Think in Places: What GIS Helps You See
Learn how GIS connects locations with descriptive information, then use a small set of familiar planning features to make a readable map that answers one place-based question.
Open courseLearn a skill. Make something useful.
Academy
Choose a short course that helps with your project. These are optional practice lessons, not additional graded assignments. Official submissions and grading remain in Canvas.
24 short courses
Start an ArcGIS Pro Project and Make a First Map
Create a Map project, add supplied local data, organize the map, save the project, and export a simple image. ArcGIS Pro needs a valid license; this lesson does not assume every student has UVA access.
Open courseCoordinate Systems: Location, Units, and Trustworthy Measurement
Inspect a layer's coordinate system, tell geographic coordinates from projected coordinates, and choose a suitable local projected system before measuring distance or area.
Open courseCreate a Planning Feature Class
Create a point, line, or polygon feature class in the project's file geodatabase, add useful fields, and draw a small set of features.
Open courseChoose an Exchange Format: Shapefile or GeoJSON
Compare a geodatabase feature class with Shapefile and GeoJSON exports, then make one format-aware copy for a stated sharing need.
Open courseBuild a Map Layout and Export It Clearly
Compose a page with a map frame, title, legend, scale bar, and source note, then export PDF and PNG versions for different uses.
Open courseFigure-Ground: Make Building Form Legible
Use a quiet white background and black building footprints to compare built form, block structure, and open space in a supplied downtown study area.
Open courseAsk a Spatial Question, Then Buffer and Join
Translate a planning question into a buffer and a spatial join, inspect the output fields, and explain what the result counts rather than treating proximity as proof.
Open courseTerrain Screening with Slope Bands and Contours
Review a supplied elevation surface, map percent-slope bands of 15–20, 20–25, and 25 percent or greater, and use contours as terrain context rather than a hazard verdict.
Open courseMap Assessed Value per Acre Without False Precision
Calculate assessed value per acre from compatible parcel records and parcel area, symbolize the resulting rate, and optionally use 3D extrusion only as a visual encoding.
Open courseVDOT street standards: identify the right road context
Identify a road's function, maintenance responsibility, and relevant design references. Optional practice produces a planning reference sheet for a corridor discussion.
Open courseRural Rustic Roads: organize a candidate-road review
Use VDOT's program page and distributed manual to examine a candidate road's traffic, system status, development context, and designation record.
Open courseNatural Heritage Data Explorer: prepare a careful public-data screen
Explore public conservation information in Virginia's Natural Heritage Data Explorer and document the limits of a desktop planning review.
Open courseDraft a comprehensive-plan update: evidence, policy, and action
Write a one-page chapter excerpt connecting existing conditions to a goal, policy, and implementation actions, then map its review and adoption workflow.
Open courseWrite a zoning provision: define, measure, and test
Write a 200-400-word provision containing purpose, definitions, applicability, measurable standards, process, and cross-references. Test three fictional scenarios.
Open courseCommunity engagement: ask useful questions and report input fairly
Prepare a small engagement plan that explains the decision, offers accessible participation options, and documents both shared concerns and differing views.
Open courseAccessory dwelling units: check the date, locality, and approval questions
Prepare an ADU research note that distinguishes Fall 2026 local rules from Virginia's statute effective July 1, 2027, including its stated exceptions.
Open courseIndustrial site readiness: support marketing with evidence
Examine the evidence behind industrial-site claims about pads, usable land, access, utilities, and due diligence. Prepare a research table that can improve the accuracy of a site-marketing draft.
Open courseSummarize a Planning Document with Checkable Evidence
Turn a short public planning document into a useful briefing while keeping its scope, caveats, and source locations visible. The practice is optional and formative; it does not replace an official course assignment or a person's planning judgment.
Open courseExtract Planning Actions Without Inventing Commitments
Build a small action table from a defined section of a public plan. Keep the action's original wording, source location, and stated responsibility together so a reviewer can distinguish a proposal from an actual commitment.
Open courseWrite and Check a Planning Concept Image Prompt
Write a precise brief for a landscape architecture concept illustration. Specify the reference geometry, view, and background, then plan checks that keep the illustration clearly distinct from existing conditions or a measured GIS map.
Open courseVerify an AI Draft Before You Use It
Check a short AI-assisted planning draft claim by claim. Build an evidence table, correct unsupported statements, and preserve unknowns so a teammate can understand which parts were checked and which still need work.
Open courseRead Demographic Maps with Geography and Uncertainty
Use Social Explorer to prepare a small demographic profile for a clearly defined study area. Record the dataset, geographic unit, reference period, variable, and units so the map and table can be interpreted together.
Open courseMake Planning Graphics Readable and Explainable
Improve one planning graphic's labels, contrast, reading order, caption, and text alternative. Inspect the finished export at its actual display size and document what you checked before handing it to the person preparing publication.
Open courseUse your existing course login to save checks and submit private work samples. Avoid uploading confidential client information or sensitive locations.