Work better with maps and use GIS tools more efficiently with the best GIS online courses out there.
Maps are useful – especially with the help of technology. GIS or geographic information system makes it easier for us to work with geographical data and gain actionable insights from it. No matter what your background, you can almost surely find some application of GIS in it.
In this article, I’ve selected the 10 best free and paid GIS online courses for you from the 190+ GIS courses on our catalog by following a well-defined methodology that you can find below.
But if you want to jump straight to the results, here are my top 10 picks. You can click on a course to jump to the corresponding section:
What is GIS?
Esri, the maker of the powerful GIS software, ArcGIS, defines a geographic information system (GIS) as “a spatial system that creates, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of data”.
To quote National Geographic:
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface. By relating seemingly unrelated data, GIS can help individuals and organizations better understand spatial patterns and relationships.
A GIS can use any information that includes location such as data about people, landscape, etc., and help people of almost every field compare locations and understand their patterns and relationships by connecting the data to a map.
Why are GIS Skills Important?
National Geographic notes some of the key areas where GIS is used such as by retail businesses to locate a new store, scientists to compare population statistics to resources, federal officials to plan their response to natural disasters, and engineers to develop transportation infrastructure and communication networks.
Basically, GIS can be used in many different fields to analyze just about any kind of data, so the possibilities are endless. No matter what your area of expertise, you’re most likely to find some application of GIS or other. Gaining GIS skills is pretty much an extra asset that can set you apart.
What is My Experience with GIS?
For our final year project, my team and I had worked on the floodplain mapping of Ghatal, West Medinipur, a region in the state of West Bengal, India, using HEC-RAS. There, we used ArcGIS to delineate the watershed of Silabati, the main river of Ghatal, and to outline its different characteristics.
Besides that, I am a Guided Project Instructor and a Beta Tester at Coursera, having tested many courses before they’re officially launched. I have taken over 50 online courses in various subjects.
My experience as an online learner and teacher has given me some perspective on what to look for in an online course. I used my experience to evaluate each course in this list.
Course Ranking Methodology
I built this ranking following the now tried-and-tested methodology I used in previous rankings (you can find them all here). It involves a three-step process:
- Research: I started by leveraging Class Central’s database with 100K online courses and 200K+ reviews. Then, I made a preliminary selection of 190+ GIS courses by rating, reviews, and bookmarks.
- Evaluate: I read through reviews on Class Central, Reddit, and course providers to understand what other learners thought about each course and combined it with my own experience as a learner.
- Select: Well-made courses were picked if they presented valuable and engaging content and they have to fit in a set of criteria and be ranked accordingly: comprehensive curriculum, release date, affordability, ratings and enrollments.
The end result is a unique selection of courses that combines a decade of Class Central data and my own experience as an online learner to try to get the best of both worlds. So far, I’ve spent more than 14 hours building this list, and I’ll continue to update it.
Course Ranking Statistics
Here are some statistics regarding this course ranking:
- Combined, these courses have accrued over 118.8K enrollments.
- 4 courses are free or free-to-audit and 6 courses are paid.
- The most-represented course provider in the ranking is Udemy, with 3 courses.
- All 10 courses are in English.
- The GIS subject is followed by over 30.3K learners on Class Central, and accounts for over 190 courses in Class Central catalog.
So without further ado, let’s get to my picks for the best GIS online courses.
My first pick for the best GIS online course is the free-to-audit Geographic Information Systems (GIS), offered by the University of California, Davis on Coursera.
Developed in partnership with Esri, the maker of ArcGIS, this extensive, beginner-friendly specialization teaches you the skills needed to successfully use GIS software in your professional work. The five courses in this specialization are:
- Fundamentals of GIS
- GIS Data Formats, Design and Quality
- Geospatial and Environmental Analysis
- Imagery, Automation, and Applications
- Geospatial Analysis Project
What You’ll Learn
Fundamentals of GIS (4 weeks)
In this course, you’ll learn the basics of ArcGIS
GIS Data Formats, Design and Quality (4 weeks)
In this course, you’ll explore in-depth the common data types such as raster and vector data, structures, quality and storage.
Geospatial and Environmental Analysis (4 weeks)
In this course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of geospatial and environmental analysis through a project.
Imagery, Automation, and Applications (4 weeks)
In this course, you’ll become comfortable with spatial analysis and applications within GIS.
Geospatial Analysis Project (4 weeks)
In this course, you’ll design and execute a complete GIS-based analysis.
How You’ll Learn
The specialization is broken down into 5 courses that are broken down into 4 weeks. Each course involves about 15 to 30 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, readings and quizzes.
| Institution | University of California, Davis |
| Provider | Coursera |
| Instructor | Nick Santos |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 182 hours |
| Enrollments | 70.7K |
| Rating | 4.8/5.0 (5.3K) |
| Certificate | Paid |
Fun Facts
- Santos is a GIS specialist, programmer, web developer, environmentalist and instructor.
- He founded and led Environmental Consumer, a nonprofit that develops actionable information and resources.
- In 2012, he was the Roosevelt Institute: Pipeline fellow for climate change.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the courses and how to enroll here.
My second pick for the best GIS online course is the free-to-audit GIS, Mapping, and Spatial Analysis, offered by the University of Toronto on Coursera.
Whether you are new to mapping and GIS or looking to expand their understanding of the subject, this specialization, partnered with Esri, will teach you the skills that you can apply to your own work. The four courses in this specialization are:
- Introduction to GIS Mapping
- GIS Data Acquisition and Map Design
- Spatial Analysis and Satellite Imagery in a GIS
- GIS, Mapping, and Spatial Analysis Capstone
What You’ll Learn
Introduction to GIS Mapping (6 weeks)
In this course, you’ll learn about what a GIS is, getting started with the software, representing the real world on a map, recording locations using coordinates, and making a two-dimensional map from a three-dimensional Earth.
GIS Data Acquisition and Map Design (7 weeks)
In this course, you’ll learn about the basics of GIS data,metadata, taking non-GIS data and converting it into “mappable” data using geocoding, taking data and designing a map using cartographic principles.
Spatial Analysis and Satellite Imagery in a GIS (5 weeks)
In this course, you’ll learn how to filter a data set using different types of queries, simple yet powerful analysis methods that use vector data, find, understand, and use remotely sensed data, and analyze raster data.
GIS, Mapping, and Spatial Analysis Capstone (6 weeks)
In this course, you’ll apply everything you have learned by designing and completing your own GIS project.
How You’ll Learn
The specialization is broken down into 4 courses that are broken down into 5 to 7 weeks. Each course involves about 10 to 20 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, readings and quizzes.
| Institution | University of Toronto |
| Provider | Coursera |
| Instructor | Don Boyes |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 52 hours |
| Enrollments | 35.8K |
| Rating | 4.9/5.0 (2K) |
| Certificate | Paid |
One Thing to Note
You will have to obtain ArcGIS Desktop on your own since it is no longer provided with the course.
Fun Facts
- Boyes is a top instructor at Coursera with over 73.5K learners.
- He has been learning about and using GIS for over 30 years, and teaches GIS courses at the University of Toronto.
- Before he joined the university as a professor, he worked as a freelance GIS consultant.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the courses and how to enroll here.
My third pick for the best GIS online course is the free course Going Places with Spatial Analysis, offered by Esri.
Learn spatial data analysis straight from the creators of ArcGIS, Esri. What’s more – you’ll even get free access to the full analytical capabilities of ArcGIS Online, Esri’s cloud-based GIS platform, during the course. However, in order to complete this course, previous knowledge of GIS software is helpful but not necessary.
What You’ll Learn
Going Places with Spatial Analysis
In this section, you’ll understand the special characteristics and value of spatial data and analysis, and get started with ArcGIS Online.
Understanding and Comparing Places
In this section, you’ll cover the fundamental topics like queries, scale of analysis, descriptive statistics, and projection.
Determining How Places Are Related
In this section, you’ll learn about vector overlay, the modifiable areal unit problem, and normalizing data for choropleth mapping.
Finding the Best Locations and Paths
In this section, you’ll explore topology, site suitability, cost paths, and other important concepts.
Detecting and Quantifying Patterns
In this section, you’ll understand density surfaces, spatial autocorrelation, and spatiotemporal analysis.
Making Predictions
In this section, you’ll learn about spatial interaction, regression, surface analysis, and interpolation.
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 6 sections. Each section involves about 2 to 3 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, readings and exercises.
| Institution/Provider | Esri |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 12-18 hours |
| Rating | 4.5/5.0 (13.2K) |
| Certificate | Free |
Fun Facts
- Esri is the global market leader in GIS software, location intelligence, and mapping.
- They are the creator of the powerful mapping and analytics software, ArcGIS.
- Esri has supported customers with geographic science and geospatial analytics since 1969.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
My fourth pick for the best GIS online course is Advance Your Skills in GIS on LinkedIn Learning.
This learning path for beginners aims to teach you ArcGIS, InfraWorks, QGIS and Python, and core fundamentals of GIS for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. It will be helpful to have these tools already installed on your computer. The five courses you will cover are:
- Real-World GIS
- ArcGIS Pro Essential Training
- Learning QGIS
- InfraWorks and ArcGIS: AEC Collaboration
- QGIS and Python for AEC
What You’ll Learn
Real-World GIS (8 modules)
In this course, you’ll learn how to get solutions to real-world GIS challenges, such as collecting quality data, creating projections, and finding a GIS job.
ArcGIS Pro Essential Training (10 modules)
In this course, you’ll learn the essentials of working with ArcGIS Pro 2.4, such as navigating maps and creating new projects from ArcGIS templates.
Learning QGIS (12 modules)
In this course, you’ll work on your GIS data and make more effective maps with QGIS, an open-source GIS software.
InfraWorks and ArcGIS: AEC Collaboration (7 modules)
In this course, meant for Autodesk InfraWorks users, you’ll explore how to connect ArcGIS Online to integrate the GIS data into InfraWorks.
QGIS and Python for AEC (5 modules)
In this course, you’ll learn how to use Python scripting to automate and augment the QGIS toolset.
How You’ll Learn
The learning path is broken down into 5 courses that are broken down into 5 to 7 modules. Each course involves about 2 to 3 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, quizzes and practice exercises.
| Provider | LinkedIn Learning |
| Instructor | Jason VanHorn, Gordon Luckett, Lynda Sharkey |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 14 hours |
| Certificate | Paid |
Fun Facts
- Luckett is a trainer, mentor, IT generalist, consultant, and CAD-GIS integration specialist.
- He specializes in several GIS applications such as ArcGIS Pro, AutoCAD Map 3D, Oracle Spatial/SQL Server, Geocortex, CityWorks, Autodesk Vault, and many more.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the courses and how to enroll here.
My fifth pick for the best GIS online course is Display and analyze GIS data on the web with Leaflet on Udemy.
This intermediate-level course teaches you client side mapping applications using the open source javascript libraries, Leaflet.js and Turf.js. By the end of this course you’ll be able to create web interfaces to view, search and analyze your GIS data. All you need is a text editor and an open source web server to get started.
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll learn how to find and zoom to your position on a map, use leaflet controls for user interface, geocoding, editing, and loading data, and learn what background maps are available and how to use them.
You’ll also learn how to create vector data and style it in your map, export your GIS data to GeoJSON format and load it into the map, filter a subset of your data, search for specific data elements and view their attributes, and analyze spatial relationships.
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 8 sections. Each section involves about 1 to 2 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos and quizzes. Downloadable resources are also provided.
| Provider | Udemy |
| Instructor | Michael Miller |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Workload | 14 hours |
| Enrollments | 4K |
| Rating | 4.8/5.0 |
| Certificate | Paid |
Fun Facts
- This course is a bestseller on Udemy.
- Miller has been programming and working with database applications for over 30 years.
- He has also been specializing in geospatial applications for over 20 years.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
My sixth pick for the best GIS online course is the free course Introduction to Geospatial Analysis with Python GeoPandas, offered by GeoDelta Labs on YouTube.
This short course will explain all you need to know in order to get started with geospatial analysis. For this course, you’ll be using GeoPandas, an open source project that makes it easier for you to work with geospatial data in Python. However, some familiarity with Python will be helpful in order to take this course.
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll be introduced to visualizing geospatial data with Python GeoPandas, convert coordinates from CSV to ESRI shapefile, extract topographic elevations using Python, and explore ten geoprocessing applications of GeoPandas library.
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 5 videos. Each video involves about 15 to 50 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only. Downloadable resources are also provided.
| Institution | GeoDelta Labs |
| Provider | YouTube |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 2-3 hours |
| Certificate | Not available |
Fun Facts
- GeoDelta Labs teaches GIS, remote sensing, geosciences and data analysis on YouTube for free.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
My seventh pick for the best GIS online course is the free course Geospatial Analysis on Kaggle.
This is not one of your regular online courses with video lectures and assignments. This is more of a guide where you follow the instructions, read through the explanations, and ultimately, apply your knowledge by writing your own code within the course platform itself. It is expected that you have previous knowledge of Python in order to take this course.
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll cover the following topics:
- Coordinate reference systems
- Interactive maps
- Manipulating geospatial data
- Proximity analysis
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 5 lessons plus a bonus lesson. Each lesson involves less than an hour of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of readings and in-built practice exercises. Data sources and Kaggle API are also provided.
| Provider | Kaggle |
| Instructor | Alexis Cook, Jessica Li |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Workload | 4 hours |
| Certificate | Free |
Fun Facts
- Cook is the Head of Kaggle Learn at Kaggle.
- Li is a Product Manager at Kaggle.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
My eighth pick for the best GIS online course is [Intermediate] Spatial Data Analysis with R, QGIS & More on Udemy.
If you are someone who uses R and QGIS for basic spatial data analysis and wants to perform more advanced GIS tasks, then this is the course for you. Other than R and QGIS, you’ll also be introduced to another free GIS software – GRASS. In this hands-on course, you will learn how to apply these free tools to perform spatial analysis.
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll perform common spatial data analysis and GIS tasks using free software tools as well as advanced spatial data analysis and mapping using R and QGIS, develop robust map-making skills using Google Earth, and learn to use GRASS GIS for spatial data analysis tasks.
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 7 sections. Each section involves about 30 minutes to 1 hour of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, readings and quizzes. Downloadable resources are also provided.
| Provider | Udemy |
| Instructor | Minerva Singh |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Workload | 4-5 hours |
| Enrollments | 5.6K |
| Rating | 4.9/5.0 |
| Certificate | Paid |
Fun Facts
- This course is one of the highest rated in Udemy.
- Singh completed her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2017 and holds an MPhil and an MSc from Oxford University.
- She is proficient in machine learning, data visualization, spatial data analysis, deep learning and natural language processing tasks using both R and Python.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
My ninth pick for the best GIS online course is the free course Intro to Mapping and GIS for Journalists, offered by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
This course is specifically designed for journalists who want to tell stories with geographic data. You’ll learn geographic concepts and best practices through a journalist’s eyes as well as explore tips and tricks, and dive into practical skills to take your geographic data analysis skills to the next level.
What You’ll Learn
In the first module, you’ll learn when a map can or cannot tell a story, explore cartographic basics (latitude and longitude, projections and scale), the different types of geographic data (vector points, lines and shapes and raster images), and how to open and manipulate spatial data in QGIS.
In the second module, you’ll understand when and why to put multiple pieces of data on the same map, how to geocode data and make a dot map, join datasets together inside QGIS to make something with a sum greater than its parts, and edit data in QGIS to make adjustments on the fly.
In the third module, you’ll learn how two Washington Post journalists analyzed racial data to create detailed dot-density segregation maps — and how to use this technique with your own data, and three useful ways to analyze data in QGIS: points in a polygon, dot density and point buffers.
Finally, in the fourth module, you’ll explore how to avoid accidentally making a population density map, two methods for simplifying data, export a map from QGIS and get it ready for publication, and digital publication tools used by journalists and media practitioners.
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 4 modules. Each module involves about 5 to 10 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, external readings and slides.
| Institution/Provider | Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas |
| Instructor | Darla Cameron, Chris Essig |
| Level | Beginner |
| Certificate | Free |
Fun Facts
- Cameron is a senior data visuals developer at the Texas Tribune, a non-profit news organization.
- Essig is a data visuals developer at Texas Tribune, where he builds data visualizations and news apps.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
My tenth pick for the best GIS online course is Openlayers 6 From Scratch With A Project on Udemy.
As a beginner, this course will introduce you to OpenLayers, open-source JavaScript-based web mapping library. You’ll start with the basics and move up to more advanced concepts of web mapping using the latest version of OpenLayers 6.
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll learn the basics and key concepts of OpenLayers, raster layers (tiled raster layers, raster sources, tiled ArcGISRest, TileWMS, static raster images), vector layers (vector tile layers, vector image layer, heatmap, graticule), and interact with vector layer features.
Next, you’ll style vector layers (points, lines, and polygons, using images as point symbols, styling based on feature properties), apply overlays, manage multi-layers, and explore projections and coordinate reference systems (different projections, coordinate transformations, and reprojecting of geospatial data).
Finally, you’ll understand map interactions, map controls (styling and manipulating map controls), geolocation API, geospatial formats and standards, and build a complete OpenLayers project.
How You’ll Learn
The course is broken down into 11 sections. Each section involves about 30 minutes to 3 hours of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only. Downloadable resources are also provided.
| Provider | Udemy |
| Instructor | Ikrom Nishanbaev |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 12 hours |
| Enrollments | 2.5K |
| Rating | 4.6/5.0 |
| Certificate | Paid |
Fun Facts
- Nishanbaev has been programming for around 10 years and actively works with modern geospatial technologies and web technologies.
- He is currently a PhD student at Curtin University, where he is researching on the geospatial semantic web.
- He holds a master’s degree in Geoinformatics and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.
If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.
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