Course Title: Geospatial Programming

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Geospatial Programming

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

GEOM2159

City Campus

Undergraduate

171H School of Science

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2019,
Sem 2 2022,
Sem 2 2023

Course Coordinator: Debaditya Acharya

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925

Course Coordinator Email: debaditya.acharya@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Availability: appointment by email


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Required Prior Study

You should have satisfactorily completed following course/s before you commence this course.

Alternatively, you may be able to demonstrate the required skills and knowledge before you start this course.

Contact your course coordinator if you think you may be eligible for recognition of prior learning.


Course Description

This course introduces you to fundamental concepts of programming that can be used to automate tasks within a GIS environment as well as to extend GIS functionality. The course is designed for students with no prior background in programming, and the basic programming skills you learn can be applied to processes such as automatic data pre-processing, which is often a prerequisite for working with large real-world datasets in a GIS environment.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course contributes to the development of the following Program Learning Outcomes in BH117 Bachelor of Science (Geospatial Science) (Hons):

1.2 Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the spatial models and mathematical methods used in contemporary practice.

1.3 Understand specialist bodies of knowledge in surveying and geospatial science.

2.2 Proficiently perform computations in two and three dimensions.

3.1 Design and implement creative solutions to complex problems.

6.1 Be self-motivated and personally responsible for your actions and learning.


Upon successful completion of this course you should be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of fundamental programming concepts, such as documentation, debugging, and error checking using Python
  2. Investigate Python tools to read and process data.
  3. Solve GIS problems by writing well-documented Python code.
  4. Demonstrate awareness and effective use of external resources and documentation to solve and analyse GIS problems.


Overview of Learning Activities

This course is run in blended mode, with a weekly lectorial component before the one-week intensive component.

You are encouraged to be proactive and self-directed in your learning, asking questions of your lecturer and/or peers and seeking out information as required, especially from the numerous sources available through the RMIT library, and through links and material specific to this course that is available through myRMIT Studies Course.


Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through myRMIT Studies Course.

There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.

A library subject guide is available at: http://rmit.libguides.com/geospatial

The prescribed course text is Think Python 2nd Edition by Allen B. Downey. It is freely available under a Creative Commons license: http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython2/thinkpython2.pdf

An additional recommended text is Learn Python the Hard Way, available from: https://learnpythonthehardway.org/.

A collection of other helpful online resources is also provided in the course Canvas site.

The software used in this course is open source, freely available, and can be installed on your own computer at home. The relevant links for downloading the required software will be provided in Canvas.

Computer labs with the required software are also available for your study.


Overview of Assessment

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task 1: Online Quizzes
Weighting 10%
This assessment task supports CLO 1

Assessment Task 2: Practical Lab Exercises including report (5)
Weighting 40%
This assessment task supports CLOs 2, 3 & 4

Assessment Task 3: Assignments on the application of GIS problems (2)
Weighting 30%
This assessment task supports CLOs 2, 3 & 4

Assessment Task 4: Final Project Assignment
Weighting 20%
This assessment supports CLOs 2, 3 & 4

If you have a long-term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more.