Hi! My name is Don Boyes, and I teach several courses about geographic information systems, or GIS, at the University of Toronto. I love to teach, and I love to learn – about GIS, how to be a better professor, and how technology can help me and my students. On this site, you’ll find information about me and my courses, my blog posts, and some tips for students. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Coursera.
Teaching with Technology
I’m fascinated by the potential that technology has to help my students learn more efficiently and effectively, at a time and location that works best for them. I teach some courses online, but many of my courses give students the option to attend lectures in person, live online, or time-shift and watch a recording later. I like giving students options, so each person can choose what works best for them.
What I Teach
I specialize in teaching the theory and application of GIS to undergraduate and graduate students at U of T. I currently teach five different GIS courses that draw several hundred students per year from a wide variety of disciplines. The courses range from introductory to advanced, with opportunities to use real data in realistic scenarios, using industry standard software from Esri Inc. For more info, see my Courses page. I have adapted some of my course material into four massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered through Coursera.