InsideNGO One-Week GIS Training for ArcGIS 10

Juniper GIS is developing a partnership with InsideNGO, whose mission is to support operational excellence and professional expertise in the NGO community. Our goal with this partnership is to provide quality GIS training to support NGO's throughout the world. Our first class is planned for Washington, DC August 1-5. After that classes are being scheduled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia September 5-9 and Nairobi, Kenya September 12-16. For registration information, see InsideNGO's website for details -- InsideNGO Events.

This one-week set of courses will focus on core GIS skills and will introduce advanced topics, including Spatial Analyst and ModelBuilder. These courses are all designed to show students how to use GIS to better meet your data collection, planning, analysis, and mapping needs. This class is appropriate for new GIS users and for experienced GIS users wanting more in-depth instruction. Juniper GIS courses are based on real projects, with an emphasis on the skills needed to successfully and efficiently complete your projects. These two courses are designed as one integrated course, however, if you want, you can take only the first course or the second course (see prerequisites) separately. But we highly recommend taking both courses together to better learn and be able to use GIS.

Introduction to ArcGIS – Core GIS Skills (3 Days)

Core GIS skills include compiling and organizing data, understanding projections, using symbology and labels to understand the data, working with table tools to maximize the database functionality of GIS, working with Excel in GIS, working with edit tools to create and clean the data, performing basic analysis, working with Google Earth, and creating finished maps. Students will get to learn and improve these skills while working through typical GIS projects.

Spatial Analyst and ModelBuilder – Advanced GIS Skills (2 Days)

Students will follow up on skills learned in the first course by working with Spatial Analyst, learning how to use raster GIS techniques for analysis, and using ModelBuilder to create models and tools for analysis. Spatial Analyst is an ESRI extension that allows for querying over multiple layers, allows the user to interpolate data, and to see new patterns in the data for better understanding and to better craft solutions. ModelBuilder provides a graphical interface to combine GIS tools and processes into workflows for basic and advanced operations, and to analyze numerous scenarios quickly. – Prerequisites – The 3-day Introduction to ArcGIS, the ESRI ArcGIS Desktop II course, or equivalent.

These courses will work with several analysis projects to demonstrate how these skills can be applied. These projects will data from the US, Kenya and some local data from each country where we offer the classes. Exercises will work with typical GIS scenarios. If we have time, we will also see how to work with Google Earth.

Topics will include:

Using ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox
Working with layers, data frames, & maps
Projecting data between coordinate systems
Selecting and querying features
Creating & using layer symbology in ArcMap
Labeling features, working with annotation
Managing & editing tables
Editing data & managing edit sessions
Basic Geoprocessing & Analysis tools
Creating layouts in ArcMap
Using ModelBuilder for Analysis & creating tools.
Working with Spatial Analyst
Understanding Raster GIS & Raster Analysis
Working with Excel
Creating XY Point Locations from tables
Working with Google Earth

Software and Computer:

This class will be taught using ArcGIS 10. Students will need to bring a PC laptop with Window’s XP, Vista or Windows 7 with at least 1gb of ram (though we recommend not using Vista). Mac laptops running a Window’s emulator do not always work well. We will provide evaluation copies of the software to use during, and after you have completed the course. If you want to get the software in advance, you can request an evaluation DVD from ESRI at: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcview/eval/evaluate.html. Since the first session will be loading software, if you already have the software loaded and working, you can spend a few more minutes relaxing.