GEOG 571
Intelligence Analysis, Cultural Geography, and Homeland Security

Welcome to GEOG 571 - Intelligence Analysis, Cultural Geography, and Homeland Security

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Registered students - If this is your first visit to this course website, please take some time to become familiar with the course environment by going to the Orientation.

This website provides the primary instructional materials for the course. The Resources menu links to important supporting materials, while the Lessons menu links to the course lessons. Canvas, Penn State's course management system, is used to support the delivery of this course as well as provide the primary communications, calendaring, and submission tools for the course.

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Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Information about Penn State's Online Geospatial Education programs is available at the Geospatial Education Program Office.

Quick Facts about GEOG 571

Instructors:

Course Structure: Online, 12-15 hours a week for 10 weeks, 3 credits

Overview: GEOG 571 is a required course for the Geospatial Intelligence Option of Penn State's Online Master of GIS as well as the Graduate Certificate in Geospatial Intelligence Analytics. It is also an elective course in the geospatial education program and the Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security. The course consists of projects, associated readings, written assignments, and discussions about concepts.

This course examines and illuminates the relationships between cultural geography, civil security, and the stability of the existing world order. It rests firmly upon the application of the tools of spatial analysis that are at the heart of the discipline of geography, and is designed to help students develop the analytical processes that will lead to enlightened syntheses (intelligence products) about the connections associated with cultural differences and current internal and external threats to the security of the American homeland. It also is designed to encourage students to examine the impacts of cultural differences on the stability of the existing world order. The overarching objective of this course is to help successful students develop the knowledge, comprehension, and skills needed to effectively analyze current geospatial realities and, through the prism of cultural geography, create a rational predictive synthesis (intelligence summary) about potential human threats to the security of the nation.