GIS Professional Programs Course Curriculum

In this class you’ll be immersed in UW–Madison’s world-famous cartography curriculum. You’ll learn all about how maps work, how to design maps that communicate effectively, how to set your maps apart from all of the visual flotsam cluttering the GIS marketplace.

Objective: Introduce you to core cartographic concepts and map design principles for effective communication of spatial information.

Specific Topics: Coordinate systems and projections, scale and generalization, typography, map design, semiotics, and how to design choropleth, proportional symbol, dot, dasymetric, isoline, cartogram, and flow maps

Program: Online GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S.

Geog 377 provides you with a comprehensive and detailed overview of the core principles underlying everything else you will learn throughout your GIS career. Labs are designed to complement the conceptual content so that you not only learn about GIS but how to apply it.

Objective: Introduce you to core GIS concepts and develop applicable GIS skills.

Specific Topics: Spatial Data Types, Data Creation, Georeferencing, Spatial Analysis

Program: Online GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S.

You will begin using command line and coding in Python. You will create open-source tools for different GIS applications (e.g., ArcMap and QGIS). We’ll introduce you to free APIs that help make GIS coding a snap (i.e., GDAL). After this starter course, you will be ready to tackle nearly any GIS coding project.

Objective: Provide training in scripting for GIS.

Specific Topics: Geoprocessing with open-source GIS utilities. Python scripting with ArcGIS and open-source libraries.

Program: Online GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate, Online Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.

Learn how to use R to create your own custom spatial analysis tools. Never depend on a “not-quite-right,” default GIS tool again. Design exactly the tool you need to get your analysis done right using the correct algorithms.

Objective: Develop your skills in R (an in-demand, open-source statistics and scripting platform) for creating spatial analytical tools and visualizations.

Specific Topics: R, Scripting, Spatial Analysis

Program: Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S.

You will learn how to design stunning maps for the web. Create and style your own tile base maps. Design visually stunning thematic representations. Create interactive web maps. Learn how to design maps that spark an emotional response from a user. Design web maps that tell stories better than cookie-cutter software ever could. All of this using open HTML5 technologies (HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap). By the end of this course, not only will you be a web design guru, but you’ll be able to design custom map tiles using Mapbox, styled to fit your visual narrative. As an added bonus, you’ll learn how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to professionalize your web map development and create customized layouts and icons.

Objective: Develop students’ cartographic design skills for visualizing and presenting geospatial information using open web standards.

Specific Topics: Visual perception, visual cognition, visual semiotics, visual aesthetics, and professional ethics, as applied for advanced thematic mapping and visual storytelling on the web.

Program: Online Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.

“Geospatial Big Data” is used to describe the phenomenon in which large volumes of georeferenced data (including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data) about various aspects of the Earth environment and society are captured by millions of environmental and human sensors in a variety of formats such as remote sensing imageries, crowdsourced maps, geotagged videos and photos, transportation smart card transactions, mobile phone data, location-based social media content, and GPS trajectories. This course will introduce the theory, techniques, and analytical methods for geospatial big data, as well as methods for storing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing various types of geospatial big data using advanced Python programming.

Objective: The course is designed for students who have programming experience or have finished Geog 378 previously and want to learn AI and machine learning methods for solving geospatial big data problems.

Specific Topics: Geospatial big data storage and processing, data algorithms/visualization/analytics, machine learning

Program: Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S.

Learn how to manage your data in the best way possible. You will learn everything about databases. SQL, NoSQL, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, ArcSDE, MongoDB. You’ll know which type of database to use in different situations and then how to create them.

Objective: Develop student’s skills in geospatial database design, operations and implementation.

Specific Topics: Fundamental database concepts, benefits of using databases, functions of database management systems; Data modeling and database design: Entity- Relation diagrams, relational model, object-oriented database design, object-relational database, georelational model;  Geospatial database creation, query and manipulation through SQL; Usages of modern geospatial databases products (e.g., PostgreSQL/PostGIS and ArcSDE); Usages of NoSQL database (e.g., MongoDB) for big spatial data.

Program: Online Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.

User experience (UX) and user-interface (UI) design are the focus here. You will learn how to design incredible GIS user-interfaces from scratch using the latest HTML5, open-source technologies (particularly JavaScript). Learn how to use JavaScript to incorporate numerous API services into your web and mobile visualizations. Your designs will be based on user feedback and will incorporate the latest in interactive web mapping tools and visual analytics, including Leaflet, MapBox, and D3.

Objective: Develop skills on the design of interactive interfaces for visualizing geospatial data in a web environment.

Specific Topics: User experience (UX) design, user interface (UI) design, human-computer interaction, usability engineering, web mapping, and visual analytics, as applied for client-side, interactive web map development.

Program: Online Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.

You’ll learn full stack interactive web map development for mobile applications. You’ll use use various web technologies/frameworks (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, Express, AWS, Leaflet.js, Esri.js, APIs, GitHub, etc.) to create dynamic maps, geovisualizations, and spatial queries.

Objective: Bridge the gap between the front-end development skills introduced in Geography 575 and the additional back-end development skills needed for deploying a complete web application.

Specific Topics: Software development and Object Oriented Programming: JAVA programming fundamentals; Geospatial programming tools, languages and libraries: Servlet, JavaServer Page(JSP), JavaScript (JS), Google Maps API, Leaflet, HTML, CSS, XML etc; Web and mobile GIS design and development.

Program: Online Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.

Objective: Learn how to conceptualize and implement a GIS project from start to finish.

Specific Topics: Case studies of different GIS project implementations, discussions of how to implement your own projects, and a final student project

Program: Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S.

In this class you’ll acquire advanced statistical and analytical skills to solve all types of geospatial problems. The analytical skills covered include everything from multiple regression to clustering methods, from time series analysis to spatial pattern analysis. We’ll introduce you to exactly the techniques you need to create GIS and mobile programs that analyze the data for you.

Objective: Develop advanced statistical/spatial analysis skills for geospatial data.

Specific Topics: Multiple regression, principal components, clustering methods, time series analysis, computer-intensive methods (e.g., bootstrapping), spatial autocorrelation, spatial interpolation, spatial pattern analysis, and machine learning techniques for geographic data.

Program: Online Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate, Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.

You’ll collaborate with classmates to solve two real-world GIS problems. You will integrate all of your newly acquired programming, web development, and mobile programming skills to develop GIS tools that solve particular challenges handed to you by faculty. Not only will you build your skills at GIS team work, but when you’re done you’ll have four amazing portfolio pieces!

Objective: Develop integrative skills and the ability to apply the learned programming skills in solving GIS development/support problems.

Specific Topics: Students will be presented with four challenging problems requiring skills in spatial analysis, interactive web mapping, and programming.

Program: Online M.S.

You will identify a unique real-world GIS software shortcoming and develop a tool that helps you solve it. The problem you want to solve will be determined by you and your advisor. It can be of personal interest to you (e.g., a tool for tracking, analyzing, and mapping UFO sightings in real-time) or of consequence to your employer (e.g., keeping track of competitors’ sales). The goal is to help you realize your new GIS coding potential by having you start and finish a GIS development project all by yourself – with an mentor cheering you on!

Objective: Develop the ability to conceive and solve real world programming problems and provide GIS application support independently.

Specific Topics: Conception, development, and implementation of a student specific real world programming project.

Program:  Accelerated/Non-Thesis M.S., Online M.S.