This class during quarantine had minimal interaction between professor and students, all lectures were recorded and posted. These lectures were mainly reviewing concepts from the required textbook, and videos instructing students on how to navigate using the QGIS software. The class was set up as follows: weekly readings/videos on which we had a quiz (you can take as many times as you want but you have to wait a certain amount of time between attempts), we had a weekly forum where we read an article or watched a video and responded through a forum post, lastly we had a weekly QGIS mapping project. I thought the mapping projects were really fun, because we got to take and manipulate visually real data, and we were looking at the 2016 election statistics during the 2020 election so I could actually compare the 2 different results. QGIS is a bit hard to navigate, but I had no experience and was fine. Professor Burkhart gives very clear videos on how to use QGIS, and my TA Jason was very helpful in trouble shooting any software issue I ran up against.

I would not recommend taking this class. I was only taking it to fulfill a GE and this was the most difficult class on my caseload and I was also taking two upper divs. Videos are posted with directions for weekly assignments but when I followed the video I never received full credit for my work. The work load is HEAVYYY so if you plan on taking the class start your work early. I was not very interested in this subject which may be why I regret taking this class.

This class has a heavier workload than other GEs I've taken at UCLA, but it teaches a pretty cool and useful skill. The workload is doable if you get started on the assignment early in the week, and the videos walk you through the assignment step by step. The grading scheme is 5% syllabus quiz, 10% weekly thematic forum, 15% weekly quizzes, 50% weekly assignments, and 20% final project. The syllabus quiz and thematic forum are very straightforward, and you should have no trouble getting 100% as long as you follow the instructions. You are allowed to retake the weekly quizzes every 90 minutes before they are due at the end of the week, but you do not get to see the questions you get wrong at the end of each attempt (just your score). The weekly assignments are what take up most of your time, and you can get a 90% on them as long as you follow the videos clearly and meet all the requirements. You have to go "above and beyond" in order to score higher than a 90%, which was a bit tedious, but I was able to get the extra points some weeks. The final project was optional in fall 2020, but it was released at the start of week 10 and due during finals week, and the minimum score for meeting all requirements was 80% and above 80% required above and beyond, so keep that in mind.

The class itself seems like it would be really cool. Assignments make up pretty much all of your grade. I wished I listened to the other review about nitpicking TAs. Grading is absurdly subjective, when I'm not even sure it's supposed to be. Kudos to the professor though, the class is organized really well asynchronously/online.

Easy class if you get started on material early in the week. There's one assignment that will need to download for at least 2 hours, and others are tedious just because of the details. I enjoyed this class a lot overall and felt that it was one of the few that taught me solid skills.

The workload is pretty large but not necessarily difficult. An A is definitely manageable if you can stay on top of the assignments and pay attention to the details on your maps. The TAs can tend to nit pick on certain details which is annoying but the class is overall pretty laid back.

If you would like to take GEOG 7 with a really easygoing, resourceful, and considerate professor, I strongly suggest you take this course with Dr. Burkhart. (Btw, he got a PhD in geography at UCLA!)

The course content is mostly online. No regular class meeting (lectures), only labs in-person or online just once a week, but participation matters a lot (more than 10% percent, depending on your TA's grading styles since all your assignments and even the final project will be graded by the TA you have chosen at the beginning.)

The course is "capped", namely, not accepting enrollment after the end of week !

Workload may intimidate you if you have never be exposed to geography, cartography or learn and master new things in a fast way. Remember, both the midterm (like a online quiz, but you need to use a software called "QGIS" to get the right answers to submit, i.e., the test is mainly on your software operation) and the final project are counted as 15% of the total grades of this course; however, 8 regular assignments matters much, much more (40%)!

This class is so entertaining and helpful. Everything is online so its pretty easy. if you take this class always remember to start your assignments early in the week because although they may not look time consuming they can be. My TA, Scott, was really helpful and easy to talk too. The quizzes are largely based off the textbook so it is necessary to have. The assignments overall where pretty easy and the quizzes too. The midterm was also super easy to do. for the final you get to choose on how to demonstrate your understanding of the subject. Overall pretty laid back class and also very helpful.