Instructor Interview
Below, Jennie Murack, Geospatial Data Librarian and Statistics Specialist at the MIT Libraries, describes various aspects of the Geographic Information System (GIS) Tutorial.
OCW: Who is the typical audience for GIS tutorial workshops like this?
Jennie Murack: The audience is anyone interested in learning more about what GIS is and how to use it.
OCW: How has access to GIS software transformed the work of students and researchers in various fields?
Jennie Murack: GIS software can be used in almost any field for mapping and analyzing spatial data. Patterns and insights that may not be obvious in an image or numeric data file are revealed through the use of GIS software.
OCW: This tutorial resource includes instructional materials for use with two different GIS platforms (ArcGIS and QGIS). Why include both? On what basis might a prospective user decide which to use?
Jennie Murack: QGIS is free and open-source and tends to be used at smaller companies, at nonprofits, and by individuals. ArcGIS Pro is commercial software often used in academia, government, and large organizations. Both include many of the same features and tools, although you may find one software works better than another for your specific work. It’s fairly easy to switch back and forth once you learn one tool, so I would encourage people to try both if they are unsure which they should use.
OCW: About how much time might a user need in order to work through the instructions and exercises in this resource? When the tutorial is taught as a live workshop at MIT, how many sessions and how much out-of-class time does it typically entail for attendees?
Jennie Murack: It will likely take 3-4 hours to complete all materials. We do these sessions as 2–2.5 hour live workshops and include a take-home exercise to complete later for further learning.
Curriculum Information
Prerequisites
None
Requirements Satisfied
None; the GIS Tutorial is a noncredit workshop.
Offered
Every year during the Independent Activities Period (IAP)
How Student Time Was Spent
For each level of the tutorial, students typically spend a total of 3 to 4 hours learning and practicing GIS skills.
In Class
- Each of the two levels of the tutorial was taught as a single 2–2.5 hour live session that included a presentation and workshop exercises.
Out of Class
- Students were given at-home exercises to complete on their own.
