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Week 1 — Introduction

Also this week

  • The first class meeting of the semester. In Fall it falls on a Thursday; the Tuesday/Thursday rhythm starts the following week.

Presentation Slides

  • Day 1 — Course Introduction — Welcome, introductions, syllabus overview, course expectations and policies; What geomatics is: surveying, GPS, GIS, remote sensing, mapping; What a GIS is: points, polylines, polygons, attribute tables; Software for the course: QGIS (free, open source)
  • Day 1 — Introduction to GIS

Press F for fullscreen and P for presenter view with speaker notes.

In-Class Practice

  • Day 1 — Spatial identity getting-to-know-you activity; class activity sheet on uses of GIS in civil and construction engineering. Record your completion on Learning Suite.

Self-check quizzes — not graded; open them on a phone or laptop as often as you like:

  • What Is a GIS? — What a GIS is and is not, the three vector feature types and the attribute table behind them, and how this course works.

Lab Assignment

No lab this week.

Reading Quiz

This week's reading: GIS Fundamentals (Bolstad & Manson), Chapter 1.

No quiz due this week.

Note

If you see a discrepancy between Learning Suite and this page, please let us know so we can rectify it.

Version 2026.09.15 · Last updated September 23, 2026