World Regional Geography
Online
Instructor: Dr. Leslie McLees
Email: lmclees@uoregon.edu OR mcleesl@lanecc.edu
Why are population growth rates declining in Japan even as they remain high in Afghanistan? What are the responses by Kenyans to the environmental challenges they face? How have post-colonial states in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America adapted to neocolonial political and economic systems? How has increased consumption of disposable goods in the United States influenced resource extraction and waste disposal in other parts of the world?
This course is designed to give you tools that will help you address questions like these. This class is not simply facts about places, but instead asks questions that compel us to look at the political, economic, social and environmental processes shaping places in different regional contexts. Throughout this course, you will develop tools that will help you continue learning about the world far past the final project. Geographical concepts will provide you with a deeper context for comprehending the processes through which places are shaped and importantly, develop an understanding of current events playing out right now.
You will not be required to memorize trivial facts in this class. Instead, I expect you to engage with a geographical approach to understanding and explaining how spatial phenomena (i.e. economic, political, social or environmental processes) shape places in different human and physical geographic contexts. Geographers examine how and why people interact with and transform the areas in which they are situated to create specific places (cities, states, parks, etc.). It delves into how power dynamics, histories, globalization, identity and more are mobilized and situated in places to explain the disparities and patterns that constitute the world in today’s headlines.
This class will be offered fully online. You do not need to be on the LCC campus to complete this course. There are also no exams. Instead, there will be a variety of formats to ensure you can develop breadth about the regions of the world, and depth in some of the key processes shaping each region. This course by nature is a whirlwind around the world, and as such, we will focus on a few specific themes through the regions to help center the course. Those themes all intersect with places in different ways. Understand those different ways is a central feature of geography. Examples of themes we will address throughout this course are globalization, gender, human-environment interactions, legacies of colonialism, agricultural practices, economic reforms, ideas of development.
Course objectives
Communicate complexity in understanding issues people and places around the world.
Develop empathy to understand people and places beyond the stereotypes associated with them.
Evaluate current events shaping places, people, and environments around the world.
Understand how a spatial approach that uses the nexus of society-nature-place allows us to see the complexity of both problems and solutions.
Identify how political, social, economic, climatological, biophysical, hydrological (and more!) processes shape our planet, people, and environment.
Job-ready skills you will gain in this class
Go into these assignments and activities with the idea that you are developing transferable skills for your resume. Because you are! Focus on your skills and think about how you could display these on a resume, and the make a product you can be proud to show in a portfolio! And you will then understand why you’re in college!
Problem-solving by developing a group project and figuring out the best process to display data and learning new platforms to work on.
Effective communication by developing weekly assignments to communicate concepts through writing and other ways of displaying and communicating ideas (maps, pictures, videos, etc.).
Collaboration through a group-based project due at the end of the term (do NOT let this scare you off! There is scaffolding to make this work!).
Displaying data. You will be making maps!
Time management through collaboration and organizing tasks for assignments to submit on time.
Research and analytical skills through the weekly assignment, where you will be conducting your own research and compiling responses to prompts to display for weekly assignments.
Information technology through learning how to map maps and storymaps (a different thing from maps!) in ArcGIS Online.
Expected time commitment
Each university credit indicates three hours of work per week, for a total of 12 hours a week for one four-credit course. This course requires four hours a week of in-class time. Since there are no exams, your work will be spread out more over the term. I highly suggest that you stay up to date, as each week’s assignment will be a part of your final project. Therefore, committing at the beginning of the term, incorporating feedback along the way, will make the end of your term much easier. And bonus: You’ll learn more, too.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Identify how political, economic, social and environmental forces influence different places across scales and how these forces create similarities and differences between places.
- Engage with course concepts to help explain current events in different places.
- Identify how our perception of places are influenced by various media forms and cultural histories, and using this knowledge and course concepts to create more informed global citizens.
- Understand the depth of experience that people from and in places around the world by seeing the multiple processes that shoe their places.
Expected Time Commitment
This class is four credits. Each university credit indicates three hours of work per week, for a total of 12 hours a week for one four-credit course, whether online or face-to-face. The time you spend in this class should replicate the time you would spend on lectures and discussions AND any outside assignments, reading, and studying. A good online course (of which I hope this is) should be just as rigorous as a face-to-face course.
The most difficult part of an online course is self-motivation. This is true for both students and instructors. Get in the habit early of completing tasks and engaging with the material. This stuff is super interesting if you allow it to be so. It’s up to you to find what inspires you to complete the course well.
Requirements
- Read the assigned pages in the textbook and the interactive slides. Read the book first in order that you will be better prepared to understand the concepts in the slides.
- Take the weekly quiz on the material covered in both the textbook and the interactive slides. You will need to take this quiz each week in order to access the following week’s module. You will not be able to access the following week’s materials unless you take this quiz.
- Participate in your small-group discussions. At the beginning of the course, you will be randomly assigned to online discussion groups of 5 people. You will need to post and engage in a discussion monitored by the course instructor. Each week you should expect to have an initial response to the prompt within your discussion group, and then respond at least once with a substantial contribution to the conversation.
- Complete the weekly diary assignment. This will be outlined on the assignment page. You are welcome to use your discussion group to float ideas and come up with ideas. The format of your weekly assessment can vary. See the Weekly Assignment Guidelines under the Course Documents module for details.
- Complete the final storymap project. You will receive a link to create an account in ArcGIS online and tutorials will be available to create this product.
Each week a module containing all the relevant tasks for that week will be posted in a separate module (week 1, week 2, etc.). Documents introducing the assignments, discussion, and final assignment will be posted with the syllabus under the Course Documents module. These modules will be released Each Monday at 12:01am and all assigned material will be due the following Sunday at 11:59 pm
***All times are in Pacific Standard Time. If you are in a different time zone, you are responsible for adjusting your own schedule to submit materials on time.
Keep in mind: Since you need to post and respond to your classmate’s discussions, you are encouraged to post an initial discussion by Thursday. If you continually post too late for your classmates to respond, you will lose points on your discussion grade.
There will be a weekly announcement that summarizes the tasks for the week. Please feel free to ask questions via the General Questions Discussion thread. You might not be the only one who has them, and your classmates may be able to answer them, too! Please email the instructor if you have more specific to your situation.
Region assignments
Prior to the start of the term, you were assigned a random region of the world. These do not correspond to the main world regions as we define them in this course. Instead, you will define the borders and definitions of your region for the first week’s assignment read more in the regional assignment sheet.
Required Books
World Regional Geography, by Caitlin Finlayson. This is a free online textbook that can be downloaded or viewed here.
Communication and Etiquette
I expect that each student will check their lanecc.edu email at least once a day. If you miss clarifications that we previously emailed out, you will not be granted an excuse and we will ask you to refer to previous emails.
I will respond to emails usually within 24 hours (although on weekends it may take longer). Please be as prompt in your response to any inquiries made by me.
This course requires a significant amount of participation and reflection in your discussion groups. All students are expected to be engaged and share experiences. Please address each other respectfully.
- Free speech is a cornerstone of the academic environment. You will not agree with everything that the instructor or your classmates say. You are not graded on your level of agreement, but your understanding of concepts and ability to apply critical thinking skills to issues around the world.
- Expect contributions from the instructor and GEs. We may ask provoking questions to encourage a response, or we may correct an idea if it looks like something is being misinterpreted or misunderstood.
- The instructor reserves the right to remove students from discussion groups if they:
- Engage in speech that is disruptive and not relevant to the class discussion; or
- Engage in speech that threatens the rights, safety, dignity, and worth of other people
- You are also expected to complete tasks on time. Your group-mates’ are depending on your contributions for their own development of ideas.
- When emailing your colleagues, the teaching assistant, or the instructor, please use proper names, grammar, and salutations. In addition, put the course name in the subject of the email. It’s also helpful to say what class you are in and your own name.
- For example:
Subject: GEOG 201- I enjoyed the class!
Hi Dr. McLees,
I just wanted you to know that I really enjoyed this week’s world regional geography materials. I can’t wait for next week’s materials to be released!
Thanks,
Leslie
For more specific etiquette guidelines for discussions, please see the posting on the discussion page on Moodle.
Statement on Privacy
We are utilizing several online platforms for this course. You are welcome to use aliases if you are not comfortable sharing your work through these platforms. If you have any issues regarding privacy, please bring them up with the instructor as soon as possible and we can make accommodations.
Attendance Policy
This is an online course with no required time on the LCC campus. There are no ‘real-time’ meeting requirements. This means, however, that you must be self-motivated. Begin working through your weekly tasks early to give you more flexibility later in the week. Submit all assignments on time. Ask questions early. There are specific times and days when assignments and discussions are due. Pay attention to those so that you do not fall behind. You will lose points if you do not submit assignments and discussions on time.
Grading
Weekly quizzes (10 @ 10 pts ea)……………. 100 pts
Weekly assignment (10@ 10 pts ea)……….. 100 pts
Discussion (10 @ 10 pts ea)…………………… 100 pts
Peer review of final project…………………….. 30 pts
Final Project…………………………………………. 50 pts
Final project write-up…………………………….. 20 pts
Total …………………………………………… 400 pts