The course will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and hands-on labs. (See here for times)

Lecture Slot

In general, I will try to make the lectures as interactive as possible. WATS 4930/6920 and WATS 6915 will consist of more lecture as we work our way through a lot of foundational material on GIS. In WATS 4931/6921,  we will have some lectures as well as guest lectures from researchers and spend more time discussing scholarly literature and current research. For Spring 2012, the WATS 4930/6920 lectures will be recorded and made available under each Course Lecture Topic for later viewing or in case you miss a lecture.

Lab

Labs will typically start with a brief introduction lecture (typically < 15 min) and question and answer session. The bulk of the lab will be spent doing hands on lab assignments and projects using desktop ArcGIS. Attendance at labs is not mandatory. Everything you need to comletethe labs is online in the lab assignment pages, and you submit your assignments via Canvas. You can also get help on labs via the class forum. However, the labs serve the following important functions:

• It provides you with a physical location and computer to do the GIS lab assignments (note that ArcGIS is provided for free and you can do the assignments on your own computer with Windows)
• This is an opportunity for you to get one-on-one help from the lab coordinator (Shannon), get help from your peers, and give help to your peers (an important learning process)
• The introductory lecture/discussion is a great opportunity to get some tips on the lab assignment and feedback on past lab assignments