About

Instructors

• Professor:  L. Monika Moskal she/her/hers lmmoskal@uw.edu Office Hours: Thursdays at 12:30-1:30 To learn more about Prof. Moskal in a less formal format watch my recent SEFS Seminars Talk.
• Teaching Assistant: Yelyzaveta Ismatullayeva lismat@uw.edu

Lectures

Lectures are planed to be in-person and will be recorded and asynchronous, recordings will appear with weekly module drop on Tuesdays before noon. Weekly Meetup and Q&A Sessions on Zoom with Monika and Jonathan will be held every Tuesdays 12:30 – 1: 20 . We will use this time to clarify any questions about the weekly module, any questions from the textbook as well as any additional questions. We look forward to hanging out with you, feel free to bring your lunch, and yes you can keep your camera off while you are eating.

Labs

All lab sessions (ABCD) are asynchronous, but Jonathan will be available during your assigned lab session for a Zoom Q & A.  Assure you arrive at the beginning of the session as he will log off early if there are no attendees. Regardless which lab session you were assigned to (ABCD) you may attend any lab session Q & A.

Prerequisites

There are no course requirements to enroll in the course although you will find that prior statistics, GIS and Remote Sensing classes are of benefit. Individual arrangements need to be made to take course as W credit; email Prof.  Moskal. The course is: 5 credits = 2 lecture credits + 3 lab credits – minimum expected work load is 15 hours/week.

About the Course

Students will be exposed to the principles of earth observation and optical remote sensing applications in natural resource management. In the first half of the course, manual and computer based laboratory exercises emphasize conventional analysis of aerial photographs and high resolution satellite imagery. The second half of the course focuses on the application of active remotely sensed data, specifically LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). The uses of remotely sensed information for wetlands, watersheds, forest resources, wildlife habitat, point and non-point pollution, environmental monitoring, land use planning, urban-suburban-forestry interfaces, and outdoor recreation will be discussed and illustrated using research examples throughout the course. Students will have the opportunity to apply these principles and obtain hands-on experience. Students will come out of this course with a mastery of a wide variety of interpretation, measurement, environmental monitoring and map making skills specific to remote sensing. Practitioners and users from public and private institutions may be involved as guest lecturers.

Teaching Philosophy

I consider the student/faculty mentor relationship to be the centerpiece of the academic culture, and perhaps the most rewarding professional experience. At her best, a professor acts as a mentor to her students – be it a group of noisy first-years or an independent star graduate. The precise strategy of achieving this relationship will change with circumstance, but the overall approach remains the same. While I can’t claim to have developed an exhaustive philosophy on the subject, I have listed some of my guiding principles below.

• Respect: I bring a high standard of respect to the classroom ,respect is a two-way street. I expect prepared (do the readings) attentive, punctual students who participate in the learning process.
• Excellence: I set clear, high standards at the beginning of a course and challenge students to reach for pre-defined goals. I instruct all of my students to focus on extracting value from their education in the form of identifiable skills and knowledge areas. 
• Independence: Where possible, I try to incorporate problem- or inquiry-based learning approaches into each of my courses. I do not design assignments that follow a ‘cook book’ approach to a singular conclusion, instead preferring complex-structured problems with more than one workable solution. While initially frustrating to some students, my experience is that this sort of approach encourages independent thinking.

Format

Lectures are planed to be in-person (if allowed under covid) and will be recorded, but the course will be delivered in 10 asynchronous, self-paced modules, published weekly on Tuesdays by noon and submitted 10 days later (Thursday). The module will consist of a topic/concept introduction often including relevant or current  example, a lab assignment, assigned reading from the textbook and a self-knowledge quiz.

Course Policies

Missed Exams/Quizzes & Late Labs/Assignments

The UW policies will be followed to determine whether a make-up midterm or quiz would be given or late labs/assignments allowed.

Academic Integrity

Please follow the UW policies on cheating & plagiarism.

Access and Accommodations

Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS on your campus. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.  It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.

• Disability Resources for Students (UW Seattle): uwdrs@uw.edu, 206-543-8924

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy.  Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.

Notice to Students – Use of Plagiarism Detection Software

The University has a license agreement with SimCheck, an educational tool that helps prevent or identify plagiarism from Internet resources. Your instructor may use the service in this class by requiring that assignments are submitted electronically to be checked by SimCheck. The SimCheck Report will indicate the amount of original text in your work and whether all material that you quoted, paraphrased, summarized, or used from another source is appropriately referenced.

Notice to Students – Zoom Recordings

This course is scheduled to run synchronously at your scheduled class time via Zoom. These Zoom class sessions will be recorded. The recording will capture the presenter’s audio, video and computer screen. Student audio and video will be recorded if they share their computer audio and video during the recorded session. The recordings will only be accessible to students enrolled in the course to review materials. These recordings will not be shared with or accessible to the public.

The University and Zoom have FERPA-compliant agreements in place to protect the security and privacy of UW Zoom accounts.

Students who do not wish to be recorded should:

• Change their Zoom screen name to hide any personal identifying information like their name or UW Net ID; and
• Not share their computer audio or video during their Zoom sessions