I do not know anything about the professor tbh but the sections were really helpful. The only thing I did not like was that you have to do "above and beyond" to get 20/20 on the assignments, so if you do everything correct, you'll get 18/20. The assignments are the most important part of the class (50% - although he made it 70% if we did not want to take the final) and the rest of the class is pretty easy with re-takable tests and discussion. The assignments took me about 3-6 hours each week but they want perfection. I feel like I learned something useful in this class, unlike other GE classes I've taken. I would recommend this class.

Overall this was an extremely useful class with engaging content and assignments. The applications of GIS are endless, and the geography department at UCLA is stellar in teaching this subject. Even before the pandemic, in place of lectures are prerecorded tutorial-esque videos. However, Professor Burkhart was extremely helpful regarding assistance with the weekly projects in the CCLE forums. These projects, typically creating a map or working with spatial data in one form or another, are very time consuming and graded by your TA. My TA Jason was very knowledgeable and helpful with the intricacies such as visual design or QGIS errors and made lab sessions worthwhile with solutions and even examples of his own projects and various applications of GIS. Unfortunately, not all of my peers had the same experience with their TA's and were graded harshly based on aesthetics or inclusion/exclusion of seemingly small details. It also may be difficult to get above an A- as you must go "above and beyond" (which varies according to your TA) if you want to receive 100% on an assignment. Although experiences may differ based on professor and TA, you will definitely learn the material very well and be prepared to equip yourself with a highly valuable and coveted skillset.

This class was so damn easy. Everything for the week is assigned Monday morning, and I was almost always finished by Monday afternoon. Burkhart is super super clear in his instructions, and the assignments are pretty fun and interesting.

Overall I really enjoyed this class! As an env sci major it’s required and I was nervous to take it but it was actually really fun and I think I learned a lot. Everything is posted in easy video tutorials and it’s clear what is being asked of us each week. The TA’s mainly teach the course, I never heard from the professor besides the weekly videos and a weekly announcement. I loved my TA and she was really helpful, if you go to their office hours they can give you helpful pointers and review your assignments. I highly recommend this class !

I thought this class was very interesting, knowing how to work with QGIS is a helpful skill and I would definitely recommend this class. The weekly assignments were manageable, if you need any help office hours with TAs and the professor are extremely helpful.

This class was overall quite easy, and also taught me skills that I expect to be useful in my career. The one thing I really object to was the fact that weekly assignments had to exceed the requirements for a full score. I felt that the amount of time it would have taken to go above and beyond each week was not worth it, so I did not get an A. I suppose that is my fault, but I was somewhat annoyed that even when I was showing growth in learning the topic, points would be taken off for both making small formatting mistakes as well as not doing extra.

Very interesting and worthwhile GE. The material was very clear and easy to learn. Assignments took a little bit of time, but were enjoyable. Would recommend.

I enjoyed this class a lot more than I expected to. This class is a requirement for my major, and it definitely took a lot of work to get an A. However, the skills that you learn throughout this course are extremely interesting and likely going to be helpful in the future. As other reviewers have mentioned, I didn't really get to know this professor; the lectures are entirely asynchronous and done by voiceover, and I never had the need to attend office hours. I will say, though, that Professor Burkhart made our final optional and no-harm, which was absolutely fantastic of him to do, so I know he keeps his students in mind throughout this class. Overall, I'm not sure if I would recommend this as a GE unless you are highly interested in GIS, as it does take a significant amount of time and independent study. That being said, I'm super glad it was a required course for me, because I was surprised by how much I enjoyed creating the projects, working with GIS, and seeing the real-world applications of this technology.

This class during quarantine had minimal interaction between professor and students, all lectures were recorded and posted. These lectures were mainly reviewing concepts from the required textbook, and videos instructing students on how to navigate using the QGIS software. The class was set up as follows: weekly readings/videos on which we had a quiz (you can take as many times as you want but you have to wait a certain amount of time between attempts), we had a weekly forum where we read an article or watched a video and responded through a forum post, lastly we had a weekly QGIS mapping project. I thought the mapping projects were really fun, because we got to take and manipulate visually real data, and we were looking at the 2016 election statistics during the 2020 election so I could actually compare the 2 different results. QGIS is a bit hard to navigate, but I had no experience and was fine. Professor Burkhart gives very clear videos on how to use QGIS, and my TA Jason was very helpful in trouble shooting any software issue I ran up against.

I would not recommend taking this class. I was only taking it to fulfill a GE and this was the most difficult class on my caseload and I was also taking two upper divs. Videos are posted with directions for weekly assignments but when I followed the video I never received full credit for my work. The work load is HEAVYYY so if you plan on taking the class start your work early. I was not very interested in this subject which may be why I regret taking this class.