I took this class as a requirement for my major, or else I would not have ever enrolled. The online format was nice, but purely the amount of work that Prof. Shin required every week was simply too much for an intro class. The projects were easy, but time consuming. The worst part of this class is that, at most, you can only score an 18/20 on these projects, unless you do the unclear "extra" work to get the remaining points, which is frustrating if you spend hours on the project, do it correct, and then are told that you have to do more.

Took this class purely because it was an online GE. However, I ended up loving the subject and I am now minoring in GIS & Tech. You could be a history major or theatre major, and I promise you this class and minor will be of use to you. SO many applications for this. However, the class was kind of challenging only because there was really nothing stopping you to procrastinate and get everything done until last minute. This class is easy and fun as long as you learn to space your week out and get everything done in a timely way. I hope whoever ends up taking this class loves it as much as I did!

The class, itself, was pretty awesome. The fact that I enjoyed it so much partly scared me (am I really that much of a nerd?). My TA (Nerve) was really helpful, and his labs were awesome. The homework was stressful, but the videos walked you through them, and they were super fun to do! I plan on showing my maps toeveryone I know. This class helps you create things you can be proud of, honestly. There were a few glitches in the quizzes and midterms (they're online), but the course is relatively new, so they should deal with that soon enough. The final project is hard, but doable. And when you're done with it, you'll be super proud of yourself. The professor's videos made me sleepy, but those were only needed for the quizzes, so you'll live.

Do NOT take this class unless you ABSOLUTELY have to. If you do, try to get Scott as a TA he's awesome and will make everything ok.

The class is online except for section, but section is really just meant to answer questions about the weekly project. Most of the grade was based on weekly maps we had to make. Not too hard but did require some time to get them right. Ended up with an A- because I got bad grades on assignments at the beginning before I knew what the professor was looking for. Not the easiest GE but I enjoyed learning how to use the computer program we worked with.

As has been said of this class many times over, there's a really heavy workload with this class. If you do take it, treat it seriously and not like your average GE. I did learn some decently engaging and useful skills through this class, so it's really not as bad as some reviewers may have had in the past. I think Shin changed up the class structure recently, since the midterm is a fill-in-the-blank quiz rather than the insane map project students had before. Given how the average for our midterm was around a ~80 percent, the overall class seemed to adjust fairly well. Since it's an online class, your classmates can range from other UC campuses to even grad students (iirc).
In terms of doing well in this class, try to do well on the weekly assignments. They're worth 30 % of your grade. The midterm and final are worth 15 %, respectively, so you can screw up a little for that. I had Nerve for my TA. He was friendly, but pretty unhelpful for pretty much anything. For help with the weekly assignments, definitely use the Piazza forum. It is a lot more responsive than a previous review made it out to be. I think the best TA to get would probably be Clark Taylor, given his activity on the forums and the fact that he's gonna be teaching this class in the near-future. Shin will tell you to buy his 2nd ed. textbook, and while it is moderately priced, it isn't too necessary to pass the weekly quizzes. If a bit encouraging, I got a C on the midterm (below the avg), but did well on the weekly assignments to get an A in the class. The final actually isn't too bad, since it's basically like the weekly assignments but with different options to choose based on your strengths. Discussion attendance wasn't made mandatory for my class, and I didn't really go to Shin's OH, so I can't really vouch for how helpful he was.

Professor Shin is extremely unhelpful as he does not help his students at all. Moreover, the TA's are even more unhelpful in the assignments. The workload does not make sense as it is too heavy. I put in a lot of hours per week for this class but the TA does not give the scores you deserve. The instructors give brief instructions on the assignments and expect you to know what to do. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS AS A GE. It will only pull your GPA down unless you take it as a pass or no pass. However, you still have to put in a huge amount of effort to pass. Again, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

I'll start with a warning: this class is a lot of work and is not a good idea to take as a GE. If you end up not liking the subject, it will be tedious and the assignments will make you want to pull your hair out. If you do decide to take this course, I'd recommend taking it as a 4th class and by the end of week 4 decide whether or not you want to drop it. The online format of this class definitely takes some getting used to. At first I really hated it. It forces a constant and pretty heavy workload. Eventually it grew on me and I have since taken 2 more GIS classes with the same format, and with each class I like the format more and more. This class is A LOT of work. It isn't overly difficult, so if you put in the time you should be able to do pretty well, but it can't be a class that you slack in because not putting in full effort for even a week can set you back pretty far. I felt that the assignments were very rewarding, because at the end of each week you have something very tangible to show for your work. Overall, I would not recommend this class to someone who didn't have any interest in the material ahead of time, but anyone who has seriously looked into GIS should definitely try it.

Not going to lie, this class was a pain. The workload was huge and I can't even count how much time I spent troubleshooting the program since the lecture videos were vague. But the part that angers me the most, is that despite the inherent difficulty of learning an entirely new program, the TAs only give you full credit for going "above and beyond" on the projects. That's absolutely ridiculous for an introductory class. Not to mention that "above and beyond" is not even defined! They want you to add extra elements to your maps but if they don't like what you did, you're docked points! Alright rant over. Every week there is one assignment, one forum post, and one quiz due. The bulk of your grade comes from the assignments and your final assignment.

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.