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CATALOG DESCRIPTION. Investigate the geographic foundations of political phenomena. This course focuses on significant geographic factors in the growth and development of states, boundary problems, and other international problems. It provides insights into politico-geographic realities of the new world order. Lessons include assignments in place-name and location knowledge. 1 textbook; 9 lessons; research paper; 3 exams.
FREQUENCY OF OFFERING. For many years this course was offered every other year through WIU's Extended Learning Program. It is not currently projected for offering, however, and I don't know when it might be offered again. (The decision is not mine.)
TEXTBOOK. Glassner, Martin Ira. Political Geography. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996.
COURSE GUIDE. Vining, James W. Political Geography: A Course Guide for Geography 444G. Macomb, IL: Western Illinois University, 1999.
COURSE MECHANICS. (This information is provided for the benefit of prospective students, since enrolled students already know what is said here.) You will buy the textbook and Course Guide from the WIU University Bookstore. (The textbook will be expensive -- like all university textbooks -- but the spiral-bound Course Guide, which we prepare at WIU, is bargain- priced.) The Course Guide contains nine lessons, for each of which you will read two or more chapters of the textbook. In each lesson, you will be asked to write out the answers to 10 to 15 essay questions and submit them to your instructor. He will grade those answers and return them to you. Each lesson includes a Review Examination consisting of objective-type questions. You will take that exam and check your own performance, since the answers to the questions appear in the back of the Course Guide. Each lesson also includes maps showing the locations of places; you will be expected to know the locations of those places. After you have completed three lessons, you will take a proctored exam covering the material in those lessons. Each exam will contain ten essay questions valued at five points each, 10 to 14 items involving your matching the names of places to numbers on maps, and 36 to 40 multiple-choice questions valued at one point each. The questions may not be identical to questions you have seen before in the lessons; however, if you master the lesson essay questions and Review Examination questions, you should have little difficulty with the exams. (Note: I italicized the word "master" in the preceding sentence for a good reason; superficial knowledge will serve you no better in this course than in any other. -- J. Vining) There are 500 possible points in the course. The essay answers submitted by you can earn up to 100 points, and the three exams are valued at 100 points each. The remaining 100 points are for a research paper. The grade scale is the traditional one in higher education: 90-100A, 89-90=B, etc.
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