Spring 2027

World Regions in Global Context

Survey of development and change in world regions, focusing on environment, society, history, economy, demographics, culture, politics, and future challenges.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Kristopher Olds

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Catherine Cathy Day

The course required discussion posts, essays, and quizzes, which reviewers found to be a significant time commitment.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe geographic characteristics of world regions using multiple forms of knowledge (e.g., Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia).

  • Discuss how travel and fieldwork can generate unique insights about world regions.

  • Describe four major geographic concepts about world regions: identity, diversity, uneven development, and global interdependencies. (

  • Describe within each world region key features of environment and society; history, economy and demographic change; and culture and politics.

  • Compare and contrast each world region and identify the advantages and limitations of a regional approach to understanding the world.

  • Analyze the concept of “region” and determine how and when it is valid.

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

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
GEOG 340

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.53 GPA, 79.1% A/AB (n=191 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.71 GPA, 82.5% A/AB (n=274 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.59 GPA, 79.3% A/AB (n=290 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CATHERINE DAY is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KRISTOPHER N OLDS is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. 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 / 3600

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 · Catherine Cathy Day

Past students described the class as well-organized with knowledgeable instruction on world regions, though they noted it was more time-consuming than expected.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.53 GPA, 79.1% A/AB (n=191 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.71 GPA, 82.5% A/AB (n=274 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.59 GPA, 79.3% A/AB (n=290 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Catherine Cathy Day

The course required discussion posts, essays, and quizzes, which reviewers found to be a significant time commitment.

Past student reviews · Catherine Cathy Day

One student found grading subjective and frustrating, stating that points were deducted without explanation even when rubric requirements were met.

Topics

  • Environment and society, history, economy, and demographic change
  • Culture, politics, future challenges, and key actors
  • Identity, diversity, uneven development, and global interdependencies

Skills

  • Describing geographic characteristics of world regions
  • Applying geographic concepts like identity, diversity, and uneven development
  • Comparing and contrasting world regions
  • Discussing insights from travel and fieldwork

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 · 0.16 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 340 · Spring 2027

World Regions in Global Context

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": "1274:416:008200",
    "course_id": "GEOG 340",
    "course_uid": "course_5e903b409dd3ac8c798be368",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "008200",
    "source_subject_id": "416",
    "title": "World Regions in Global Context",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  }
]
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": "0fd54e17fded60f757387cceacaf14f2f655ffa9d2694e7d2cf4190cdd895f3f",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}