This class makes me want to kill myself. The workload is ridiculous (a forum post, hours of trying to accomplish the weekly assignment, and a ridiculous weekly quiz). The videos provided do not give specifics on what elements should be able to give you an A on the assignments; how are the students supposed to know what the assignment is supposed to look like if the teacher does not provide any concrete way of achieving good grades? I feel like the TAs dock off points because they are on a power trip. I got points off for trying to go above and beyond by designing a map with gradient elements; the TA told me to keep it simple while the syllabus encourages the students to go beyond the assignment. This class has taught me to hate everything about GIS with it's terrible online-only format. The TA office hours are before the actual discussion; how am I supposed to seek help if your section has not even happened? And the online piazza forum is USELESS. The TAs do not even help answer questions all that often so we wait endlessly for students to come to the rescue--most of which do not give a crap about the website enough to answer. Honestly, DO NOT TAKE THIS WASTE OF A CLASS.

Prof. Shin does not mind wasting his students' time on very very PETTY assignments and administrative bullshit. I love GIS, learning about maps, and doing the lab assignment. However, Prof. Shin's construction of this online course makes it such a hand-holding learning process that most of the time just wastes my time.

Firstly, the webcasts are unnecessarily time-consuming -- with lots of long meaningless introduction something like "okay from last webcast we have all agreed that the earth is very big" and "At a renowned institute like UCLA, there's probably a lot of research going on. So, today let's discuss what is research." Please, did we not know these before? Do we really need to sit through 20 mins of things like this every week to gain the tiny bit of new knowledge?

Secondly, I get it that the quizzes are designed to not show the answer even after you submit it (or even after you can no longer attempt it) so that there's no online test bank of any sort. But this is not helping students learn the material, which I thought would be the ultimate goal of any course. This irritates me quite a lot since it again shows how Prof. Shin's priority of petty administrative stuff over true learning goals. It is sort of a personal preference but I strongly detest it. I did not come to UCLA just for the degree or some score. It is the knowledge and skill that I want to take away... anyways.

I have taken classes that are more time-consuming like the PIC and CS classes. However I felt like all my time was used towards meaningful things that are to the point, unlike for Prof. Shin's online GIS class, I'd say 70 % could have well be saved to learn the same material if the class structure were designed differently. I strongly recommend that at least the university provide two versions of the online GEO 7 or have an in-class class taught by a different professor while keeping the online one. I think we should at least be given a chance to choose between teaching styles as is in the case of most other classes!

just lots of troubleshooting. if you have lots of time to spend on a class, take geog7. Just troubleshooting the program all day, everyday

DO NOT take this course if you want to find an easy GE. Professor Shin is cute and highly concerned. His instructions are rather clear and specific, but this course really has a horrible workload and DOES NOT GIVE A+. I took 5 courses this quarter and spent OVER 80% of my time working on this course. Got A+ for other courses but an A for GEO7. Definitely take that in mind if you are thinking about choosing this course.

I strongly disliked this class. The work is too much, and I don't recommend if you don't have any past knowledge in GIS. my TA was cool. still, hated this class. 20hrs a week worth of work.

It's an easy GE. However, the weekly assignments require a lot of time to complete. Assignments gets easier and easier as we become more familiar with QGIS! :)

Final Course Grade: "A"

DO NOT TAKE GEOGRAPHY 7- Big regret, HUGE...Up until this course I had a 3.5+ at the university...this has likely just changed. You will spend an abundance of time on simplistic, seemingly impossible assignments merely troubleshooting. Teachers will take countless hours to get back to you if at all with a looming deadline present. Lectures are dull and focus on basic terminology that most people already know. Assignments appear intriguing at first, and do give a feeling of satisfaction, but it is almost impossible to sustain doing these week to week. When the professor is given criticism, he responds semi agressively on discussion forumn. 0/10 would not recommend

I very much regret taking this class. While professor Shin is very nice, I spent hours a day struggling with the assignments. I took this class hoping to really like GIS, as I know it's a great skill to have, but I don't think I'll ever take another GIS class again. This class is WAY too hard, and I wouldn't recommend taking it unless you have an intense interest in the subject. Nothing against Professor Shin personally, again, he is incredibly nice, but I don't think the way this course is structured is particularly helpful with really mastering the material.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. It is too much work and not worth taking it as a GE class.Especially avoid the TA Alvarez. He takes off points for every little mistake you make and shows favoritism to certain students.

I hate him. I have never disliked a UCLA instructor before, that's all I gotta say.