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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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1526 - 1550 of 1,683 Reviews for Fundamentals of GIS

By Kristin P

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May 7, 2020

Great beginners course for GIS for those who are working full time or have other schedules which limit their ability to go to a physical class. The only recommendation I would have is to have a better method to troubleshoot issues (i.e. more teacher or moderator interaction). Since this course has you applying what you learn through video, it can be tough to watch a video and do the work on your own. Otherwise, I learned a lot of great skills that I can now apply to my job!

By Brayden R

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Jan 5, 2021

This course was my first ever from the Coursera community! I really enjoyed learning more about GIS. This was the perfect course, for me, because I needed a course that could help me gain a better understanding about the fundamentals of GIS, as they pertain to using ArcGIS, specifically. The assignments and videos were helpful, and paralleled the material. I am now more confident with ArcGIS, and look forward to taking another course under the specialization in the future.

By Bernard T

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Apr 26, 2020

I thought that this was a very good introduction to GIS course. However, there were a few times the instructions to course work was vague. But, using the forum and Google, I was able to figure out the practice work. The final project was very challenging. We were asked to do things that were not discussed in the class. It was an assumption that students had knowledge of querying databases. Overall, I will recommend this course to those looking to get started in GIS

By Gokce S

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Jan 9, 2019

Making the online features of ArcGIS mandatory components of the final assignment may pose a barrier to some people. In my case, I am learning ArcGIS for my work and have been using the software on an offline work server (my personal computer could not meet the minimum system requirements for ArcGIS and often crashed). So, I was not able to add the elements like basemap to my maps, which made it a big challenge for me to pass the final assignment.

By Pankhuri M

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Oct 31, 2016

This course gives a good overview of GIS. It helps in becoming familiar with ArcGIS software and also teaches a lot of fundamentals that can be generally applied to different GIS products as well. But looking at the expenses of using ArcGIS for commercial purposes, it would have been great had there been some sort of additional, optional demonstrations of other products.. For a small-medium business, ArcGIS doesn't seem viable at all.

By Gourab M

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Dec 23, 2020

Thanks, Mr Nick.

This 'Fundamentals of GIS' course is really helpful for me as a beginner. I gain basic knowledge about GIS and learn the basic important regular useable tools of ArcGIS. The final peer graded assignment is really challenging to me and grows more interest for me to learn more and achieve more. I enjoyed it while learning. Thus I failed some of my assignments but I never quit. Never quit.

Thanks, Coursera.

By Aubrie B

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Jun 15, 2020

I really enjoyed this course and I learned a lot. My only critique is that most of the lectures were about specific processes and tools in ArcGIS, but they were not necessarily created in such a way that students could follow along in ArcGIS easily. I think it would be easier to learn and remember all of the processes if each lecture were more structured around the student going through the same actions as the lecturer.

By Ryan J

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Mar 12, 2019

I would give this course 4.5 stars if I could. It is a great course and I feel like I really grasped the basics of GIS and using ArcMap after I completed it. The only reason that I gave it 4 stars is that it would be nice if there were an intro course like this that was a little more geared towards people who already have some basic knowledge of SQL and relational databases so that the course could move a little faster.

By Jason M

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Sep 13, 2016

I found a number of the lessons were light on content, but I have guilty knowledge having used ArcMap on and off for the past few years. A lot of the meat of this course is replicated in similar or only slightly more detail in the follow-on class in the specialization. If you have experience with GIS or Arc I would strongly recommend skipping this class and moving directly to GIS Data Formats, Design and Quality.

By Kevin B

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Mar 22, 2020

I really liked the instructor and his style, and the course was layout well. But pay attention in the lectures and do the assignments. I'm not giving 5-stars because I feel that a little more lecture time should have been dedicated to using ArcMap to do spatial joins, as well as having a few more examples, each with different end-goals for the joined columns.

But the course is very good, and I'm glad I took it.

By Caroline V

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May 16, 2020

I enjoyed this course and thought it was a great intro to GIS. Instructions and videos were thorough and I feel like I have the tools I need to move on to the next course. Sometimes it felt like there was less focus on more challenging topics (like spatial joins) and more on topics like exporting documents. This is an intro course though so I understand we were trying to cover a lot at a basic level.

By Diane G

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Aug 11, 2022

I learned a great deal in this course. Generally the fundamentals were presented well, but the map work required that I watch lectures and read assignments several times. Hence, the course required far more time than advertised. You can ask questions of your classmates, but there is seldom an answer to your query. Overall, it was worth doing, and significantly cheaper than the local university.

By Natasha K

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Nov 17, 2016

Contains a lot of great content through videos and demonstrations that are easy to follow and in depth enough to understand the concepts. Would be great if there was a way to contact the professor or someone within Coursera to help with technical issues, as I ran into quite a few of those along the way and did not have anyone to reach out to (not a problem with the actual course, just the courser

By Rifqi A S

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Aug 11, 2020

This course is not lying about being fundamental, and it's a good thing! I was struggling to find a course to start GIS, and I am genuinely relieved to have found this specialization. Although I couldn't give a full star because of it not using ArcGIS Pro, but this course splendidly covers what is essential to start with GIS.

Thank you very much for Nick Santos and team to make this available!

By Hilary W

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Jun 1, 2017

I found the course tutorials and materials really good and clear. I found achieving what I wanted on ARC GIS much harder than I thought it would be, so it was re-assuring where they indicated that people would re-watch the tutorials more than once (Can't tell you how many times I had to watch them to get some elements of the course!!). But encouraged to go on and do the next one.

By No B

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Apr 26, 2020

Comprehensive introductory course, providing links, ways to approach troubleshooting when learning online/by yourself plus background information. The videos that accompany the weekly assigments provide insights into the learning material that is actually being used in the assignments. By taking the weekly quizes one was enabled to assess their own learning process. Thank you!

By Antje C R

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Mar 30, 2020

The guided assignments were excellent. In the lectures, however, I sometimes missed the forest for the trees. Since this course is for novices to GIS, an overall "roadmap" covering the forest of functions in ArcGIS would be helpful.

Nick Santos presents the materials in a clear, low-key manner, while conveying a good deal of enthusiasm - I enjoyed listening.

By Saara K

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Dec 28, 2022

This was a very interesting course that has motivated me to learn more.The only negative was that there wasn't enough guided practice. I felt like the final assignment required a lot of skills that were covered in the videos but that were not part of the PDF instructions (which I found the easiest to follow). I'm looking forward to the next course!

By Jon W

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Jan 16, 2021

Very well organized course. Nick is fantastic. It would help if the peer review process could be streamlined, as it is rather tedious. I burned a week waiting for peer reviews. My recommendation to other students is to always be taking multiple courses at a given time so you can focus on the other course while waiting for blocking issues.

By Kayla G

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Jun 24, 2021

Great class that I learned a lot in. I truly feel like I have the basics of GIS now. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars is because of the last assignment. While the directions were clear there were some parts that took a lot longer than they should of. I think a little more guidance on the final project would serve students well.

By Robin v L

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Dec 16, 2020

Very well structured, comfortable learning curve, great material, great teacher.

The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is due to the heavy focus on ArcGIS. I understand that learning GIS requires a working environment to learn in, but the course is more "what can you do in ArcGIS" and less "what can you do with GIS".

By Phyllis T

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Jan 20, 2018

The course material was detailed and the facilitator made the subject understandable. Learning GIS was interesting. However, waiting for peers to review my work was frustrating. I reviewed more than 6 assignments for others but my assignment was only reviewed last minute after I sent requests in the discussion forum.

By Allen L

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Feb 6, 2024

The content with the videos and exercises are good and the last assignment I think did really well in summarizing the tools to use for a basic look into ArcGIS. Some of the quiz questions occasionally felt disjointed from the material an the assignment. Would want to give like a 4.5/5

By Steven I

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May 31, 2023

This was a very well organized course. I feel I learned the basics of GIS and am looking forward to the next course in the series. My only reason for not rating it higher is that I didn't get much insight from the other students. Most didn't take the peer review seriously.

By Colby P

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Feb 8, 2021

Nick Santos is great and the course covers a lot of content, and I definitely feel like I have the fundamentals down. That being said, the Peer Review portion of the course is a frustrating ordeal. I expect it is in any Coursera course, but this was my first experience.