AN 3801 - Principles of Cartography (4)

1. Students will demonstrate familiarity with the principles underlying the communication of visual information.
2. Students will demonstrate an understanding of using GIS software to convey variances in spatial data in meaningful ways.
3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of how cartographic choices affect perceptions of visualization.

Notes and Recordings
Commercialization of lecture notes and university-provided course materials is not authorized for this course.  Recording audio or video, or photography is not permitted.  Remember that not all testable material is contained in the book.  Your lecture notes will prove to be invaluable for examination preparation.

Exams and Deliverables
There will be two non-cumulative exams administered in class during the semester.  The test format will include some combination of short-answer and/or true-false questions relating to both lecture and textbook material.  There are no make-up exams without official supporting documentation.  Make-up exams are administered during office hours or by appointment.  Please note the exam dates in the course schedule above.

Attendance and Participation
Attendance and participation are required for success in this class.  Participation includes engaging the course text in advance, entering into class discussions, and contributing your unique perspectives.  No PowerPoint slides will be distributed to the class.  You are responsible for all material contained in the textbook and presented during lectures. 

You will receive one point for attendance and one point for participating in discussions each class.  You will receive weekly updates regarding your participation grade throughout the semester via Moodle. 

The Digital Cartography Workgroup requires everyone to participate as you will be working as a group to produce different types of mapping products depicting real-world conditions.  Participation is mandatory.  The Professor will reveal group assignments later in the semester.

Research Paper
Each student will prepare a brief research paper on a pre-approved topic related to a specific application of RS in academia, government, military or business.  Your proposed topic needs to be pre-approved by the instructor.  All papers should be typed in doubled space with 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, and due in hard copy form.  Please use American Antiquity citation format in your paper.  No email submissions will be accepted.  There is no length requirement; however, anything shorter than five pages will need to be extremely innovative and groundbreaking to receive full credit. 

No extra credit assignments are scheduled for this course.

Grading:

2 Exams                                                            50%
Attendance                                                        10%
Participation                                                       10%
Research Paper                                                 30% 

                          Total                                                                      100%

Note: This is a weighted grading scale.  The total number of available points in each category accumulated are converted to a percentage and the percentage scale above is then applied.  For example, if the class meets 25 times and you are present and participate every class, you will accumulate 25 points for attendance (100%) and 25 points for participation (100%), accounting for 20% of your overall grade.

Excused Absence Policy:  This policy for university-excused absences applies to participation as an athlete, manager or student trainer in NCAA intercollegiate competitions, or participation as a representative of Oakland University at academic events and artistic performances approved by the Provost or designee (http://wwwp.oakland.edu/provost/policies-and-procedures/).  Students shall inform their professor of dates that they will miss class due to an excused absence prior to the date of that anticipated absence.  For activities such as athletic competitions whose schedules are known prior to the start of a term, students must provide their professor during the first week of each term a written schedule showing days they expect to miss classes.  For other university-excused absences students must provide each instructor at the earliest possible time the dates that they will miss.

Illness/bereavement/jury duty:  Students must notify the professor as soon as possible about absences due to illness, bereavement, or jury duty.  In order to be excused from class due to these events, the student must bring documentation from– a medical care provider regarding illness; from a reliable source (e.g. obituary) in the case of bereavement; and official documentation of your jury duty obligations.  Please see the professor as soon as possible to discuss any unforeseen absence not listed above.

Religious holidays:  Students must request an excused absence directly from the professor prior to the start of a religious holiday.  The decision to deem this an excused absence will be made at the sole discretion of the professor.

Make-up work:  It is the responsibility of the student to request from the professor an opportunity to complete missed assignments, activities, examinations or other course requirements in a timely manner.  In general, make-up exams will not be given unless the student missed the exam because of a legitimate excused absence as described above. Missed classroom activities may be rescheduled, if deemed appropriate by the professor, and at the sole discretion of the professor.  Students are responsible for all material covered in classes that they miss, even when their absences are excused.