Current instructor

A-Xing Zhu

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.14/5 from 21 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.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
Professor Zhu is a nice guy, but his class is way too hard for how it should be. Labs are hard to follow and I'm rather chasing the way too general instructions most of the time instead of learning GIS skills. No clear lab grading criteria, which is rough when it makes up most of your grade. Would not recommend.
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Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
A-Xing seems passionate about his field, but this does not translate well into his teaching skills. Online lectures are extremely dry. His accent is difficult to understand, and no reliable subtitles are provided. Exam questions had many grammatical errors and some did not make sense at all. Lectures also haven't been updated since 2020.
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Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
The class is fun and the material that he presents is very educational. The lecture videos are also pretty solid. However, his English writing makes it very challenging to understand the exam questions and the written lectures. In addition, a lot of the class is just memorizing what he says is the correct answer in his lectures.
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GEOG 579
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
He is obviously very passionate about GIS and really wants to make sure his students know what's going on "under the hood" with many of the spatial methods and tools that he covers. The broken English that he uses in his readings and tests can be irritating, but as long as you understand the material you'll do fine. Very nice guy and truly cares.
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GEOG 579
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
He seems to be a nice guy, but with broken English in lectures and quizzes, which make it so hard, boring and despair for me. The quiz is like choose the most correct but with the broken English (you know it's gonna be nightmare).
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Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Seems like a nice guy, but his lectures were so boring. It takes days for assignments to be graded and you don't really know what you have in the class for the whole semester. Exams were pretty difficult and the grading for them is pretty harsh.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with A-Xing Zhu

An introduction to Geographic Information Systems focusing on the design and implementation of automated procedures for spatial data storage, analysis, and display.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

A-Xing Zhu receives criticism for unclear explanations, difficult-to-understand lectures, and poor exam question phrasing. Reviewers describe his teaching style as boring and hard to follow, with some finding his accent and writing style significant barriers to comprehension.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

GEOG 699 is a directed study course allowing students to conduct independent research or study arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

A graduate seminar surveying recent and classic works in cartography and geographic information science.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2012: 3.95 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Spring 2016: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=4 letter grades); Spring 2019: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=4 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sample

GEOG 990 is an individual mentored study course for completing theses, arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

GEOG 999 is an independent study course allowing students to arrange specific work with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026CIVENGR/ENVIRST/GEOG 377An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Fall 2026GEOG 699Directed Study
Fall 2026GEOG 970Seminar in Geographic Information Science
Fall 2026GEOG 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2026GEOG 999Independent Work

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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