Spring 2027

Our Digital Globe: an Overview of Giscience and Its Technology

Introductory overview of geoscience technologies including GPS, Google Earth, satellite imagery, and GIS, focusing on geospatial data collection, representation, and critical evaluation of spatial maps.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 William Gartner3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Qunying Huang

Assignments were few and clearly instructed, with generous time to complete work. Exams and quizzes carried heavy weight, featuring random questions from a bank that varied in difficulty.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe fundamental concepts and knowledge in geospatial fields, such as geospatial data, geographic coordinates, geographic coordinate systems, projection, maps, etc.

  • Analyze and interpret aerial photos and remote sensing images.

  • Describe the functionality of maps.

  • Design and make a map using GIS tools (e.g., ArcGIS online).

  • Build a solid foundation for more specialized courses on GIS, cartography, remote sensing, and GPS.

  • Identify several widely used geospatial software and tools (e.g., Google Earth).

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
GEOG 170 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.78/5 from 27 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2013: 3.19 GPA, 45.1% A/AB (n=71 letter grades); Spring 2014: 3.07 GPA, 36.5% A/AB (n=63 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

AMY BURNICKI is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

QUNYING HUANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WILLIAM GARTNER is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Spring 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 4500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Qunying Huang

This online course features typed lectures without video content and minimal instructor interaction. Students reported the format felt disconnected, with one noting they learned little from the teaching method despite the easy material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.66 GPA, 83.1% A/AB (n=439 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.72 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=265 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.51 GPA, 76.4% A/AB (n=440 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Qunying Huang

Assignments were few and clearly instructed, with generous time to complete work. Exams and quizzes carried heavy weight, featuring random questions from a bank that varied in difficulty.

Past student reviews · Qunying Huang

Students found the lack of professor presence frustrating, describing the instructor as nonexistent in the course. The online format required self-initiation for any interaction, leaving some feeling the teaching method hindered actual learning.

Topics

  • Fundamental geospatial concepts including coordinates, projections, and maps
  • Critical understanding of spatial representation strengths and limitations
  • Foundations for specialized study in GIS, cartography, remote sensing, and GPS

Skills

  • Collection, representation, and use of geospatial data
  • Analysis and interpretation of aerial photos and remote sensing images
  • Map design and creation using GIS tools
  • Identification of widely used geospatial software and tools

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
GEOG 170 · Spring 2027

Our Digital Globe: An Overview of GIScience and its Technology

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:416:008202",
    "course_id": "GEOG 170",
    "course_uid": "course_a3dc86d993db7814ebb1fe68",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "008202",
    "source_subject_id": "416",
    "title": "Our Digital Globe: An Overview of GIScience and its Technology",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "da29704e22e14d7122f47e318ec4254cf0430874a4a03676c862507566f2e1c5",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}