Iowa State University offers Introduction to GIS online during summer 2009.
(updated 5-11-09 -- Check back often for updates to the FAQ's at the bottom of the page)
In addition to providing single/multiday (non-credit) geospatial short courses and workshops, ISU offers a 3-credit Introduction to GIS course online during the summer semester.This year marks the fourth year that Iowa State University and the Community and Regional Planning (CRP) department are offering Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (CRP 451/551) exclusively online as a distance education course using WebCT and other online learning tools. The course runs May 18th - July 31st. The course will be taught by Assistant Professor Christopher J. Seeger, GISP. cjseeger@iastate.edu
Students learn essential GIS tasks including creating maps from existing data, creating new data, producing map layouts, querying data, and conducting basic geoprocessing skills. The course can be taken as a undergraduate or graduate course. Students at the graduate level conduct GIS analysis on a final project that they develop and present the project online to the class as a Power Point presentation and PDF poster at the end of the course. Students taking the course as CRP 551 can apply the class towards the ISU Graduate Certificate in GIS. While the course is very intensive, it is designed to allow students to schedule their study time around their work, family or other summer activities. Students do not need to be in Ames to take the class. They do however need to have a good internet connection as the course utilizes video tutorials and lectures as well as online collaboration, peer learning techniques and 'virtual office hours' with the instructor. Students enrolled in the course will receive a educational copy of the ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 software to install on their computer prior to the start of the course in May.
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I plan to go on vacation for a week in June - will I be able to miss the course for this amount of time?
The short answers is yes. The course is designed to allow you to work ahead 1 - 2 weeks. With that said, it is best to try and stay on track as the discussions and help sessions will focus on the topic of the week. The last week of July is reserved for work on the final projects. CRP 551 students will be submitting their projects online during this time so you (451 and 551) will need to participate and review their presentations during this period.
I will miss he first 2 days, will that be a problem?
It should be fine, however you will want to get caught up ASAP as things move fast in this course and once you are more than a week behind, it is very difficult to catch up unless you plan to take time off of work or spend some late nights doing GIS!
When will the course be available?
Monday, May 18th - however it might show up sooner as I am setting things up this week. WebCT will be offline for maintenance May 15-16.
Do you have recommendations for doing well in the class?
Try and stay on schedule with your classmates so that you can benefit from the discussions. Typically I see three groups, a few that are working a week ahead, the majority that runs about one exercise (2 - 3 days) behind and then a few stragglers. If you watch NASCAR then you now that if you fall out of the draft it is hard to catch up - same holds true here.
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