Los Angeles Valley College Library: OER: Open Educational Resources: Geography

Textbooks

Human Geography by R. Adam Dastrup (2016): Open Geography Education.

Human geography emphasizes the importance of geography as a field of inquiry and introduces students to the concept of spatial organization. Knowing the location of places, people, and events is a gateway to understanding complex environmental relationships and interconnections among places and across landscapes.

Regional Geography of the World: Globalization, People, and Places by Dr. Royal Berglee (2012): FlatWorld
Knowledge

World Regional Geography takes a regional approach to globalization and world geography. The textbook was designed to provide accurate and current information regarding world regional geography in an easy-to-read format. Fundamental geographic concepts and regions are presented in concise chapters that provide a foundational framework for understanding development patterns around the world. Essential topics include location, the environment, and global economic dynamics. Important theories, concepts, and principles are utilized throughout the textbook for each region.

Analyzing Our World with GIS by R. Adam Dastrup (2017): Open Geography Education

When you think of geography do you think about memorizing capitals, rivers, mountains, and states or coloring maps? Sadly, this is how geography is taught too often in K12 schools. In reality, geography is one of the most high-tech scientific disciplines in the science community. Geography is the scientific study of the earth and is one of the original disciplines along with philosophy in trying to understand the world humans live in. The geographic discipline has two sub-categories, physical geography and cultural geography, which allows geographers the scientific credibility to look at cultural issues of economics, demographics, culture, language, religion, or urban planning. It also allows geographers to focus on climate, climate change, biogeography, geomorphology, or environmental issues of pollution, desertification, deforestation, or species extinction. (I would love to see each of the major terms in the previous sentence have a “mouse hover event” so a student can hover and see a very short definition of what each is.

Nature of Geographic Information Systems by David DiBiase (2014): BCcampus

The purpose of this text is to promote understanding of the Geographic Information Science and Technology enterprise (GIS&T, also known as “geospatial”).

Penn State

Essentials of Geographic Information Systems by Jonathan Campbell (2011): Saylor Foundation

Essentials of Geographic Information Systems integrates key concepts behind the technology with practical concerns and real-world applications. Recognizing that many potential GIS users are nonspecialists or may only need a few maps, this book is designed to be accessible, pragmatic, and concise. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems also illustrates how GIS is used to ask questions, inform choices, and guide policy. From the melting of the polar ice caps to privacy issues associated with mapping, this book provides a gentle, yet substantive, introduction to the use and application of digital maps, mapping, and GIS.

Spatial Thinking in Planning Practice: An Introduction to GIS by Yiping Fang (2014): Portland State University

The goals of this textbook are to help students acquire the technical skills of using software and managing a database, and develop research skills of collecting data, analyzing information and presenting results. We emphasize that the need to investigate the potential and practicality of GIS technologies in a typical planning setting and evaluate its possible applications. GIS may not be necessary (or useful) for every planning application, and we anticipate these readings to provide the necessary foundation for discerning its appropriate use. Therefore, this textbook attempts to facilitate spatial thinking focusing more on open-ended planning questions, which require judgment and exploration, while developing the analytical capacity for understanding a variety of local and regional planning challenges.

The Physical Environment: An Introduction to Physical Geography by Michael Ritter (2016): Michael Ritter.

The Physical Environment was one of the first, totally online physical geography learning environments. The Physical Environment combines text, images, audio and video programs to deliver the subject matter content. A multimedia online environment enables new and different ways to interact with textbook content. The potential of the World Wide Web to bring remote places to our digital devices, and its ability to interlink bits of information, breathes life into physical geography. The interconnectivity of the Web engages us in new ways of learning.

Earth Online Media

Courses

GEOG101: World Regional Geography
Geography is the study of the physical features of the Earth and its atmosphere – including landscape development, weather and climate, and geologic concepts – as well as the influence of human activity – including cultural, economic, and political activity – on those physical features. Geography students, as they study the many aspects of our physically and culturally diverse world, tend to become more adept at tasks that require both spatial and critical thinking skills. World Regional Geography covers the basic elements noted above but within a regional context. Ultimately, World Regional Geography is concerned with the physical and human characteristics that make the regions of our world distinctive. As you progress through the course, the units will discuss each major world region in detail, placing particular emphasis on cultural and societal structures. Regions will be discussed within a global framework in the hope that you will gain a better comprehension of how the world map is being defined and redefined. In addition, you will study key global issues such as international conflict and cooperation, environmental degradation, population growth, and globalization. This course makes primary use of a comprehensive textbook to facilitate learning. The concepts presented in World Regional Geography will build upon one another as you progress through the course. Supplemental readings and online video lectures will be integrated throughout each unit as well.
GEOG 597i Critical Geospatial Thinking and Applications
Geography, a venerable discipline that emerged out of the universal human sense of time, space, and place, is deeply rooted in the Greek scholarly tradition. Many Americans have been exposed to geography as students, and at least a few fondly remember memorizing the states and their capitals. Regardless of their level of appreciation of the discipline, however, most seem to believe that they have a relatively strong grasp of the nature and substance of geography. This is not a trivial observation because people often find it disconcerting to learn that what they have long held as truth is either too simplistic to be useful or, in some cases, simply wrong.

Additional Resources

American Association of Geographers (AAG)

Geography Quizzes (LizardPoint)

Open Geography (opengeography)

Physical Geography of British Columbia (BCcampus)

Visual Geography (Bjørnlund & Kester)