Course content

The course introduces Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Students learn basic concepts and theories for geographic information science and get hands-on experiences in use of GIS software. The course cover topics like how GIS represents the environment, georeferencing, characteristics with geographical data and where these are found from national spatial data infrastructures, map design, as well as basic GIS tools such as queries, distance and area measures, buffer, and overlay.

Learning outcome

A student that has completed the course is expected to have achieved the following knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge: Students will get a fundamental theoretical understanding of georeferencing (positioning at spherical or planar surfaces), map projection, coordinate systems, how our environments are represented in a GIS, and what limitation and possibilities that has for studies involving locational data. For instance, the students will understand the implications that various map projections may have on distance and area measures and how these could be calculated in the most accurate way.

Skills: The course is very practical, and the student will master basic GIS tools to represent real world phenomena, measure distances and areas, and to solve practical problems through GIS-based analytical operations.

General competence: The course provides the basic competence for participants who need to use GIS in their daily work in private or public sectors. The students will have experience with GIS used for environment and planning issues and will be able to see further possibilities on how GIS could be used for decision making processes and problem solving.

Learning methods and activities

The course is arranged as an entirely online and digital course adapted to people who work.

The course consists of three learning modules (LMs): LM1 is about Map Projections and Coordinate Systems, LM2 is about Representation, and LM3 is about basic vector analytical tools like Select, Buffer and Overlay.

Each of the three learning modules with have a theoretical and practical component. The theoretical component will consist of short video lectures (typically no longer than 15 minutes), assigned readings and a test. The practical component will consist of an exercise, supported by short demo-videos (typically no longer than 3 minutes), datasets or links to providers of datasets, and a discussion forum.

There will be one online meet-the-tutors event per LM.

It is expected that compulsories and examinations must be completed in English. Exceptions must be clarified with the lecturer responsible for the course.

Compulsory assignments

• Three exercise assignments, and six tests associated to learning modules.

Recommended previous knowledge

Students should be digital literate and have no problem in navigating in a folder structure, to unpack and pack zip files, and to generate and modify pdf documents.

Required previous knowledge

None.

Credit reductions