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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of GIS by University of California, Davis

4.8
stars
5,497 ratings

About the Course

Explore the world of spatial analysis and cartography with geographic information systems (GIS). In this class you will learn the basics of the industry’s leading software tool, ArcGIS, during four week-long modules: Week 1: Learn how GIS grew from paper maps to the globally integrated electronic software packages of today. You will install ArcGIS on your computer and learn how to use online help to answer technical questions. Week 2: Open up ArcGIS and explore data using ArcMap. Learn the foundational concepts of GIS, how to analyze data, and make your first map. Week 3: Make your own maps! Symbolize data and create an eye-catching final product. Week 4: Share your data and maps and learn to store and organize your data. Take Fundamentals of GIS as a standalone course or as part of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialization. By completing the first class in the Specialization you will gain the skills needed to succeed in the full program. Students who need an ArcGIS license will receive a non-commercial, 1 year student license for participation in this course and specialization....

Top reviews

A

May 16, 2021

GREAT COURSE TO JUMPSTART FOR ANY NEW LEARNERS IN THE FIELD OF GIS. It is extremely helpful to learn the basics & the projects help any new learners to understand what kind of work is done in ArcGIS.

BQ

Dec 27, 2018

the content is awesome. i would recommend it to those who need to have some basic knowledge of GIS. it's very easy to learn the ArcGIS because of the instructions and demos given by the instructor.

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76 - 100 of 1,683 Reviews for Fundamentals of GIS

By Chandler A

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Jul 10, 2020

Very informative. Good overview of the basics.

By himanshu y

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May 30, 2020

This is a good course. I've learned very much.

By Willem J v d V

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Jul 9, 2022

Really good and thorough introduction to GIS.

By Gloria P

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Jul 5, 2020

Very welcoming and clear introduction to GIS!

By Joshua S

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Jun 28, 2020

Excellent introduction to GIS and Arcmap.

By Tim J

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Jul 10, 2020

Great intro to GIS and ESRI products.

By K D B

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May 30, 2020

Wonderful class! Very informative!

By Yoki S R

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May 29, 2020

Great Courses, Awesome Teacher.

By Noor-E-Zannat S

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May 29, 2020

Its very helpful.. Thanks a lot

By Farhan K

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May 27, 2020

Very good introductory course

By Laura A C P

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Jul 14, 2020

It's a wonderful course

By Petar D

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May 28, 2020

Very Good Course!

By Hmida E M

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May 31, 2020

excellent course

By William D C H

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Jul 14, 2020

Excelente curso

By Mubashir S

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Jun 29, 2020

very helpful

By Fabián N R

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May 29, 2020

great...

By Alex J M

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Jul 13, 2020

ok

By Kyle A

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Apr 25, 2020

As an introductory course, I found Fundamentals of GIS to serve me incredibly well. The material was laid out clearly and the team at UC Davis has put together very easy-to-follow video lectures and practical "lab" activities.

The video lectures were well edited and the instructor's affable and approachable nature emanates from the screen. I found the video content engaging and helpful.

The lab activities are self-directed using a PDF written up by the course instructors. The instructional step-by-step PDFs acted as excellent tutorials for using the primary software covered in this course, ArcGIS.

Though I appreciated the use of forum posts to review material at the conclusion of every section, I didn't find many meaningful discussions occurring in them. I would've appreciated seeing some early forums assignments such as "Share some examples of GIS material use in your favorite region."

Overall, I enjoyed the course and gained knowledge I didn't have previously. I have a basic understanding on the use of ArcGIS to complete basic projects as well as a broader sense of GIS in the world and its uses. Thank you UC Davis!

By Lisa A

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Feb 17, 2022

Nick is an excellent professor. He explains concepts in a straightforward, easy to understand way. It's awesome that we get a year of the student version of ArcMap to play around in. The assignments were helpful and instructions were easy to follow. I'm looking forward to learning more about how to aggregate data and build maps in future courses. I will say though that there were some difficulties on the tech side doing this course. For one, I have a Mac so I had to purchase and install Windows for Mac since ArcMap only runs on Windows. So that took some time and I think ~$150. Second, the link they initially send to you to install ArcMap doesn't come in the right format (It needs to be in a .txt format). My husband (who's a coder) had to help me convert it to the correct format so I could actually install the software I needed. Questions related to technical problems on the discussion boards don't seem to be answered promptly (or sometimes at all). If not for these issues, I'd give the course 5 stars.

By Jennifer M

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Feb 9, 2022

The course content was great and I learned a lot! The assignments provided a good introduction to hand-on GIS work, and the lectures explained things in an easy-to-understand way. However, some of the material (e.g., the video about how to get your ArcGIS license) was out of date. There was also an issue with one of the assignments involving a graded external tool that caused a lot of stress for many students (the assignment refused to mark itself as 'complete' even after completing the task, preventing students from completing the course and necessitating a lot of back-and-forth with the Coursera suport team), and the course staff didn't appear to be monitoring the discussion forums to address this issue.

By Aaron M

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Dec 15, 2023

The information within the course was very helpful in my professional growth, but the final project was poorly explained in the rubric. Furthermore, having non-experienced peers grade your project was poorly thought-out. The number of times I had to re-submit the project due to failing a peer review on subjective opinions was infuriating. All versions of my map had all the key elements that the rubric asked for. However, my grade was being subtracted based on "not being artistic enough". I believe an instructor should grade this course to rule out subjective opinions from having an impact on grades.

By Olivia R C

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Apr 14, 2020

Nick Santos is a great teacher. I found that the first half of the course was extremely well explained. I found it very easy to follow, and was thankful for the slow yet engaging pace of learning. However, I felt that the course got a bit "rushed" towards the end. Particularly in week 4, there were a few lectures that I did not completely understand. A few things were also a bit unclear in the final assignment, which was stressful considering it was graded. I think this has given me a good range of skills for starting off with GIS. Thank you!

By Conor J R

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May 20, 2016

A good introduction to GIS focusing on the fundamental principles with a good practical element included. There is a lot to take in over four weeks so it does require plenty of time to absorb all the required learning and complete the assignment. Plenty of information and resources are provided and the lectures are clear and easily to follow. The only criticism I would have is that there is probably too much emphasis on Arc GIS, it would have been nice to learn some more about open source platforms like QGIS.

By Jose D L

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Jul 16, 2022

Great course but I didn't give it the 5 stars becuase for the 2nd assingment, the Cummulative Area table that was required to complete the assignment was not inlcuded with the data, therefore I could not complete this assignment. It seems like other people had that same issue too. I hope they correct this issue or if this was a mistake in my part, I hope they provide a better explanation of where to get this table so future students don't have to skip this assignment too.

By YAPO J S A

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Dec 3, 2019

Le cours est assez intéressant et permet de commencer à se familiariser aux Systèmes d'Information Géographique. En plus grâce à ce cours, il est possible d'obtenir une licence originale de l'un des meilleurs logiciels SIG gratuitement pour une durée d'un an. Il n'y a pas de plus meilleur avantage que cela! Même si le cours est en anglais, ce n'est pas une barrière pour les francophones, alors allez-y et lancez-vous!