Ever wondered how to make maps? Now with Coursera, in conjunction with Penn State’s Geography Department, you CAN!! If you haven’t heard of Coursera, it is a Massive Online Open Course or MOOC. This is a free online class from an accredited college that can be taken for fun or for credit with a small fee.
I just started the first lesson and am really impressed with the quality of the class. For example: using an orange peel as an analogy for spatial projections is brilliant, much simpler than the light and paper analogy used in most of my classes!
The class is in real-time and new lessons will be posted each week, with a total of 5 lessons. There is a combination of video lessons from the professor, a few pages of text to read, quizzes, active forums, and finally labs. The labs will consist of analyzing and making maps using ArcGIS Online which I am really interested to see implemented. There’s a great 13 minute video from the intro lesson that is worth watching if you are on the fence about taking the class.
The great thing about MOOCs is that you can be as involved or uninvolved as you wish. Truthfully I’m pretty busy and will probably only follow the videos and not do the homework but that’s just fine because I’m getting what I pay for. There is still time to sign up so check it out and make a map!
Coursera Course Link: https://www.coursera.org/course/maps
Find other courses offered by Penn State: http://open.ems.psu.edu/courseware
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