Geography Learning Objectives and Outcomes Project (G-LOOP)
Learning Objectives Overview: Economic Geography
August 2000 - "Under Construction"

(Draft / "Work in Progress")

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Quick Index:

1. General & Overarching Program Objectives for Economic Geography
2. Specific Learning Objectives with Learning Outcomes
3. General Content and Structure of the Program
4. Process of Achieving the Program's Learning Objectives and Outcomes
5. Course-Specific Learning Objectives and Outcomes
6. Students' Jobs and Careers after Graduation
7. History and Background of the Program
8. Bibliography

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1. General & Overarching Program Objectives for Economic Geography

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2. Specific Learning Objectives with Learning Outcomes

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3. General Content and Structure of Program

   Due to its multi-disciplinary content, economic geography potentially includes a vast array of subject areas and perspectives. Thus, departmental programs differ widely from each other. Interest areas, study programs, backgrounds and special needs of students add additional diversity and call for "flexible specialization". This flexibility makes it difficult to articulate learning objectives which, at the same time, are sufficiently specific (to be meaningful), reflect such flexibility, yet apply (more or less) to all students without amounting to mere "lowest common denominators".

   The following brief outline represents a first and highly incomplete attempt to structure the important content areas of our program in Economic Geography:

   • Conceptual and explanatory (theoretical) perspectives in economic geography
     • Concepts and theories of location and spatial organization
       1. Production/supply-oriented (locational rent & land use; industrial location etc.) ,
       2. Demand-oriented (Central place; market areas. spatial competition; spatial price discrimination etc.)
       3. Decision-oriented (Uncertainty; Game theory etc.)
       4. Organizational behaviors and structures
       5. Flexible production systems in space

     • Concepts and theories of regional change and economic development
       1. Productivity & technological change
       2. Product life cycles
       3. Changes in consumption patterns (Engel's Law etc.)
       4. Changes in sectoral/industrial employment patterns
       5. Changes in nature of jobs & labor markets
       6. Regional impacts of flexible production systems
       7. Globalization concepts

   • Analytical constructs and models
     • Location and spatial allocation models
       Including GIS applications
     • Regional economic models
       • Compositions-Cross-sectional: Location Quotient etc.
       • Interactive: Economic base, Input-Output etc.
       • Dynamic, forecasting-oriented: Shift-Share; Econometric models

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4. Process of Achieving Program's Learning Objectives:
   1. Formally, the concentration in Economic Geography consists of classes at the 200, 300 and 400 levels.

      1. At the 200-level: The general introductory class (Geography 207) serves as both the introduction to our concentration, and as a 200-level "distribution" for geography majors and students from other parts of the campus.

      2. a number of "Intermediate", 300-level courses (to be identified)

      3. Four formal, 400-level, class-based courses
         1. Geography 450 [presently offered by Professor Krumme]
         2. Geography 440 [presently offererd by Professor Beyers]
         3. Geography 466 [Geography 466 will be offered....... (JW)]
         4. Geography 448 [Unfortunately, a staffing shortage prevents us from offering the 400-level Transportation class during the regular academic year. It is generally offered during the Summer Quarter by Professor Yehuda Hayuth.]

         This table brings together major components of the process by which faculty attempts to convert learning objectives of these 400-level, "capstone" courses into learning outcomes:

         Course	Learning Objectives	Syllabi	Resources	Projects and/or Exercises	Tests & Examinations
         450
         440
         467
         448

      4. Other important but less focal and more "technical" (methods) courses:
         1. Geography 326
         2. Geography 360
         3. Geography 426
         4. and others

   2. In addition, a variety of formal but more independent work contributes to learning outcomes in Economic Geography: Internships, Senior Essay, Undergraduate Seminar (Geog.498) etc. Independent work satisfies two major objectives within our concentration, namely to permit students to
      1. study subject areas which are not covered by formal courses
      2. learn how to study and pursue limited research topics independently.
      In both cases, students work under the direction of faculty. Faculty members in the concentration tentatively plan to facilitate such independent work by providing Web-based resources for areas which are particularly pertinent.

   3. There are other important but unscheduled, not-required, no-credit or informal learning experiences which may include:
      • Service-learning arrangements
      • Attendance at departmental lectures or colloquia
      • Discussions in faculty offices or hallways
      • Informal help in labs or in the library
      • Participation in "Undergraduate Research"
      • Presentations at yearly departmental undergraduate forum

   4. The undergraduate concentration in Economic Geography substantively focuses on four perspectives of economic activity patterns in geographic space, namely
      1. Location & Spatial Organization
      2. Spatial Interaction
      3. Regional Economic Analysis
      4. Regional Economic Development

      The learning objectives associated with these four major themes and their core content and courses are maybe best represented by specific, relatively recent learning materials including books (not necessarily the present texts in these classes) authored by well-know scholars in the respective fields:

      CONCENTRATION PERSPECTIVES	COURSES	PAPER TEXT BOOKS	ONLINE TEXTS & RESOURCES
      1. Micro-Perspectives, Location Theory, Organizational Behavior and Structure, Decision Processes	Geography 450: Location Theories	Hayter,R., Dynamics of Industrial Location (1998) Harrington, J.W. & B.Warf, Industrial Location (1995)	Hoover,E.M. and F.Giarratani, Introduction to Regional Economics. 3rd ed., 1985 [Chs. 2-8]
      2. Macro-Perspectives, Structure and Change in Aggregate Data, Inter-Industrial and Inter-Regional Interdependence, Regional Economic Impact Analyses, Regional Forecasting	Geog 350: Local & Market Area Analysis Geog 440: Regional Economic Analysis	Isard, Walter et al., Methods of Interregional and Regional Analysis, Ashgate, 1998. Beyers & Lindahl, Producer Services, 2001(?)	Hoover, Edgar M. and Frank Giarratani, An Introduction to Regional Economics. 3rd ed, 1985, Chs.9-11. Schaffer, W.A., Regional Impact Models , A WebBook, 1999
      3. Spatial Interaction: Migration, Communication, Capital Flows (FDI etc.), Trade and Transportation	Geog 344: Migration in the Global Economy Geog 349: International Trade Geog 448: Transportation	Dicken, P., Global Shift Taaffe & Gauthier, Geography of Transportation	Resources: Trade Transportation Migration Communication Financial Transactions Foreign Direct Investment
      4. Micro/Macro Regional Development Perspectives; Influence of Technological Change and Innovation Behaviors on Regional Development, Influence of Locational and Other Spatial Behaviors;	Geog 366: Regional Development: Technology and Industrial Change: Global, National, and Subnational Perspectives Geography 467: Regional Economic Development (?)	Malecki, E., Technology & Economic Development, 1997 (2nd ed.) (Paperback)	Resources: Innovation (JWH) Labor Processes (JWH) Regional Development & Policies HighTech Regional Development

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5. Course-Specific Learning Objectives:

   1. Beyers
   2. Harrington
   3. Krumme

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6. Students' Jobs and Careers after Graduation:
   • An alternative way of presenting the learning objectives and outcomes of the departmental Economic Geography program is by reference to professional skills, entry-level jobs and subsequent careers for which our students qualify. While not all students are professionally oriented or motivated while they are in the program, it has been an objective of the program to expose students not just to internship experiences, but also to career workshops which bring former students or other professionals to the department for career related presentations, interactions and networking. In a similar vein, faculty members in economic geography are making every attempt to bring undergraduate and graduate students together, to expose motivated students to "graduate experiences" and discuss with them the possibility of graduate studies. While such activities cannot be formulated as across-the-board learning objectives or readily quantifiable learning outcomes, these and many other face-to-face and small-group "occasions" are part of the informal, highly individualistic learning environment which we are very proud of, and which is so essential at a mega-university such as ours.

     Nevertheless, it is at least hoped, if not expected, that our students, well before graduation, are in a position to articulate and evaluate their own realistic early career steps after having been (on their own volition) exposed (by faculty, graduate students and career counselors) to post-graduation opportunities in the "real world" and graduate schools. Unfortunately, the success of such efforts can be measured only through difficult post-graduation surveys.

   • So, what can you really DO - with a major in geography?: The Department and its Career Center have been innovative in designing novel ways of presenting career and job-related information on Web pages....

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7. History and Background of the Program
   1. J.Velikonja's Account of the Thomas Era: 1958 | 1963 | 1983
   2. Morgan Thomas: Selected Items
   3. The More Recent Program

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8. . Bibliography
   • JW Harrington, TJ Barnes, AK Glasmeier, DM Hanink, and DL Rigby, (1999) Economic Geography: Reconceiving "The Economic" and "The Region"
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   • Amy K Glasmeier's workshop Proceedings, Workshop on Economic Geography and Its Potential Contribution to Understanding Processes of Globalization & Social and Environmental Change, Washington DC, Spring 1997.
     This file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have Acrobat, click here.

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