Late Assessment Submission Penalty 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7^th day (including weekends). After the 7^th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern.

For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration. 

Note: Late submissions will be accepted for all assessments in this unit, Standard Late Penalties applies. 

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through ask.mq.edu.au.

Submission of assignments and progress tasks 

Students are required to keep a copy of their submitted assessments.

The assignments will be taken and submitted online and through upload links. In the latter case, assignments must be submitted in Word or PDF format. Maps and tables associated with the assignment must be included in MS Word or PDF documents. 

Assignments cannot be emailed or submitted in softcopy format under any circumstances. The Turnitin/online link provided in iLearn must be used to submit assignments by the dates and times indicated. 

Return of marked assignments 

Within two teaching weeks of submitting your assignment, you will receive written feedback via iLearn.

Requirements to Pass this Unit

To Pass this unit, you must: 

• Attempt all assessments, and
• Achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50%

Grades for the unit as a whole will be awarded according to the following general criteria (course rubric): 

	Developing	Functional	Proficient	Advanced
General description of the level of attainment	Has not yet reached the desired standard. Limited understanding of required concepts and knowledge.  A fail grade (or under some circumstances a conceded pass) would be given	Has reached basic academic standards. Work has limited translation of concepts and procedures to new contexts unless aided.  A pass grade would be awarded	Has completely reached the standards expected. Can work independently in new contexts, adapting procedures to meet the context. Demonstrates awareness of own limitations.  A credit grade would be awarded.	Has gone beyond the expected standards. Exhibits high levels of independence and can use concepts to generate new ways of completing procedures. Can engage in critical reflection.  A grade of distinction or high distinction would be awarded.

NSCI7364 is an introductory course to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It introduces students to geospatial technologies, including GIS, GPS, and remote sensing. GIS concepts and principles will be taught, as well as technical skills in data acquisition and management, mapping, spatial sampling, and analysis. Using the latest geospatial software available on the market, our students are trained in industry-standard GIS software.

The topics covered in NSCI7364 are vital to becoming competent in Geographic Information Science. As part of these, you will learn about how the shape of the earth affects mapping, as well as coordinate systems and map projections, how to create and collect GIS data, how to analyze spatial data using various GIS types, how to make maps, how to use remote sensing, and how to work with three-dimensional data. As part of the practical classes, students will be exposed to standard GIS concepts and techniques applied to various disciplines, including environmental science and management, physical and human geography, urban planning, biodiversity conservation, archaeology, health, and business.

Delivery 

For the practical component of this unit, the course is available either in weekday attendance mode or fully online. We will offer all lectures in weekday attendance mode and will also be streamed online. 

Methods of communication

We will communicate with you via your university email or through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent to mqgislectures@mq.edu.au from your university email address.

Off-shore students

Off-shore students must email the convenor as soon as possible to discuss study options.

COVID Information

On-campus teaching continues to be scheduled for Session 1, 2024.

Students are requested to minimise the risk of spreading COVID to themselves and others in accordance with the university and NSW Health guidelines: https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus-faqs and https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/stay-safe. Remember to check this page regularly in case the information and requirements change during semester. If there are any changes to this unit in relation to COVID, these will be communicated via iLearn.

Lecture program and location 

There is one 1 hour online lecture per week. Please check lecture times at the Macquarie University timetables To access your timetable, visit Class Finder (click on the  icon on the homepage of eStudent). Lectures are recorded and posted on iLearn via Echo360. Students are expected to attend lectures in person and virtually/online according to their enrollment. Links for attending lectures online are provided on iLearn. Lecture recordings will also be made available on iLearn.

Practical program and location 

Weekday attendance: Students are enrolled on one 3-hour practical class per week. Please check the practical times and rooms on your timetable. Practical class sizes are limited by the number of available computers. You must use the online enrolment system to change the time/day of your practical class. Practical classes and lectures begin in Week 1.

Fully online attendance: You must have a home computer with a Windows operating system (Windows 7 or above). Please note that ArcGIS Pro software is NOT supported by Mac or Linux operating systems. Also, we don't provide IT support for installation to Mac or Linux platforms. A copy of the ArcGIS Pro software will be provided to all students. You must install this software on your computer. Internal students may also download and install the software on their personal computers. ArcGIS Pro can also be accessed remotely on the Appstream platform. More information on accessing GIS software on the Appstream platform is provided on the iLearn.

Resources 

Technology used 

This unit will use the online platform of Echo360 and iLearn, ArcGIS Pro, Google Earth, MS Excel software, GPS, and online resources for the practical exercises. Other ESRI software and open-source GIS software may also be used.

You will require access to a computer and broadband internet to complete this unit. The library computers and computer labs are available for casual use outside scheduled practical classes. 

Internal students with a home computer with a Windows operating system may obtain a copy of the ArcGIS Pro software from the unit convenor. The ArcGIS Pro software is NOT supported by Mac or Linux operating systems. It is not essential for weekday students to have ArcGIS installed on their home computers as the computers in the computer labs are available for casual use outside scheduled practical classes. However, students registered as fully online must have ArcGIS Pro installed on their home computers. ArcGIS Pro is also available via Appstream. More information regarding this is provided on the iLearn

Unit web page 

This unit’s webpage will be available on iLearn. Information about how students can access iLearn can be found at: http://www.mq.edu.au/iLearn/student_info/index.htm

The iLearn page uses Macquarie University’s standard interface and has links, access to lectures (as audio files through Echo360, and as downloadable PDF presentations) and practical instructions. Important announcements will be made through iLearn, so check the NSCI7364 page regularly. 

Information about how to access lecture recordings through the Echo360 EchoCenter page in iLearn can be found at: http://mq.edu.au/iLearn/student_info/lecture_recordings.htm

Recommended texts/materials 

Highly recommend a fast USB Flash Storage Drive (4GB is adequate) for GIS Practicals; if your computer supports USB3 then I would further suggest a USB3 storage drive as the GIS Lab PC's support USB3. 

Access to required and recommended resources, plus past central exam papers, is available at the Macquarie Library website (https://www.mq.edu.au/about/campus-services-and-facilities/library/multi-search/multisearch).

GIS Software. The University has a site license for ESRI's ArcGIS (www.arcgis.com), which may be installed on a Windows PC with reasonable specs (i.e. 4GB RAM and 2.2 GHz CPU). 

Shellito, B. A. (2020). Discovering GIS and ArcGIS Pro 3rd Edition. Macmillan Higher Education.

Chang, K. 2008. Introduction to geographic information systems. McGraw Hill, New York.

Jensen J. & Jensen R. (2012) Introductory Geographic Information Systems, Pearson Higher Ed. 

Longley, P., Goodchild, et al. (2005) Geographical Information Systems and Science.

Burrough PA, McDonnell RA, and Lloyd C. 2015. Principles of Geographic Information Systems. Oxford University Press, UK. 

Huisman O, de By RA (Eds). Principles of Geographic Information Systems: An Introductory Text Book: Available online at:https://www.itc.nl/library/papers_2009/general/PrinciplesGIS.pdf 

The Khan Academy has many short instructional videos on a range of topics; the statistics (Maths) and SQL (Computing, Programming) provide background learning relevant to GIS.

http://www.khanacademy.org

The following is a summary of the course content and a tentative schedule. Check iLearn regularly for the weekly content update. 

Week	Description	Practical
1	Introduction to Geographic Information Science: what is GIS, and what is it used for?	Practical Assignment 1.1
2	Types of GIS data: Vector and Raster data	Practical Assignment 1.2
3	Planet Earth is not, in fact, perfectly round: Coordinate systems and map projections	Practical Assignment 1.3
4	Spatial Analyses using Vector data	Practical Assignment 2.4
5	Spatial Analyses using Raster data	Practical Assignment 2.5
6	Capturing physical features on earth surface using GIS	Practical Assignment 2.6
7	GIS applications and career in GIS	Practical Assignment 2.7
8	Starting a GIS Project: Data Flow Diagrams, ModelBuilder & Spatial analyses with ArcGIS Pro	Practical Assignment 3.8
	Semester Break
9	Remote Sensing: Surface elevation and Terrain products, raster and TIN, 3D	Practical Assignment 3.9
10	Remote Sensing of the Environment	Practical Assignment 3.10
11	Application of GIS for environmental solutions	Practical Assignment 3.11
12	Application of GIS for environmental solutions	Practical Assignment 3.12
13	Unit summary	No practical

Course Changes as informed by Previous Student Feedback 

We continually modify the course content, and datasets for practical sessions will differ from year to year.