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A question for the GIS folks on here

tolkien1

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Mar 3, 2003
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I know a few of you post here. I was a very casual GIS user 15 years ago and have completely fallen off the train. Do you have any recommendations for training programs and/or specific courses? I would really like to get to the point of mastering the fundamentals and maybe very basic analysis. Obviously ESRI is one source. I did take an intro class from them in the prehistoric era. The class was good but insanely expensive. Again, any recommendations on training programs and vendors would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
The best/most affordable way is to buy this book. It comes with the full software. Work thru it, do the exercises and you'll know more than a lot of people I end up interviewing.

You could also consider getting the ArcGIS Pro version of the book as that is the way of the future of ArcGIS.
 
The best/most affordable way is to buy this book. It comes with the full software. Work thru it, do the exercises and you'll know more than a lot of people I end up interviewing.

You could also consider getting the ArcGIS Pro version of the book as that is the way of the future of ArcGIS.

So I'm going to be bored for the next two months or so as the PC facility will be out of action and the one I'm building in Ft Wayne Indiana won’t be up for 6-8 months. Is GIS something you can simply train for or would you need to get a degree in something related. I’ve always got a ton of downtime and I know a lot of GIS work is from home, since it seems to pop up here all the time. I’ve done zero investigation into so assume (correctly) I know very little about it.
 
The best/most affordable way is to buy this book. It comes with the full software. Work thru it, do the exercises and you'll know more than a lot of people I end up interviewing.

You could also consider getting the ArcGIS Pro version of the book as that is the way of the future of ArcGIS.

I agree on the book and agree that ArcPro is the future..........Tolkien1, I just happen to have the ArcPro version of that book at home that comes with a 6 month license of the software that I'll sell to you for $50 + shipping.

So I'm going to be bored for the next two months or so as the PC facility will be out of action and the one I'm building in Ft Wayne Indiana won’t be up for 6-8 months. Is GIS something you can simply train for or would you need to get a degree in something related. I’ve always got a ton of downtime and I know a lot of GIS work is from home, since it seems to pop up here all the time. I’ve done zero investigation into so assume (correctly) I know very little about it.

You don't need a degree.........I could train 3 monkey's to do my job. I've done a couple of little GIS jobs through UpWork, but most want you to work 30+ hours/week, which I can't do. I've been tutoring this chick from Colorado as a side also.
 
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I agree on the book and agree that ArcPro is the future..........Tolkien1, I just happen to have the ArcPro version of that book at home that comes with a 6 month license of the software that I'll sell to you for $50 + shipping.



You don't need a degree.........I could train 3 monkey's to do my job. I've done a couple of little GIS jobs through UpWork, but most want you to work 30+ hours/week, which I can't do. I've been tutoring this chick from Colorado as a side also.

Thanks, I’ll look into it. I’m going to be bored and better I work on something new and productive rather than just screw around for two months.
 
Pro has been suffering from a terrible layout interface. For the lay people this means that you can do all the analysis, but making actual production maps in it has sucked. Apparently they've started addressing this in the most recent versions.
However it has a real advantage in the analysis side as it's a 64-bit software and the old ArcMap versions are still 32-bit. So processing times for large crunches are much quicker in Pro. Plus, they're starting to make some new tools just for Pro.
 
Pro has been suffering from a terrible layout interface. For the lay people this means that you can do all the analysis, but making actual production maps in it has sucked. Apparently they've started addressing this in the most recent versions.

Just one of the reasons why at my work it'll probably be ~5 years (if they don't force us first) till we switch.......I remember going from 3.4 to 8.x, from 8.x to 9.x, and then from 9.x to 10.x. There's always a ton of bugs they need to fix.
 
I've been tutoring this chick from Colorado as a side also.
“Tutoring”
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I know a few of you post here. I was a very casual GIS user 15 years ago and have completely fallen off the train. Do you have any recommendations for training programs and/or specific courses? I would really like to get to the point of mastering the fundamentals and maybe very basic analysis. Obviously ESRI is one source. I did take an intro class from them in the prehistoric era. The class was good but insanely expensive. Again, any recommendations on training programs and vendors would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I would recommend checking out Coursera. There are few GIS classes available. Sign up and classes are free, if you do not desire a certificate.
Also, they will include a free, student license of ArcGIS.

I went through The Fundamentals of GIS via the UC Davis option. It is a solid way to get started or have a refresher. I thought some of it was too simple, until I started noticing how many examples in the real world ignore the basics.
 
FSU1Jreed - Thanks for your input. I'd be interested in talking to you about tutoring. (Locker Room: please insert your jokes here). Email me if you'd like at envplnr at gmail dot com. Thanks.
 
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