PLAN 2110

Prof. Walker is a chill guy, and this is a chill class.

For urban planning students, this is a required and quintessential class because of ArcGIS being THE tool for planners to analyze and visualize information. Prof. Walker is an expert in the subject being a GIS specialist in jobs and having even worked directly for Esri (the company making ArcGIS).

ArcGIS Online mapviewer, ArcGIS Online Dashboard, ArcGIS Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, ArcGIS StoryMaps are all the software touched on in this course (written here in chronological order of learned in class). Prof. Walker takes time to go through all the softwares although his lectures are very sleep inducing and not very engaging. He lectures for 1h45m on Wednesdays and has a computer 1h45m lab time where he also lectures on Fridays.

The class starts very, very slow. He is sort of forced to be like this because of the lack of computer proficiency of some students — he teaches us how to open zip files. I found this class extremely disappointing at first (before the first project, which happens around halfway through the semester). It gets a lot better once you start learning ArcGIS Pro because that is when you truly appreciate the importance of ArcGIS Online suite of products/apps. A big reason for my disappointment was the lack of rigor in this class compared to A-School's first-year general education requirements including quite demanding studio classes. In comparison to the studio classes, this class is kindergarten. We had to learn Rhino 3D as we were using it to do a project in Foundation Studio I while Prof. Walker really takes time to explain the concepts in this class. Well, it is probably a good thing for most people that Digital Visualization takes it slow as students found Foundation Studio I to be too demanding and difficult.

I am relatively proficient in self-learning softwares at least in basic levels, so I was frustrated in the course's slow speed. But once we got to ArcGIS Pro, there are many tutorials and things to learn, and Digital Visualization only explores a very small portion of the app's functionalities. Prof. Walker is very happy to meet with students to explain everything they are confused about and would always show students next steps in elevating their projects even when it is not required. Hence, this class has a low bar and a high ceiling. Do learn this class well if you are a planner. If you are not a planner, it is not impossible to get into this class or Prof. Walker's other GIS class in Spring, and you may find it very useful in analyzing demographic information or other data in your line of work like political science or such.

This class made me realize how much I love GIS and planning work!

Most weeks, there's one cumulative assignment testing the skills you learned in class, which is started on the Friday before its due. I will say that the class adds up to a decent amount of work towards the end. The final project was 10+ hours of work, which was a lot when you have other finals to attend to.
Professor Walker was a good teacher, and had great tutorials and resources for us. I learned a ton and kept the skills after the class ended. I suppose this review doesn't matter much, as planners have to take this class - but rest assured, you'll enjoy it.

This was a really fun and enjoyable class that taught important skills for anyone looking to go into the field of planning. Even if you are not interested in becoming a planner, I highly recommend this class. This semester we worked primarily with ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS online with some Adobe Suite work as well. Professor Walker was a really chill professor who was always there to help, made the work load manageable, and was not a harsh grader. The assignments and projects were very thoughtful and I enjoyed completing them. This course was much less stressful than other studio courses I have taken inside the School of Architecture. Also, you will walk away with a portfolio of work that you can use in the future when applying for jobs or graduate school. I know that the nature of this class really depends on who your professor is. Students in the past have had to do a lot of work in Rhino, so I would definitely research the professor who is teaching the course before signing up.