...to Geog 353 Main Page and Course Description
...to Geog 353 Syllabus
...to Geog 353 Course Schedule and Lecture Outlines
...to Geog 353 Laboratory Information and Student Projects

Lab exercise 10 is the final evaluation of your lab project, and builds upon the Mid-semester Evaluation (Lab 6). It is an extension of the first evaluation and serves as your final exam.

The goal of this final evaluation is for you to assess your course project in general, from beginning to end, and, specifically, to evaluate issues we have covered since the mid-project evaluation, from Week 9 onward on the course schedule. In addition, you will create a helpful hint for solving problems encountered during the completion of your project that will be incorporated in the WWW lab exercises for future (grateful!) generations of Geography 353 students.

Lab 10 Goal: Complete your evaluation of the course project.

Please email me a PDF or Word Document of your final. Make sure you get confirmation (email) from me that I got it.

The Details:

Note: The suggested amount that you write on each of the questions below is assuming double spaced word processor pages.

Please copy and paste the questions from this page into your word processor document, so I know which question you are answering.

In the Mid-Semester Evaluation of your course project, you evaluated your project in terms of the Map Making Process. The process contains five major steps. You completed some of this work in the last evaluation, and will continue (and finish it) in this one:

1. The Actual Distribution of the Phenomena you are Mapping (already answered in Mid-Project Evaluation)

2. Why are you Making Your Map? (already answered in Mid-Project Evaluation)

3. Collect Appropriate Data (already answered in Mid-Project Evaluation)

4. Constructing the Map (partially answered in Mid-Project Evaluation)

4a. to 4c (already answered in Mid-Project evaluation)

4d. 1 Page revised from First Evaluation given subsequent work: Review chapter 6 on Map Layout in Making Maps. Discuss three things you will apply to your web pages from Map Pieces, Focus, Balance, and/or the Grid. Do what you said you would do, or you may have different things you did. Just make sure you make three modifications.

4e. 1 Page revised from First Evaluation given subsequent work:: Review chapter 7 on Intellectual and Visual Hierarchies in Making Maps and the Visual Hierarchy lecture. Please construct a list of all visual elements on your WWW pages (including the background color!) and on your map from most important (high on the intellectual hierarchy) to least important (low on the intellectual hierarchy). How have you graphically symbolized these elements? Does the visual hierarchy in your current WWW pages and map match the intellectual hierarchy? Are some elements higher or lower in the visual hierarchy than they should be? Suggest two significant changes to your web pages and map based on the idea of intellectual and visual hierarchies. Do what you said you would do, or you may have different things you did. Just make sure you make two modifications.

4f. 1 Page: There are many choices for classifying your data (number of classes, and classification schemes) as discussed in chapter 8 of Making Maps and the Data Classification lecture. Detail how you have gone about classifying your data for your population change maps. How do the classification schemes (natural breaks, quantiles, equal intervals, etc.) offered by ArcGIS relate to the specific classification scheme you have devised for your map? What are some of the significant issues you have encountered in your attempt to classify your data? How did you solve them? Discuss how your classification choices affect the patterns you see on you maps. Why might it be important, for people viewing and using your WWW site, to be able to see several animated maps on your final WWW pages, each classified differently? Also discuss the two-class map of counties with losses vs gains I asked you to create as part of Lab 9. Is such a two-class map worthwhile or useful for your intended audience, now that you see it? Is it best in tandem with your other map (with more classes), or could it stand alone?

4g. Map design issues: In the previous evaluation, you related several general map design issues from the lectures and readings to your project. Additional map design issues concerning color and type have been discussed since the last evaluation:

• Two Pages: Please review the four types of maps you created for this project: the graduated color (choropleth) map, graduated symbol map, proportional symbol map, and dot density map. Refer to the symbolization chapter, and in particular pages 210-221 in Making Maps. Comment on these issues:
  • Evaluate if you followed the correct procedures in creating these maps, according to the material in Making Maps. If you made mistakes (using your % change data for the Graduated Symbol maps) note it and fix it.

  • Given what you discussed in the first evaluation (the relation between phenomena and data and map types), look at these four different map types and decide if you think any are better than the others, and why (the map symbolization matches the phenomena better, or it is easier for my audience to understand, etc.).

  • Are there benefits to having all of these map types available together to your viewers? What have you done to insure that your viewer learns something about different map types as well as population change?

  • Detail any limitations you see with any of the map types now that you have completed them.

• Two Pages: Discuss three issues from the lecture & reading materials on Color and Cartography that have informed the use of color in your maps and WWW pages. Refer to the chapter on color in Making Maps. These can be examples where:
  • issues from lecture & readings guided your color choices

  • issues from lecture & readings led you to adjust your color choices

  • issues from lecture & readings are used to evaluate and change your existing color choices as part of this evaluation

  • For the three issues above, please note any specific changes you made to your maps or pages.

4h. Lab 8: ArcGIS Layouts and Graphic File Export and Lab 9: Cartographic Animation consisted of a series of steps to get your maps out of ArcGIS and into a format appropriate for animation on the WWW, Google Earth, and a third method (you specified).

• 1/2 Page: Describe any problems you had in moving your maps from ArcGIS to a GIF file, and/or exporting your maps from ArcGIS to KMZ/KML files. How did you solve these problems? Describe what you did.

• 1/2 Page: Describe the third "other" method you used to display your data. Describe any problems you had with this third method, as well as the process behind it.

• One Page: It is common, in mapping and GIS, to have to transfer maps from one digital file format to another. Sometimes it works well, other times you run into serious problems. Relate the transformation of your ArcGIS maps into GIF files and KML/KMZ files to your transformation of the generic text file of your Census data into ArcGIS. Was learning how to transform these graphic and text files from one form into another a useful task for you? Why might it be useful to know how to get 'generic' data off the WWW and actually use it? Why might it be useful to know how to get maps out of mapping and GIS software an onto the WWW or popular programs like Google Earth? Assess if all this transferring of files (text and graphic) from one form is worth the terrifying amount of time we spent with it in the course.

4i. Lab 9: Cartographic Animation provided background on map animation as well as leading you to a series of animated GIFs of your mapped Census data.

• One Page: Chronological animation is the most common kind of map animation. In essence, you are using time (animation) as a variable for representing the chronological order of your maps. It is certainly possible to include your ten maps as static GIF files on your WWW pages, without animating them. Ponder your map animation: does it help you see patterns better or have any other benefit in presenting your maps to your intended audience? Is it worth the extra effort? Have you considered including the ten static maps on a different WWW page? Why might this be useful to the user of your WWW pages?

• 1/2 Page: Beyond creating a basic GIF animation using GIF Animator, describe TWO additional features of GIF Animator you discovered: this could include scaling, changing the speed of the animation, transition effects, looping, etc. Describe how you achieved these effects. Please relate them as instructions. How else might you use animated GIF files?

• 1/2 Page: How useful will having KML/KMZ files for Google Earth be for users of your site? Is this a worthwhile addition to your project? What are the benefits and problems with KML/KMZ animations in the context of your project?

• 1/2 Page: Describe the third "other" method you used to display your data. Compare this to the GIF animations and KMZ animations. Assess how the three compare, their varying strengths and weaknesses, and any thoughts you have on them now that they are complete.

5. Evaluation

5a. (already answered in Mid-Project evaluation)

5b. 1/2 Page: In the first evaluation for this course, in this section of the evaluation (5b), you listed three major things you planned to modify or change in your project. Note those proposed changes and explain how you carried them out.

5c. Making Maps Chapter 12: Finishing Your Map: Two or Three pages: Refer to the final chapter in Making Maps and in particular the series of critique questions on pages 278-283. While some questions here are not relevant to your specific project, many are: please work through the questions and evaluate your maps and WWW pages by answering these questions. Note problems with your project noted with the help of this critique, and indicate how you plan to fix them.

5d. General Evaluation questions: Three to Four Pages: Think back over the entire project process you have engaged in over the semester - including locating data and processing it, learning HTML, learning basic GIS and mapping functions, graphic file exchange, and GIF animation.

• Step back and critique your WWW pages. Are you happy with how they turned out? Are they yunky? Super +++ excellent? What is missing that you would like to add but didn't? Is the WWW a medium you enjoy working with? Do you think you will use your HTML skills in the future? Is it worth it for your instructor to teach HTML in this course, or should we focus on learning more mapping and GIS functions of ArcGIS instead? If you used something other than raw HTML scripting in Note Pad to create your pages, describe what you used and the advantages and disadvantages of using such software for future versions of this course.

• What about working with map mashups, your lab blog, and KML/KMZ (Google Earth) files? Discuss the relevance of each to your project, and if you think these three technologies are worth learning about in this course. Might you use any of these technologies in the future?

• Do you think the idea of engaging in a single larger project is better than a series of individual exercises? Why? This course is currently a mix of lectures and lab exercises. Would it be preferable to have more lectures? Or would it be preferable to have a more extensive course project, and less lectures?

• Describe your personal development over the semester in the course. Has your comfort with computer hardware and software changed? Have you gained any particular skills you think might be valuable? Do you feel as if you know more about mapping and GIS concepts? Technology and software? Were there any impediments to your work in the class? Was the pace and level of work ok, too slow, too fast? How might you apply what you learned in Geography 353 outside of class, in the future?

• Describe the three most important things you learned in this course, and why they were important. Describe the biggest drawbacks or problems with the course, things you would like to see adjusted, eliminated, or changed in future versions of the course. Keep in mind the class has no prerequisites and is open to all students (freshmen to seniors). Does this "openness" cause too many problems?

6. Helpful Hint

1/2 page of HTML code: All of you have encountered problems throughout the course of your project. Some are technical (ArcGIS functions), some more conceptual (eg., choosing an appropriate classification). You solved these problems, and it is important to pass your knowledge of problem solving on to future generations of Geography 353 students. Please create a "helpful hint," based on your experiences this semester, which can be incorporated into revised versions of the WWW lab materials for this course.

Look at Lab 5: Data Processing, Part 2 for an example of how I incorporated some "helpful hints" (from students in previous semesters) to deal with common problems that arose in completing a particular exercise. You should generate a similar hint for any of the exercises (excluding the two evaluations). The hints should be succinct, tangible, and specifically describe how to solve the problem in a step by step manner. They should not be hints or instructions that are already included in course lab exercises. They should be problems that are not too obscure or generic (eg., "save your project, because I didn't and ArcGIS crashed and I lost my data"). They may also be cool things you figured out how to do in ArcGIS or with HTML or Arc2Earth or GIF Animator or whatever. You can include links to other sites. Think about hints you would have liked to have while you were doing the various exercises!

Please script your hint in HTML. Include it in this evaluation, but also send me the code (in an email or as an attached html file). I can then just cut and paste the hint into the course materials.

7. Course Grade

Please suggest the letter grade you think you deserve for this course. Be realistic. Consider the amount of effort you put into the course, how much you learned, your attendance, your ability to get exercises completed on time, the quality of your evaluations (Labs 7 and 10) and the quality of your final project. Do consider yourself in relation to other students in the class. Use these criteria to justify the grade you think you deserve. I do reserve the right to adjust this grade (up or down, or sideways if I really want)

E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu

...to Geog 353 Main Page and Course Description
...to krygier teaching page.
...to krygier top page.

OWU Home
OWU Geology and Geography Home