Professor
Sierra Burkhart
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Overall this was an extremely useful class with engaging content and assignments. The applications of GIS are endless, and the geography department at UCLA is stellar in teaching this subject. Even before the pandemic, in place of lectures are prerecorded tutorial-esque videos. However, Professor Burkhart was extremely helpful regarding assistance with the weekly projects in the CCLE forums. These projects, typically creating a map or working with spatial data in one form or another, are very time consuming and graded by your TA. My TA Jason was very knowledgeable and helpful with the intricacies such as visual design or QGIS errors and made lab sessions worthwhile with solutions and even examples of his own projects and various applications of GIS. Unfortunately, not all of my peers had the same experience with their TA's and were graded harshly based on aesthetics or inclusion/exclusion of seemingly small details. It also may be difficult to get above an A- as you must go "above and beyond" (which varies according to your TA) if you want to receive 100% on an assignment. Although experiences may differ based on professor and TA, you will definitely learn the material very well and be prepared to equip yourself with a highly valuable and coveted skillset.
Fall 2020 - Overall this was an extremely useful class with engaging content and assignments. The applications of GIS are endless, and the geography department at UCLA is stellar in teaching this subject. Even before the pandemic, in place of lectures are prerecorded tutorial-esque videos. However, Professor Burkhart was extremely helpful regarding assistance with the weekly projects in the CCLE forums. These projects, typically creating a map or working with spatial data in one form or another, are very time consuming and graded by your TA. My TA Jason was very knowledgeable and helpful with the intricacies such as visual design or QGIS errors and made lab sessions worthwhile with solutions and even examples of his own projects and various applications of GIS. Unfortunately, not all of my peers had the same experience with their TA's and were graded harshly based on aesthetics or inclusion/exclusion of seemingly small details. It also may be difficult to get above an A- as you must go "above and beyond" (which varies according to your TA) if you want to receive 100% on an assignment. Although experiences may differ based on professor and TA, you will definitely learn the material very well and be prepared to equip yourself with a highly valuable and coveted skillset.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Professor Burkhart is probably one of the most engaging/helpful professors I've had all throughout UCLA (just graduated); part of the reason why is because he actually loves what he teaches (he's like a rare Pokemon), and he structures his class to where you actually start liking what he teaches as well. That isn't to say that this class is an easy one. You definitely need to put at least 10-14 hours (depends on how badly you procrastinate) a week if you want to get a good grade. The assignments are worth way more than the final project, so make sure you don't put those off. In addition, He's also an extremely fair grader: we had an incident in the quarter where we had an undergrad TA that was grading quite harshly, and after a couple of us emailed him, he announced that he would now personally grade all our assignments and gave back points to those who deserved them. I wouldn't say he's an easy grader, but it's just because there are a lot of things he puts on the rubric and a lot of people do the projects last minute and forget to include all the specified guidelines. I got an A despite doing most if not all my projects last minute, and it included turning in an response assignment late and thus getting a 0. But that's because I just made sure all my maps included the guidelines he specified, and I also did more than expected to create more engaging and creative presentations. So just make sure you do really well on the assignments, and the quizzes & map critiques won't really matter. Burkhart truly wants his students to enjoy learning about his subjects, and it doesn't matter if you're not into GIS. I certainly wasn't, until I took this class, and I realized these things were actually pretty stinking cool and useful in real life.
Fall 2018 - Professor Burkhart is probably one of the most engaging/helpful professors I've had all throughout UCLA (just graduated); part of the reason why is because he actually loves what he teaches (he's like a rare Pokemon), and he structures his class to where you actually start liking what he teaches as well. That isn't to say that this class is an easy one. You definitely need to put at least 10-14 hours (depends on how badly you procrastinate) a week if you want to get a good grade. The assignments are worth way more than the final project, so make sure you don't put those off. In addition, He's also an extremely fair grader: we had an incident in the quarter where we had an undergrad TA that was grading quite harshly, and after a couple of us emailed him, he announced that he would now personally grade all our assignments and gave back points to those who deserved them. I wouldn't say he's an easy grader, but it's just because there are a lot of things he puts on the rubric and a lot of people do the projects last minute and forget to include all the specified guidelines. I got an A despite doing most if not all my projects last minute, and it included turning in an response assignment late and thus getting a 0. But that's because I just made sure all my maps included the guidelines he specified, and I also did more than expected to create more engaging and creative presentations. So just make sure you do really well on the assignments, and the quizzes & map critiques won't really matter. Burkhart truly wants his students to enjoy learning about his subjects, and it doesn't matter if you're not into GIS. I certainly wasn't, until I took this class, and I realized these things were actually pretty stinking cool and useful in real life.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - (This course is now numbered Geog 181A after the renumbering) Professor Burkhart does a fantastic job with his online lectures and assignments. Everything you do feels very reasonable and applicable. He also reaches out to his students multiple times during the quarter and felt very accommodating. I highly recommend this professor, and I hope to take more courses with him in the future.
Winter 2021 - (This course is now numbered Geog 181A after the renumbering) Professor Burkhart does a fantastic job with his online lectures and assignments. Everything you do feels very reasonable and applicable. He also reaches out to his students multiple times during the quarter and felt very accommodating. I highly recommend this professor, and I hope to take more courses with him in the future.
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