Geography C102
World Regions

Course Introduction

Welcome to the online course World Regional Geography. I hope that you'll find the topic as exciting as do I. Once you read my biographical information you'll come to understand why I find this topic so interesting. By the end of the course, I hope you'll have a greater understanding and appreciating of this wonderful world we live on.

Why Study World Regions?

Never before in human history has technology allowed us to be connected with the rest of the world as it does today. A tsunami in South Asia is broadcast almost live, with aid rushing in immediately from all over the globe. Places previously unknown to people become known almost overnight.

When you call your bank, credit card company, or customer service for a product you bought, chances are you will speak with somebody in Colorado, Georgia, South Dakota, or Punjab, India.

The Internet has allowed people to communicate in ways never possible before. As a prime example, you're taking this class via the Internet. I'm teaching it that way, as I do all my classes now. It's doubtful that we're simultaneously sitting down at our computers interacting in this virtual classroom, but we are interacting. I don't know where you are, and it doesn't really matter. What matters is the ability to effectively communicate, whereby you learn something new, and hopefully, useful.

Consider the clothing that you wear. Where did it come from? What circuitous route did it take to get from there to you? It's highly doubtful that you grew the material yourself, spun it, sewed it, and then wore it. Chances are the material was grown in one location, shipped to another where it was spun into cloth, shipped again, where it was made into clothing, shipped to a wholesaler, then to the retailer, where you eventually bought it.

Think about your eating habits for a moment. Did you have a burrito this week? Maybe a cup of coffee or tea? How about some chocolate, bananas, or an apple? Once again, I doubt that you grew all these products to eat. Furthermore, I'm willing to bet you didn't invent any of them.

If you live overseas, or have recently traveled there, I'm willing to bet you probably didn't speak the language that the locals did, but you were able to get around because enough people spoke English.

All of the above are examples of the globalization the world is experiencing. This globalization is not just about the economy, as many think, but it's also about culture—politics, religion, foods, dress, ideas, and language, to name a few cultural phenomena.

While the focus of this course will be mainly on globalization, we will also discuss many of the physical geographic aspects of the various locations we study. These physical aspects have quite an impact on many of our cultural events, such as where we live, how we get from place to place, and what we eat.

In this course, we will study the world. We will look continually at the role of physical space: how people "conquer" it, move across it, and adapt to it. There are a number of questions that we will repeat to help us tie together and compare different places or regions, continually linking the physical and human geography of places, such as how have distance, climate, and natural resources affected the distribution of populations? And how have people adapted to these opportunities?

These questions will lead us to investigate culture, especially the aspects of culture that guide how people accommodate space. Some cultures clash, fighting for more territory or more control. We will pay attention to states (what most of us refer to as countries) and nations. States are not the same as nations: states are political units with borders and governments, while nations include people with common identities. As we will see, many state borders—drawn by colonial powers—divide nations.

This leads to the overarching question: How are states and regions being affected by, and dealing with, increased globalization? This is an issue we will explore in depth.

Course Goals/Objectives

The goals of the course are threefold:

• to create a systematic framework that will serve as a tool with which you can organize a growing amount of knowledge about the world, not only for the purposes of the course but throughout your life;
• to expand your knowledge of the economic, political, and physical characteristics that contribute to contemporary world patterns of development and international relations; and
• to help you critically evaluate the importance or relevance of news and other sources of information.

Note: I use the words "systematic" and "patterns" to indicate that this is not primarily a course in which you will memorize vast quantities of details about the countries of the world. Of course, we all have different ideas about what "vast quantities" means—there will be memorizing to do! But the memorizing provides a framework; it is a technique, not a goal.

The following course objectives will help you achieve the above goals and by the end of the course, you will able to

• identify the concepts (regions, physiography, demography, culture, and urbanization) that make up a geographic perspective;
• use elementary critical map reading skills to locate and identify major regions, countries, and major urban centers of the world;
• describe and illustrate the dynamics of urban development;
• explain the ideas of nations, states, and regions;
• define the role of migration in forming cultures;
• describe the impact of religion on various regions;
• discuss how globalization impacts different regions and levels of development;
• discuss the historical development of countries of the world in terms of both human (colonialism and development) and physical geography; and
• illustrate the importance of agriculture and food security around the globe.

The Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your textbook, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online discussion forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or post your question on the discussion forum. I will reply on the same forum.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

About the Textbook

• de Blij, H.J., and Peter O. Muller. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 12th Edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. ISBN: 0-471-71786-X

The authors of Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts have written about almost every country in the world (naturally, with new countries popping up all the time, they can't really include them all). There is too much material here for a single quarter length course! We'll deal with this minor problem by adapting, improvising, and overcoming. Simply put, rather than attempt to cover the entire book (all 576 pages, plus appendices) we'll cover specific chapters of it—many of which I'll assign. As you read your textbook, always keep in mind that this is an edited volume—the authors made choices to include some things and not others. I am also editing your selection; I am highlighting what I consider to be the most useful information for acquiring a well-rounded understanding of world geography. Hopefully, I can help stimulate your imagination and curiosity so that from here you will go on to read and think more deeply about what makes the world the way it is.

Many of the lessons will discuss more than one chapter of the textbook. For example, you'll see that the lesson on Europe has information on Western and Eastern Europe, along with information on Russia. This does not mean that you'll be required to read every chapter. Instead, some lessons will require you to read a single chapter, and either parts of another chapter, or, if more than two chapters are presented, you may choose a second chapter to read. Most lessons will contain some material that is required and some that is elective.

In general, we will divide our attention between the physical geography and the human geography (also known as cultural geography) of each realm. There is no one formula that we will use for all chapters. Each realm and region has outstanding characteristics upon which the textbook focuses. Each chapter begins with a list of regions in the realm, but be sure to learn more about areas of your special interests.

For each lesson, read my introduction and the assignments carefully before reading the text and answering the research questions and completing the assignments and exam at the end of the lesson. Major concepts and terms are identified at the beginning of each chapter in the text. I will introduce each chapter with a short discussion of what I consider to be the most important themes. For instance, when we cover the United States and Canada, we will focus on urbanization, industrialization, and transportation. You will use the chapter as a resource for your research into some of the key issues facing the world today, using concepts developed and used by different fields of geography, and applying those in the context of regions of the world.

Where Do History and Ideology Fit In?

As you read the course, you'll find that I often focus on the problems of development and sustainability. If we wish to develop a well-rounded view of the world, I am convinced that there are two necessary ingredients we should consider, regardless of our ideological convictions.

First, we must understand the conditions under which people live in historical and geopolitical context. While this is not a history course, we will constantly consider power relations between nations, states, and peoples, relationships rooted in histories of domination and unequal exchange. Without an effort to discern the historical struggles of contemporary states, it would be impossible to appreciate these states' accomplishments or learn from their failures. Second, we must remember that all of our knowledge about the world comes to us as filtered information. Unless you travel a lot, or read newspapers and books from other countries and in other languages, most of your information comes from large media sources, all of which have editors who decide what to publish and therefore decide what we read. Our culture reflects ideals that define what we consider to be important and interesting information—this is true for any culture, of course.

About this Course

This course has eight lessons, seven assignments, two research papers, and a final exam. Each assignment includes an exercise, a test, and class participation via a discussion forum. You will submit the completed assignments (essays, tables, maps, etc.) and research papers. Class participation will require you to post links and responses in a message board.You will take online quizzes, which are open note/open book, and timed. In addition, you will find key terms, a discussion forum, and several online self-study map quizzes in this course.

Key Terms

Something else that will help you prepare for the exam is the glossary of terms I will ask you to begin in Lesson One. True, the textbook contains a glossary (pp. G–1 through G–13), but a definition alone rarely satisfies our need to understand the context in which a word takes on its richest meaning. You will use the list of key terms and concepts in each lesson to create your own glossary or to add to the glossary in the back of the book. By the time you are ready to take the final exam, you will have a rich resource of annotated key terms from which to study and review.

Discussion Forum

The discussion forum, message board in this course, enables us to simulate one of the features of a classroom setting—class participation. We'll be able to share our questions and ideas through threaded discussions on these message boards. These discussions let us ask questions of the whole group, share similar experiences, and air viewpoints on problems and issues related to the course.

Since part of the class requires participation, I'd like you to begin by posting a biographical sketch of yourself (much like the one you read about me) on the Bios message board. You'll also find a message board for Questions, where you can ask me any questions related to the course, and What in the World (WITW) message boards, where you will post your article and comments/questions and respond to other students' postings. Each lesson has a separate WITW message board, so make sure you post in the correct one—you wouldn't want to post your urbanization/North America posting in the South America message board.

Keep in mind the following:

• These forums are available for you to ask questions and respond to the entire class. Your questions and responses should be related to the course. See Netiquette Guidelines for a more details on participating in an online discussion.
• Because this course is asynchronous, we won't all be on line in the discussion forum at the same time, so responses will be delayed. Expect that.
• Because students are joining the class at various times, you should make a habit of reviewing previous and new postings and respond accordingly.

Self-study Map Quizzes

The self-study map quizzes are the only parts of the course that are not graded (other than your bios and any questions you ask in the discussion forums). But, you'll really want to do them, because the knowledge you'll gain from testing yourself will help you out in the assignment quizzes and final exam. You'll find guidance and instructions to specific self-study map quizzes within the lessons.

You'll find the map quizzes on the following web site: http://www.ilike2learn.com/.

I chose this Web site because I found it to be up to date and quite fun. I hope you'll enjoy it as well.

About the Lessons

Lesson One: The Idea of Regions

In this lesson, we will begin working with maps and with the major themes of the textbook.

Lesson Two: Urbanization, Industrialization, and the Postindustrial Age—The North American Realm

The first realm we'll study will be North America, focusing on the United States and Canada. Special emphasis will be placed on urbanization.

Lesson Three: Europe and the Nation-state

The development of nation/states, and the environmental legacy of communism will be the central themes of this lesson.

Lesson Four: The South—Middle and South America

In this lesson, we will begin to study the section of the world known as "The South" or the "Developing World." The overarching theme will be the impacts of colonialism and the growth of the illicit drug market.

Lesson Five: The South—Southwest Asia/North Africa and Subsaharan Africa

We will continue our discussion on "The South" continuing to focus on the impacts of colonialism, but also looking at different variables for measuring development.

Lesson Six: Development and Agriculture—South Asia and Russia

The focus of this lesson will be on agriculture.

Lesson Seven: East and Southeast Asia

In this lesson, we will focus on the relative success of each of the states of East and Southeast Asia to forge a place in the global economy.

Lesson Eight: Preparing for the Final Examination

The exam will be a cross-section of place-name geography, the overarching ideas from the research questions, and the most important historical facts and vocabulary you learned.

About the Assignments

This course has seven three-part assignments that vary with each lesson. Each assignment includes an exercise, an exam, and message board postings and responses.

1. Exercises may include writing an essay based on particular topics or illustrating and creating a key for a map using the data provided.
2. Exams will include a combination of multiple choice, true-false, and short essay questions based on the readings and course commentary.
3. What in the World (WITW): where you will post relevant articles or links with questions or comments that lead to discussions and responding to other students.

With each assignment, I expect to see a growing facility in your use of the major geographical concepts we learn in the lessons and textbook readings. Each assignment will ask you to use these concepts in slightly different ways.

Pay attention to the assignment instructions! I am not sympathetic when you turn in an assignment that has a missing part. If you are not sure you understand the assignment, ask me! But that is not to say that I want you to be a robot. I encourage you to be creative and bold, but be sure to explain and justify any interpretations that are obviously outside of the guidelines I have suggested.

The assignments and the exercises are material from which the exam will be drawn. For this reason, you should pay close attention to the corrections and suggestions you receive on returned assignments.

You will e-mail completed assignments and research papers to your instructor. See Assignment Submission Guidelines on the "About Your Instructor" page linked from the course syllabus.

Preparing Assignments

All written work should be submitted in either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect format. All essays and papers must be double spaced with 1 inch margins all around. Use either 10 or 12 point font (I prefer Times New Roman, but the final choice is yours)

Citations

When citing published works, I prefer to see a bibliography at the end of the paper, with the sources cited in parentheses in the text. An example from your text would be:

"North Africa/Southwest Asia is also often referred to as the Arab World" (de Blij and Muller 2006, p. 326).

The bibliographic citation would be:

de Blij, H.J., and Peter O. Muller, Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 12th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2006.

Assessment Grading

Your grade for this course is based on the number of points earned on your seven assignments, two research papers, and the final exam.

Graded Work	Points each	Percent each	Total Points	Total Percent
7 Assignments	100	10	700	70%
I: Exercise II: Exam III: WITW	50 40 10
2 Research Papers	100	10	200	20%
Final	100		100	10%
			1000	100%

Each assignment is worth 100 points, or 10 percent of your grade. You will be graded on seven lesson's worth of work, for a total of 70 percent of your grade. The assignment exercises are worth 50 points; the exam, 40 points; and participation in the WITW, 10 points. In addition, you will be required to complete two research papers, each worth 100 points, for a total of 20 percent of your grade. The comprehensive final exam is worth the final 10 percent of your grade, or 100 points.

Assignment grades are based on

• Exercises: combination of completeness, complexity, and style (including grammar, spelling, and formatting);
• Exams: correctness of multiple choice/true-false answers and on completeness and complexity of essay question answers;
• What In The World: participation, which requires you to post links and responses to the message board. Participation is also graded on completeness and complexity of issues raised and responses.

Research Papers are graded on a combination of completeness, complexity, and style (including grammar, spelling, and formatting).

The comprehensive Final Exam is graded on correctness of multiple choice/true-false answers, and on completeness and complexity of essay question answers. You will take the two-hour final exam online. The final follows the same format as the online exams that are part of your assignments. The final is open note/open book, and it is timed. See Lesson Eight, "Preparing for the Final Examination."

You can easily determine your current grade at any time by comparing the total number of points you've earned with the total number of points that are available at that time. For example, if, in the fourth week, you have earned 387 points out of a possible 400 points, then your current grade would be 387/400 = .9675, or 96.75% (rounded up to 97% or 3.9 grade point).

My reason for spreading out the grades is that, when I was a student, I hated having my entire grade depend on a single item (or two—such as a mid-term and final exam). Some people do better in one learning and assessment environment, and others do better in a different one. I try to spread it out so that everyone benefits, with their strengths being highlighted, and their weaknesses being diminished.

How to Succeed in This Course

To succeed in this course, you must complete all required assignments and exams. This will include the three parts for each assignment (written exercise, exams, and WITW participation) for each lesson, two research assignments, and a comprehensive final exam. You'll need to complete all the readings (including postings by other students), work out answers to the assignment questions, and give some thought to the issues discussed.

You will need MS Word or WordPerfect; MS Excel is optional. You also will need access to (and need to be able to operate) a scanner to submit hand-drawn maps; you can save maps in whatever digital format you prefer (e.g., jpg, bmp, pdf). You may find a high-speed Internet connection more suitable for some of the course work, though it is not required.

Study Tips

• Consult other sources for information. Atlas and map material may be found in the reference section of a nearby library. Or, you may wish to purchase an atlas as a personal reference tool (I've got a number of them myself—ranging in scale from the Washington State level up to the World!).
• Pace yourself. Don't try to do everything at once, especially right before an assignment is due or taking an exam.
• Set aside time each week that is dedicated exclusively to this course. If you set the time up early, it'll give you more incentive to do the work.
• Use all available resources. I am not the only resource available to you; your fellow classmates are, also.
• Have somebody proofread your writing, preferably somebody who knows something about proper writing.
• Follow assignment instructions.
• Try to enjoy the class and assignments. I realize that learning new things can be difficult, but I recommend viewing this class as something fun, not something to be dreaded.

When you have finished with this course, you will have a vastly expanded appreciation of the variety of ways different people experience the early twenty-first century, and a new set of critical skills with which to approach the overwhelming amount of information increasingly at your fingertips (literally).

A Successful Journey

I like to look at this course as a journey. Learners come to this course with a wide variety of academic backgrounds and personal experience. Many learners who take geography courses have traveled or want to travel, and are most interested in the places they've been or want to visit. Most learners have some knowledge or special interest in certain regions, and little interest in others. For instance, if one of your great-grandparents came from China and another from Denmark, you may want to study those regions. Sometimes, having a friend from some far-off country makes that place more interesting to you. What I have found is that the more I know about a place, the more interesting it becomes. You will find that this course stimulates your imagination and curiosity about the whole world.

In an online learning course, each learner works as an individual, not one of 30 or 230 students in a classroom. Learning outside of a traditional classroom gives you the freedom to proceed at your own pace and the challenge of keeping yourself on track. If you read the text and lessons carefully, take my suggestions, and contact me with questions, you will enjoy the course and learn a lot.

About the Developers

James S. Peet, Ph. D.

James S. Peet (also the course instructor) holds several degrees in Geography, including a Ph.D. from the University of Washington (2003), a master's degree from California State University, Hayward (1997), and a bachelor's degree from the University of Miami (the one in Florida) (1990). He has developed several online geography courses, which he teaches for various Washington State community colleges and UW. He is also the instructor for World Regions. You can read more about him on the "About Your Instructor" page of your course syllabus.

Linda Becker

Linda Becker grew up in an Air Force family, which meant moving every other year until she left for college—and then she started moving every year! Moving all the time meant constantly having to learn about new places: how to get around, what the climate was like, and local history and celebrations. Linda never really made the connection between her love of traveling and the field of geography until she went to West Africa with the Peace Corps. The most interesting things she read about Ghana (where she lived for three years) were always written by geographers. They made connections between the physical and cultural environments, between the history of a place and the way it was connected with the rest of the world.

Linda's undergraduate degree is in zoology (she was especially interested in tropical ecology) and she wrote a master's thesis on the relationship between the farming system in northern Ghana and the way local history had affected population distribution. In other words, she became a geographer. Part of what her research showed was the importance of labor migration in the local farming system. This provoked what has become an intense interest in how people's lives are constrained by employment opportunities—or the lack of them. Linda's Ph.D. research focused on the Pacific Northwest's garment industry, in which most of the manufacturing workers are immigrants.

Linda currently works as a researcher for the state of Washington, collecting data that help to describe the geographic variability of risk factors for adolescents. The old adage for realtors, that what matters in real estate is "location, location, location," is true in many aspects of our lives.

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