Dr. Raechel Portelli joined the GGIS Department at the University of Illinois in the fall of 2022. She received her Ph.D. in 2014 from Pennsylvania State University where she conducted research on human-machine cooperation in land use and land cover change from earth observation imagery. Since then her research has touched on various facets of Geographic Information Science.
Dr. Portelli’s favorite topic to explore is the human stories behind geospatial technology development during the twentieth century and she has amassed an impressive collection of historical training documents and texts on aerial photography.
Dr. Portelli’s teaching philosophy is that learning must balance both technical skills and conceptual understanding, especially in technology courses. To do this, she uses learning assessments that assess both coding competence and understanding of the spatial concepts that these analytical workflows model. She believes that proper use of computational algorithms has far-reaching implications, and it is necessary for students to compute mindfully.
As a former non-traditional student herself, she is aware that adult learners face a number of challenges. Transitioning to fully online learning experiences can add another dimension to these difficulties. For these reasons, she focuses her efforts on can best helping students meet their expectations by developing courses that build a course community, allow for flexibility, and provide clear expectations from the start of the course.
