Last spring, I divided the course into four quarters. During the first quarter, we focused on market analysis principles and appropriate sources of data. During the second quarter, the students built geodatabases (personal) using the data sources learned during the first quarter, and performed a suitability analysis for the retail sector in the DFW metroplex. The third quarter focused on property valuations mainly using spatial regression analysis. The fourth quarter focused on freely available web mapping options, including SVG and Flash. I taught this course at a very fast pace and the last quarter also gave the students time to reflect and digest.
The course last spring was very successful, but I would like to implement more of a case study approach. The required textbook this semester is "Real Estate Market Analysis: A Case Study Approach." Instead of clearly delineating the semester into 4 parts, I want to focus more on the textbook. There are 7 chapters in the book, 2 introducing market analysis and 5 on specific market sectors. If I spend 2 weeks on each chapter, the students can interpolate scenarios from the case studies to hypothetical scenarios here in the DFW metroplex. Weekly projects will then be turned in based on local data they collected and spatial analysis they performed. In other words (I am thinking aloud here...) the course will be structured a bit more thematically.
Good, I am pleased with this.
This makes the course a bit more of a challenge to organize as I now have to gradually build upon the basic GIS and spatial analysis techniques as the course progresses. This must happen simultaneously with the progression through the case studies in the book. So that the students can implement the spatial analysis necessary toward the middle/end of the semester, they first must learn the enough of the basics of GIS during the first parts of the course.
It should be a good semester. The Environmental and Earth Science department has recently expressed an interest in me teaching a GIS course for them this spring semester as well. It would be great if I teach that course too. If I do teach this additional course, the two possibilities would be either Geographic Data Analysis or Understanding Geographic Information Systems. Either course would be a pure GIScience course, and so I would be able to focus completely on what is truly my passion...GIS.
Here is a list of other graduate courses that I have previously taught:
- Advanced Topics in Sociology
- Texas A&M International University
- Advanced Topics in Marketing Research
- University of Texas at Arlington
- Understanding Geographic Information Systems
- University of Texas at Arlington
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