GIS in QGIS 3 for beginners is now complete!. It was chock full of useful information, and helped with a greater overall understand of what GIS can accomplish. The way the class was structured, as a survey, was extremely beneficial.

There were a few hiccups… One being the course was recorded using a different version than what is currently available. This is just an everyday example of technological progression. A few things were different, and was able to work around them. A bigger issue was that some of the examples would not process. The machine used is an M1 Mac Mini. I attributed some of the issues to the newness of the system and its configuration. A short term semi fix was to use a Windows 10 machine and transfer the shape file group. This was not 100% successful, but got most of the job done.

I have taken a few courses on GIS now, and find it interesting. I do not claim to “know” GIS, just getting to know it. QGIS is loaded with MANY different tools, plus a ton of plugins. It will take a long time to become proficient. I am still not sure if this is a career path I am willing to travel until the end, but it does add another area to draw on for wider understanding and learning.

One of the biggest challenges I see about being successful with GIS (experience based on not being in the “inner circle”) is being able to find reliable data. We were introduced to multiple websites that could be great sources, but it is like anything else, it is what you are looking for and is it useful.