Geospatial analysis is a growing field due to its usefulness to decision makers. With this course you will learn QGIS, a free and open source software package that can perform all the analysis functions of its well known and expensive competitor. Whether you are making the transition away from ESRIproducts or just starting from scratch, learning QGISwill give you valuable analysis and visualization skills.

Your Instructor has been using GIS for over 25 years and teaching it at a University in Boston, MA for over a dozen years. He has taught countless GISlabs using both ESRIproducts and, as of late, QGIS software. Upon discovering that QGIS is more powerful, faster, cooperative, and infinitely cheaper than ESRIproducts, he switched 90% of his geospatial work to Open Source QGIS and has never looked back. He would like to guide you on this journey as well. With QGIS and its associated programs, there are no limits to where you can go!

This course is designed for folks new to QGIS. If you are an ESRI user, this course will help you translate the concepts from ArcMap to QGIS. All the functionality is there, even the extensions, and this course will help you make the mental transitions with the new workflow. If you are brand new to GIS, this course will bring you from zero experience to an Intermediate user very quickly. Within a few days, you will be able to perform powerful spatial analysis.

The course comes with a sample data set, primarily focused on the island of Nantucket. Students are encouraged to follow along with the Instructor. The best way to learn the concepts is to follow along and do them. Your instructor is very responsive to questions and feedback, and sees himself as a partner in your journey to GISgreatness.