Free Five Course Series on QGIS Starts Soon

Del Mar College is offering a free online course that gives an introduction to GIS and QGIS.  The course is titled "Introduction to Geospatial Technology Using QGIS" and is available from the Canvas Network.  The five-week course is self-paced and runs from February 23rd to March 27th. Already 1,000 students are signed up. The courses were created with funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and US Department of Labor.

It is great to see a course geared towards QGIS!  The course hits on components of the core competencies for entry level geospatial occupations as outlined here.  It includes lectures and hands-on exercises.  If you can't wait or can't find time, the course materials for this course and others are available at GitHub: https://github.com/FOSS4GAcademy.

From the OSGeo listserve, this course is part of a larger effort to educate about GIS and FOSS GIS called "Geo For All" and GeoAcademy.  This is the first course in a sequence of five, so more courses will be on the way!

The other four courses are:

• Spatial Analysis Using QGIS
• Data Acquisition and Management Using QGIS
• Cartography Using QGIS
• Remote Sensing Using QGIS

If you know someone who is interested in GIS or QGIS and likes independent study, it looks like a solid opportunity!  

For more information: https://www.canvas.net/browse/delmarcollege/courses/cn-1681-intro-qgis

Course offerings from Penn State University (PSU) and Coursera: 

http://opensourcegisblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/free-online-mapping-classes-from-psu.html

Review of the Spatial Computing Class on Coursera

From GPS and Google Maps to Spatial Computing was the first geospatial Coursera course that I took and my second Coursera class. Below, I describe the course, what you'll learn, and key takeaways.  Overall, the course is a unique offering that you should check out!

Overview

The eight-week course is taught by Shashi Shekar and Brent Hecht from the University of Minnesota's Department of Computer Science and Engineering.  The goal of the course is to:

"introduc[e] concepts, algorithms, programming, theory and design of spatial computing technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), Google Maps, location-based services and geographic information systems."

The class has a workload of 4-10 hours per week depending on which of the three tracks you decide to complete (scroll to the bottom of this post to learn more about the different tracks). The majority of the weeks are close to the four hour end. Week 3's workload was heavy.  Be sure to set aside enough time to watch all of the video lectures each week.

Topics Covered

You will learn why SQL requires extensions for spatial queries as well as how to understand the results from basic spatial queries.  How spatial data are stored, accessed, and algorithms used to solve basic spatial problems (i.e. shortest-path, routing) will be discussed.

You'll also learn about volunteered geographic information, different types of positioning, and even how position can be tracked underground. There are interesting lectures about implicit and explicit spatialization--being able to visualize and analyze spatial information in different ways than you might normally think about. Lastly, you will briefly cover cartography (mainly for those new to GIS and/or computer science focused).

Course Schedule

Week 1: Introduction to Spatial Computing and Overview of Course
Week 2: Spatial Query Languages
Week 3: Spatial Networks (e.g. road networks)
Week 4: Spatial Data Mining
Week 5: Volunteered Geographic Information
Week 6: Positioning
Week 7: Cartography and Geographic Human-Computer Interaction
Week 8: Future Directions in Spatial Computing 

Platforms used: WikiBrain API and briefly TileMill

You will learn about WikiBrain - accessing data from Wikipedia and Atlasify (soon to be released).

Miscellaneous

In addition to lectures/videos and slides, you will see taped/videoconference interviews with leading geospatial professionals. In the first few weeks, I felt this worked well but got a little old as the course went on. Hopefully, future sessions will shorten the interview segments--which can be quite lengthy--and occasionally feel burdensome on top of the other coursework.  You will also have a few required readings that are directly related to the coursework and include interesting real world applications.

Tracks

• Curiosity:  come as you want! no requirements
• Concept:  Short quizzes and a Statement of Accomplishment
• Technical: Harder quizzes and assignments for a Distinguished Statement of Accomplishment
• For the Technical Track, you will need to complete quizzes for both the Concepts and Technical Track. Having programming experience is recommended for the Technical Track's programming homework.

Signature Track available: Yes.  To learn more about Coursera's signature track visit: https://www.coursera.org/signature/guidebook

You will want to sign-up now for e-mail reminders about future sessions, since Coursera offerings are typically spaced several months apart.  For other geospatial classes on Coursera, visit my earlier post: http://opensourcegisblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/free-online-mapping-classes-from-psu.html.  I will be updating this list in the months to come.  (Please note, like other Coursera classes, it will take several weeks for your Statement of Accomplishment to be posted.)

Free Online Mapping Classes From PSU and Coursera

Course dates: Last updated on 12/16/2014

Penn State has an online Open Web Mapping Class for free using open source software.  The course materials are available at: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog585/ through a creative commons license. You can also take the paid version of the online course for credit.  Coursework includes QGIS, GDAL, OGR, GeoServer, TileMill, Openlayers, and OpenStreetMap.  Penn State also has several map-related classes on Coursera.

Coursera has at least six relevant classes to GIS, GPS, and more during this upcoming fall 2014 and winter 2015 sessions.  Please note some of the courses do offer different tracts that range from basic to technical in difficulty.  This fall and winter there are exciting course offerings!

Introductory

• Maps and the Geospatial Revolution, March 25, 2015 (Penn State)
• Geodesign: Change Your World, July 8,2015
• Or sign-up for future sessions, just click the drop-down for the date.  You will get an e-mail announcement

One course is on Geodesign

• Geospatial Intelligence and the Geospatial Revolution, January 14, 2015 

Intermediate-Advanced

• From GPS to Google Maps to Spatial Computing, Just finished, next session TBD (University of Minnesota)

Another is on GPS, mapping, and spatial computing

• An Introduction to Satellite Navigation, with an interactive Worldwide Laboratory using Smartphones, Just finished, next session TBD (Stanford University)

• If you have a programming background checkout Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems, TBD (University of Maryland College Park).

Other-related

• Epidemics the Dynamics of Infectious Disease, TBD (Penn State)
• A small part of the course involves using GPS data generated over the course of a MOOCDEMIC or mock epidemic.

Also don't forget, ESRI does have some free and low cost tutorials for ArcGIS on their training page as well: http://www.esri.com/training/main.  Be sure to checkout Directions Magazine's articles and webinars for other opportunities.

If anyone else has any that they would like to share, feel free to write them in the comments section below!

Update #1:  Noteworthy addition:  ESRI is offering a free MOOC or massive open online course entitled "Going Places with Spatial Analysis".  Head over to the link below to signup for notification when registration begins, which is shortly: Going Places Signup / Start Page