Comments for GeoMattix http://geomattix.com Thu, 17 May 2012 21:45:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Comment on Should You Get a Master’s in GIS Now? by Michele Mattix http://geomattix.com/blog/should-you-get-a-masters-in-gis-now/comment-page-1#comment-179 Michele Mattix Thu, 17 May 2012 21:45:37 +0000 http://geomattix.com/?p=581#comment-179 Darin - Wow! It sounds like a great hands-on program for students with very realistic work-related experience. If your students are all GIS savvy to start, you must not have to spend a lot of time covering basic topics and can instead dive right into projects. I wonder if you set up new 'dirty' datasets -- each year or if you re-use them from one year to the next. As a fellow instructor, I wonder about the 'set up' side of things. Thank you for sharing about your program -- sounds like a great start for GIS professionals. Michele Darin -

Wow! It sounds like a great hands-on program for students with very realistic work-related experience. If your students are all GIS savvy to start, you must not have to spend a lot of time covering basic topics and can instead dive right into projects. I wonder if you set up new ‘dirty’ datasets — each year or if you re-use them from one year to the next. As a fellow instructor, I wonder about the ‘set up’ side of things.

Thank you for sharing about your program — sounds like a great start for GIS professionals.

Michele

]]> Comment on Should You Get a Master’s in GIS Now? by Michele Mattix http://geomattix.com/blog/should-you-get-a-masters-in-gis-now/comment-page-1#comment-178 Michele Mattix Thu, 17 May 2012 21:36:57 +0000 http://geomattix.com/?p=581#comment-178 Gillian - Thank you for sharing your experience with your GIS program and resulting job opportunity. It sounds like it was the right decision for you. Best of luck in your career! Michele Gillian -

Thank you for sharing your experience with your GIS program and resulting job opportunity. It sounds like it was the right decision for you. Best of luck in your career!

Michele

]]> Comment on Should You Get a Master’s in GIS Now? by Gillian Woolmer http://geomattix.com/blog/should-you-get-a-masters-in-gis-now/comment-page-1#comment-176 Gillian Woolmer Wed, 16 May 2012 14:19:40 +0000 http://geomattix.com/?p=581#comment-176 I have an Advanced Diploma in GIS from COGS in Nova Scotia Canada. It provided me with highly technical GIS training in 9 months. The result was a a small time and thus financial investments and the acquisition of highly technical skills. I had a job within 3 months and my graduating year were all employed in the field within 9 months. I highly recommend making smart investments in training and education. I have seen a trend in jobs being towards the more technical and programming end of the GIS spectrum. So if you want a technical GIS career then take a course that provides that technical training from a reputable institution. Using GIS as a tool has become so much a part of so many jobs - like being able to use Microsoft Office proficiently - it is now the more highly trained technical GIS experts that are being sought out for the explicit GIS jobs. I have an Advanced Diploma in GIS from COGS in Nova Scotia Canada. It provided me with highly technical GIS training in 9 months. The result was a a small time and thus financial investments and the acquisition of highly technical skills. I had a job within 3 months and my graduating year were all employed in the field within 9 months.

I highly recommend making smart investments in training and education. I have seen a trend in jobs being towards the more technical and programming end of the GIS spectrum. So if you want a technical GIS career then take a course that provides that technical training from a reputable institution.

Using GIS as a tool has become so much a part of so many jobs – like being able to use Microsoft Office proficiently – it is now the more highly trained technical GIS experts that are being sought out for the explicit GIS jobs.

]]> Comment on Should You Get a Master’s in GIS Now? by Darin http://geomattix.com/blog/should-you-get-a-masters-in-gis-now/comment-page-1#comment-175 Darin Wed, 16 May 2012 11:01:38 +0000 http://geomattix.com/?p=581#comment-175 LOVE this discussion! I am the lead instructor of a nine month GIS post-diploma program in Newfoundland, Canada. Our program is designed to be hands-on project intensive. Because we are post-diploma, most of our applicants have selected a career path already and are looking to become better at what they do by incorporating GIS into their work flow. They want the ability to conduct high-end spatial analysis on their own data. Everything the students do requires meetings, project plans, schema/design, metadata ... they collect their own data ... they organize and plan their own projects ... they conduct their own analysis ... and prepare their own results (cartographic or report based). We focus on project driven assignments and labs - with a major GIS project deliverable at course end. We also encourage and arrange industry links and collaborative applied research projects for the students. We supply disorganized unprojected data with databases filled with redundancies and anomalies. The students are expected to inventory, clean, and prepare their data for analysis. With clean data, they are empowered to learn the more sophisticated GIS analytical skills (using geodatabases and spatial analysis techniques to their full potential through a thoughtful design of feature datasets, feature classes, subtypes, domains, topology, and relationship classes). Employers state that our students are not only more prepared for the GIS duties waiting for them in industry, but they consistently have better project planning skills, problem solving skills, and higher-end GIS knowledge than a majority of the applicants. There has to be a healthy balance between theory and practical ... but also a healthy appreciation for data collection and delivery. How can they be expected to conduct analysis if they don't where the data came from and where its going? LOVE this discussion! I am the lead instructor of a nine month GIS post-diploma program in Newfoundland, Canada. Our program is designed to be hands-on project intensive.
Because we are post-diploma, most of our applicants have selected a career path already and are looking to become better at what they do by incorporating GIS into their work flow. They want the ability to conduct high-end spatial analysis on their own data.
Everything the students do requires meetings, project plans, schema/design, metadata … they collect their own data … they organize and plan their own projects … they conduct their own analysis … and prepare their own results (cartographic or report based). We focus on project driven assignments and labs – with a major GIS project deliverable at course end. We also encourage and arrange industry links and collaborative applied research projects for the students.
We supply disorganized unprojected data with databases filled with redundancies and anomalies. The students are expected to inventory, clean, and prepare their data for analysis. With clean data, they are empowered to learn the more sophisticated GIS analytical skills (using geodatabases and spatial analysis techniques to their full potential through a thoughtful design of feature datasets, feature classes, subtypes, domains, topology, and relationship classes).
Employers state that our students are not only more prepared for the GIS duties waiting for them in industry, but they consistently have better project planning skills, problem solving skills, and higher-end GIS knowledge than a majority of the applicants.
There has to be a healthy balance between theory and practical … but also a healthy appreciation for data collection and delivery. How can they be expected to conduct analysis if they don’t where the data came from and where its going?

]]> Comment on Should You Get a Master’s in GIS Now? by Michele Mattix http://geomattix.com/blog/should-you-get-a-masters-in-gis-now/comment-page-1#comment-174 Michele Mattix Tue, 15 May 2012 17:36:05 +0000 http://geomattix.com/?p=581#comment-174 Ted - Good point. Today we have many academic programs pumping out graduates with a GIS certificate or degree - book smart but maybe not field-ready. It would be great to see more programs that emphasize internships or even just hands-on project experience in lieu of some classroom time. Michele Ted -

Good point. Today we have many academic programs pumping out graduates with a GIS certificate or degree – book smart but maybe not field-ready. It would be great to see more programs that emphasize internships or even just hands-on project experience in lieu of some classroom time.

Michele

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