[QGIS-ZA-user] QGIS and ArcGIS - letting students choose

[Frank Sokolic]

Hi all QGIS users,

Here's some feedback on a GIS course I presented recently. This was a 
two-day course presented last week to a group of 24 Masters students at the 
University of the Free State where I decided to try a new approach to the 
software. Up till now, students registered for this course have used ArcGIS 
but this time I said they could complete the course exercises using either 
QGIS or ArcGIS. The exercises were the same and students were free to choose 
which software package to use. About half the students chose QGIS while most 
of the others used ArcGIS. There was one student who did all the exercises 
using QGIS and then repeated them with ArcGIS. Most of those who chose to 
use ArcGIS were government employees (these were mostly part-time students) 
who had access to this software in their work environment. Those using QGIS 
were mostly self-employed, in private industry or working for NGOs.

All the way through the course I emphasised that I was teaching GIS, not GIS 
software, and that students should not feel bound to one particular package. 
During the introduction to each exercise I would perform a task using one of 
the programs and then repeat it using the other program. Students could then 
see that the results were the same, while learning to appreciate the 
similarities and differences between the software.

Overall, I think it went very well and students didn’t get confused 
between QGIS and ArcGIS. We used QGIS 2.18 and ArcGIS for Desktop 10.4 and, 
given the positive feedback, I’ll run the course in the same way next 
year.

Regards, Frank.
Frank Sokolic
EduAction - GIS Solutions
Email: frank at gis-solutions.co.za
Web: gis-solutions.co.za [http://gis-solutions.co.za/]
Tel: +27-31-2615922
Cell: +27-82-5115795
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