GIS in the Non-GIS Classroom: Using Student Mapping Assignments to Incorporate GIS in Traditional Lecture Classes

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the Arkansas Tech University students who completed these types of assignments over the years, which led to the development of this “GIS in the non-GIS classroom” argument. Preliminary findings and map approaches were presented at the 2017 Southwest States Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers and in poster form at the 2017 Arkansas GIS Users Forum. Thanks to the participants at these conferences who provided important insights that improved this study’s approach.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

No additional grants or equipment funding were used in this project, other than Arkansas Tech University travel grants for the two 2017 conference meetings listed above.

Notes on contributors

Patrick D. Hagge

Patrick D. Hagge is an associate professor of geography in the Department of History and Political Science at Arkansas Tech University, where he has taught since 2012. Dr. Hagge’s major research interests are Arkansas geography, geography education, and geographic information systems (GIS), specifically historical GIS. He won the Arkansas Tech Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020. Dr. Hagge is one of the founding members of the interdisciplinary Anthropology & Geography B.A. degree program at Arkansas Tech. He has secured grants to fund a high-end drone for map image acquisition, an HTC Vive virtual reality system for in-class mapping, and several Oculus Quest VR units for upcoming research weighing the effectiveness of classroom VR technology. Before life in academia, Dr. Hagge spent 2 years working as a GIS analyst at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.