Course
Description

A survey of globalization and its impact on development, international relations, and culture in developing countries around the globe.

Methods of Course Instruction

This course is being taught completely via the internet.  All course materials and assignments are provided through the Blackboard site for this course.  (Blackboard can be accessed through the “Home-Page” of the Ohio University’s Eastern Campus)  Your interaction with the instructor should be primarily through e-mail; however, he will also be available to talk by appointment on the phone and/or by regular correspondence.  The course material (information you need to learn) will be gained by reading the material in the assigned textbook and viewing the power-point slides and videos.  Other than the three written proctored exams, all other assigned coursework must be submitted electronically through direct e-mail (brooksd@ohio.edu) to the instructor.

GEOG 131 is the first course in a two course survey of World Regional Geography.  GEOG 131 is designed to provide an overview of globalization in the developing world. After covering two chapters common to both GEOG 131 and GEOG 132, the following regions will be examined by GEOG 131 in some depth: Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southwest Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Among the specific concepts and models that the student should understand after completing this course are the following:

• The dynamic tension between diversity and globalization and its relevance to the study of geography

• Region as a geographic concept

• Cultural as an important component of geography

• Vital statistics (birth, death, and growth rates)

• The Demographic Transition

• Migration as a dynamic force on the globe

• Urbanization

• Themes in political geography, including nation-state, centrifugal and centripetal forces, boundaries and frontiers, colonialism and international and supranational organizations

• Economic development indicators

• Social development indicators

Materials

Required

Text(s)
Globalization and Diversity, Geography of a Changing World 2nd Edition, by Rowntree, Lewis, Price and Wyckoff: published by Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2008 (ISBN: 0-13-175695-8).

Blackboard course software includes Power-Point outline slides for each chapter, along with World Regional Geography Videos. Additional support information (Including sample tests) is available on the publisher’s web-site for the adopted textbook.

Note: The books for the course are in stock at College Bookstore, (740) 594-3505. Click here for online ordering.

Exams
Requirements

3 exams - Proctoring required

How are exams to be taken: traditional; closed textbook with no notes allowed

Dates of Exams
TBD