able to expect that you will help maintain a productive environment for their learning. In this class, we need to follow academic conventions, which call for discussing our differences with each other without making them personal. The need for reasoned debate is at least as real online as it was in person. I know that working with others can be challenging, but please remain respectful. If there are difficulties for you in class you think I should know about, please feel free to contact me.

Honesty and Conduct: From the beginning, we require that you know and uphold the university’s high standards for student conduct and academic honesty. In a GIS course, we're not just concerned with integrity in writing, but with all work in the many media and genres you do/create/author. Here are some of the standards that are very important for you to understand--take the time to read them, especially if you have not done so before: Academic Integrity.  And the Calendar's policies on Academic Misconduct. As described in these documents, the consequences of violations can be serious. Potential violations will be referred to the appropriate offices of the university. If, after reading these materials, or at any other time, you have any questions about the standards you need to uphold, seek help immediately, from us and from the appropriate academic officers, some of which are referred to in the links above. Do cite everything. Avoid Plagiarism Guide.

Collaboration is key to success in GIS/cartography. Even when we seem to be working alone, we are relying on the contributions of countless others. What is key is that we endeavour to be clear about the webs in which we are enmeshed--clear for ourselves, and certainly in academic contexts, certainly, also for those who encounter our work. In the case of this course, you will often be asked to work with others. When you work with others in the course, all of you need to ensure the others understand what has been done, why, and what it means. When you work with others in the course, you also all need to explain to me what each person contributed. When you draw upon software packages or books or articles or websites or blogs or Medium.com or community discussion sites such as StackOverflow or Quora or what-have-you, you need to document it clearly and in detail in your work that you turn in. Otherwise, if you fail to follow the above, it's a breach of academic integrity, as referenced in the previous section.

Recently, there has also been considerable popular attention paid to websites that make it easy to access advanced artificial intelligence models, such as ChatGPT. At the moment, there is just one time in the course that you cannot use such systems--the final exam. Otherwise, the rule for ChatGPT and similar systems, unless we decide otherwise (likely as a class) and I announce a revision, is similar to how we approach other technologies and social relationships as described above. Two key requirements for the academically honest use of advanced AI in this course:

1) Where you make use of advanced AI (or similar), you should document it for us in detail. In the case of ChatGPT, this would include telling us the prompts and results. And...

2) You need to be able to explain to others, including me, the meaning of what your digital partner, the AI, contributed. You can't just use it and not understand the results. There are benefits to this approach that exceed what you get in the moment. Many argue that it is only those with a degree of skill and experience and judgement in a domain who can actually make good use of such technologies (as it likewise is with books and articles and discussion websites and GitHub.com, as you will see.) I don't want to merely provide transient and mediocre shortcuts, I want you to be empowered. Being reflective about what you are doing and about what other people and machines are doing is valuable in this regard.

Note that some data products you may wish to use are the product of AI as well. And there are other senses in which AI (or various machine learning models) are already well incorporated in our daily professional lives. Proper use of these materials may be less involved than what is described above and likely only involves you citing and explaining your use of them. When in doubt, ask us! And do enjoy this ever-changing world we are in.

I want to maintain equal opportunity for each of you to demonstrate what you have learned within an amount of time that is equivalent to what your peers have. It can be an important academic skill to be able to produce high-quality work on an assigned topic within a specified period of time. With these principles in mind, work turned in late will tend to be penalized 10% of the total potential points per calendar day (or fraction thereof) that it is late, as follows: 10% for up to 1 day late, 20% for up to 2 days, and so on. Individual assignments may have their own exceptions to this policy described in the assignment or announced by me.

HOWEVER, there are various reasons why can be entirely appropriate and fair for work to be turned in after the general due date and time. Disabilities, illness, accidents, and/or difficult family situations are among most common, but there are other possibilities. Let us know about your needs and particularly difficult issues you are having and we will see what ways we can help you reach your learning outcomes and be assessed accordingly. We strive to be fair and to facilitate your learning!

The University also accommodates students whose religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting assignments, or completing scheduled tests and examinations. Please let your instructor and TA know in advance, preferably in the first week of class, if you would like to discuss accommodation on these grounds. Students who plan to be absent for varsity athletics, family obligations, or other commitments, cannot assume they will be accommodated, and should discuss their commitments with us before the drop date.

We welcome the opportunity to work with any students with disabilities in this class to ensure equity in access to the course. If you have an Academic Accommodation Letter from the The Centre for Accessibility outlining your academic accommodations, perfect. Please present this letter to both professor and TA as soon as possible so that we can discuss the accommodations you may need for this class. If you do not yet have an Academic Accommodation Letter, but would like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact The Centre for Accessibility to set up an appointment to meet with an Accessibility Advisor. And if there are other questions that arise around accessibility, assistive technologies, and GIS, please raise them and we would be more than happy to engage them with you, and as appropriate, with the class as a whole. We need to be more conscious and proactive about these issues than we are.

It is recommended that students retain a copy of all submitted assignments (in case of unexpected digital issues on the University's side) and should also download or otherwise retain all their marked assignments (for personal reference or in case they wish to apply for a Review of Assigned Standing)