How to become a GIS Analyst really fast

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There are many places available online where you can learn GIS for free. Here, I am sharing what I found the most reliable places where you can learn at a fast pace. There are also tools available online that a GIS Analyst can choose for online GIS analysis, ArcGIS Online, Esri’s Web Apps, Google Earth Engine, and to some extent for making KML (Vector) files, Google My Maps is a decent option for digitization in a low configuration device.

GIS Specialization – University of California, Davis- Coursera.org

This is a 6 monthly specialization course offered by the University of California that is comprised of many real-world exercises. They are also offering a free one-year student license for ArcMap Desktop. The course is designed for beginners and leads its learners to advance GIS in no time. Most of the training in this Coursera course is on ArcGis aka ArcMap.

These courses are paid, that means you have to pay for them but don’t worry if you can’t pay for them. They are also offering scholarships for students who can’t pay for themselves. Tip: Just click on the “Audit Course” and Apply for the financial aid.

See my certificates in my portfolio

GIS Specialization from the University of Toronto – Coursera.org

This is a four months specialization course for absolute beginners. This course also offers a good understanding of the GIS workflows. Working with Geospatial data. In this course you will need to obtain ArcGIS licenses on your own, the university will not provide the software licenses for you. Financial aid for this course is also available if you are not able to pay for the course.

ESRI – MOOC Massive Open Online Courses

ESRI MOOC is a platform for many online free GIS courses. These courses range from 30 minutes to 6 weeks, and each week requires almost 2 hours. Latest ESRI’s web apps will help the emerging GIS analysts, a boost in their careers.

ESRI is working hard to solve the geospatial problems industries are facing and also to make them even more powerful. There are hundreds of free courses available for you on ESRI’s Training Catalog. It covers a wide range of topics of data visualization in ArcGIS online tools. They also have a course for building your own web apps with ESRI.

Learn GIS from Youtube

There are some channels that, if you follow them will help you solve many of the problems you will be facing as a beginner in GIS. If you have some basic knowledge of GIS, then youtube can help you a lot with geospatial analysis.

In this case, the major youtube channels that I recommend following for a GIS Analyst are:

Courses on GISCI – GIS Certification Institute

GISCI is a non-profit organization, that awards certificates to the GIS Community, moreover they have a complete certification program that leads to GISP© (Certified GIS Professional)

Learning Python for QGIS Automation | Linkedin Learning App

There are plenty of courses on LinkedIn in the GIS and Remote Sensing field. The good thing about LinkedIn is that they provide 1 month free trial. This can be an opportunity for you to learn as much as possible for free. One of the courses on LinkedIn that I would recommend for you is “QGIS and Python for AEC“.

Automating GIS processes with Python – The ultimate course

This course provides documentation for GIS and Python. This is not a video course but rather a reading tutorial. It’s “Automating GIS processes“. The lessons are interactive and provide a hands-on experience for learning and practicing geospatial analysis with python.

Google Earth Engine

Google Earth Engine is a Gift from Google developers for GIS and Remote Sensing Scientists. It focuses mainly on Remote Sensing planetary-scale capabilities. It has almost all the open-source Satellite imageries readily available for processing. GEE is purely web-based and requires some basic training in Javascript for geoprocessing. Quisheng Wu on youtube provides one of the best training for Google Earth Engine Python API. He is also active on his LinkedIn, so make sure to follow the Google Certified Expert in GEE.

Find the list of Google Earth Engine Experts here

Private Session with an expert

You can hire me for private live online sessions. Just click on the chat button to discuss further.

Question: Can I learn gis on my own?
Answer: Yes, the field of GIS is relatively new and a majority of the experts are self-taught. GIS and Remote Sensing needs a lot of experts and serious learners that are dedicated and motivated. If you are one of the dedicated ones then why not?

Keywords: ArcGIS online, spatial data, gis analyst, ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS story maps

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