In addition to introducing the basic concepts covered in this course, this orientation serves as your guide to the structure of the course and to the online learning environment.
At the successful completion of the Course Orientation, you should be able to:
Each lesson in this course will have a table of requirements (example below) where the assignments can be found along with how to turn them in. This table will appear on the first page of the lesson.
To get started with the course, complete the required steps below. You may find it useful to print this page.
Requirements | Where to Complete | |
---|---|---|
1. | Checklist | After reviewing this checklist, click on the orientation "Learning Environments" link to continue. (Or use the "Learning Environments" link at the bottom of the page.) |
2. | Learning Environments | Read the orientation "Learning Environments" page. |
3. | Course Website (Course Text) |
Read the orientation "Course Website" page. |
4. | Course Management System (Canvas) |
Read the orientation "Course Management System" page. |
5. | Configure Course email | See the directions on the orientation "Course Management System" page. |
6. | Comments and Coursemail | See tips on the orientation "Course Communication" page. |
7. | Meet Your Classmates and Post your introduction in Canvas |
See directions on the orientation "Meet Your Classmates" page. |
8. | Five Things to Know | See the tips on the orientation "Five Things You Need To Know About GEOG 850" page. |
9. | Course Readings | Readings are found in the Lesson 0: Orientation module in Canvas. |
10. | Syllabus | Click on the "Syllabus" link in the menu above and review the remainder of the course topics, assignments, and policies. |
If you have any questions regarding the course, please post them to our Questions and Answers Discussion/General Forum (not email), located in the Orientation module in Canvas. I will check that Discussion Forum on a regular basis. While you are there, feel free to post your responses if you are able to help out a classmate.
If you need to contact me regarding a personal or professional item (absence, special situations, work related issues, etc.) please use Canvas Email by clicking on the Inbox icon in the Canvas main menu.
Registered students in the online Penn State courses that use this text need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:
The Course website [1] consists of lessons, each including pages of text, graphics, and activities. Activities prompt readers to read content, watch videos, do research, and join in conversations via VoiceThread.
Canvas [2], Penn State's course management system. In Canvas, registered students consult course calendars, communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and fellow students, submit assignments, receive feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant, take online quizzes and surveys, and check assignment scores and course grades. Note that a link to Canvas appears in the Navigation menu above.
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 [3].
The course website is presented using an open source content management system called Drupal (for more information, visit the Drupal website [4]). One advantage of presenting the text in Drupal is that Drupal allows us to publish the text openly, for the benefit of anyone who has access to the Internet, regardless of their ability to pay tuition or buy an expensive printed textbook (this is only applicable to certain courses in our program).
Each page is designed to help you quickly and easily navigate the course as follows:
Penn State uses an online course management system called Canvas to deliver most of its online courses to registered students. (For more information about Canvas, visit the Getting Started with Canvas [5] page). Canvas organizes content using different sections in its site. Here is how we use it for the Penn State courses that use this course text. (Registered students might want to open Canvas in a second tab or browser window while studying this page.)
Main Menu in the left pane:
Menu of links once inside a course:
For a more complete introduction to Canvas, please see the Getting Started with Canvas [5] page.
To get the most out of Canvas, registered students should configure their Canvas profiles as follows:
When in Canvas, at the bottom-left corner of the screen you will see a round icon with a question mark. Click this question mark icon for a list of options, including "Search the Canvas Guides", which provides lots of information about how to operate in the Canvas site.
Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class. Canvas supports several types of communication, as described below.
In addition, registered students have Penn State e-mail accounts (<Access Account ID>@psu.edu) that they need to monitor for any official communications that come from the University or from the Penn State World Campus.
Please note that this is a comprehensive list of communication tools available in Canvas. This course may or may not utilize all of the options below.
These are messages from your instructor that contain important information. Current announcements can be accessed through the Announcements link in Canvas. Announcements may highlight assignment due dates (also published in the course Calendar), lesson recaps, a preview of an upcoming lesson and other essential course information.
The Inbox is the equivalent of e-mail in Canvas. It's great to use for a quick e-mail to another student, instructor, or a whole team. Keep in mind that the text editor is very minimal, and does not have much formatting capability. Please use the Canvas Inbox only for private messages to instructors or fellow students.
Discussions allow students to interact with the instructor and other classmates. Threaded discussions allow multiple posts and replies. New posts appear in the Course Activity Stream page, so you will know when something has been posted.
Conferences allow instructors or student Groups to host synchronous meetings online. Canvas integrates with BigBlueButton, a conferencing tool similar to Adobe Connect. Recordings made in BigBlueButton are available for a period of only two weeks after creation.
Whenever you post a message in a forum or send course mail, please title every message with a descriptive subject line. Subject lines that include the gist of a question or comment increase the chances that students and instructors can retrieve the messages we're looking for. Poor subject lines, such as "Question" or "Lesson 1," are not very useful as search keywords. When replying to a prior message, consider whether or not the subject line should be altered to indicate the content of your reply!
Occasionally, the University or the World Campus needs to communicate with students. To do so, they use the @psu.edu e-mail address that each registered student has been given and not the Canvas course e-mail.
In addition, a letter, in PDF format, that reports your final course grade will be automatically generated and sent to your @psu.edu e-mail address.
So, it is important that you regularly monitor your @psu.edu e-mail account.
There are many ways to get the help you need. See the "Help!" link in the Resources menu (left) to learn more about the people and resources available to you.
Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, I'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other! Complete the activities below, then continue with the remainder of the Course Orientation.
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class!
We will use Personal Introductions discussion forum in Canvas to post, and read, self-introductions. To access the forum:
You should plan your work on readings, activities, and research so you can communicate thoughts, findings, screen shots, etc., generally speaking, on Tuesday --this allows us to gather our thoughts, share, and come back to material throughout the week. You are welcome to complete readings and activities at your own pace as long as you're checking in at the semi-weekly intervals.
I think you'll find this course challenging at times, but really fun. I hope you enjoy!
Readings have been selected from a number of sources—practitioners and scholars from the US, Canada, and the UK. I think you'll find the excerpts easy to read and practical.
In place of asking you to purchase multiple text books, we've created electronic reading excerpts of just the pertinent sections and stored them in the lesson folders in Canvas. There are two reasons for this: one, as we are continuing to evaluate the material, we want to use a variety of sources to determine which are most beneficial to you. And two, in doing so, we decided not to ask you to purchase 6-7 different texts. Your feedback on the selections are appreciated.
To get in the practice of locating the readings and to get in the habit of tackling the readings early in the week, please use the navigation menu above to link to Canvas, now. Once you are in Canvas, click Home link in the Canvas main menu, look for the Orientation Readings page which will have links the following readings.
Murphy, Geography: Why It Matters, in this Orientation week, scan the book to gain a sense of the author's topic organization, use of case study examples, maps and figures.
Note: The text may be available in Penn State libraries or you will need to purchase Murphy's book for the course.
Links are provided in Lessons for ArcGIS Online, Esri's Business Analyst Online, U.S. Census Bureau data, and Claritas PRIZM.
Once you have your resources, please return to the Orientation folder in Canvas and post a comment in the Orientation Discussion Forum discussing one of the following:
If you have followed this orientation carefully, you are well on your way to having a successful experience in this course. I look forward to interacting with you throughout the term and hope you'll take every opportunity possible to get the most out of the learning experiences you encounter.
Review the Checklist page of the Orientation to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there.
In particular, did you read the Syllabus? There's a link to it on the menu above.
Click on Lesson 1: LI, Business GIS, and Business Geography link the menu to the right.
Lessons typically start Wednesday at midnight and complete the following Wednesday at midnight, State College Time. Hence, Lesson 1 will end Wednesday, week 2 of the course, and Lesson 2 will start on Wednesday, week 2 of the course.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog850
[2] http://psu.instructure.com
[3] http://gis.e-education.psu.edu
[4] http://drupal.org/
[5] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2036
[6] https://www.work.psu.edu/
[7] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121#jive_content_id_Discussions
[8] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121#jive_content_id_Conversations
[9] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/tkb-p/student#Announcements
[10] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1293
[11] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/tkb-p/student#Inbox
[12] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/tkb-p/student#Discussions
[13] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/tkb-p/student#Conferences
[14] https://office365.psu.edu/
[15] http://accounts.psu.edu
[16] http://www.psu.edu/dept/itscss/internet/email.html