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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: [gislist] Support for non-certified instructors to teach GIS
classes |
| Date: |
02/14/2007 12:30:01 PM |
| From: |
True, Cynthia D. |
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We ran into the same situation here in Missouri. ESRI says that they
will not release their materials to anyone who is not certified by them
as an instructor. Their reason was that they did not want their logo
associated with sub-standard training. We have people here who are more
than qualified to teach the Intro to GIS level classes. Our solution
was to get a person certified by ESRI to train others. Why don't you go
to their instructor training (it's not hard), then you can rent yourself
out to lots of counties who need training? It would probably be faster
than trying to make your own PowerPoints, and you would then have
another possible revenue source.
Good Luck,
dt
-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of Scott Madsen
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 12:13 PM
To: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: [gislist] Support for non-certified instructors to teach GIS
classes
Listers,
I'm disappointed with ESRI's response (or lack thereof) to my request
for help in putting together a low-cost GIS training class for my
county. I'm curious to find out if any other GIS Coordinators or the
like have experienced similar frustration in this area. (Please excuse
the length of this post but I wan to make sure I explain the situation
properly).
The class I'm trying to put together will cover Beginner ArcGIS 9.2
instruction for at least 12, maybe as many as 20 county government folks
including commissioners, department heads and staff. We have a lot of
interest in GIS at our county, however, employee training budgets are
stretched far enough the way it is so we just can't afford to bring in a
certified instructor or send these folks to a certified class when, as
the GIS Coordinator, I am perfectly capable of teaching the class
myself.
I've attended certified ESRI training courses and have found them to be
well structured using well-organized training resources (workbooks,
Power Points, etc). So, I'd like to teach a similar class using the
same or similar teaching resources: yet, without the cost of a certified
instructor. For a class of 20 people, this would save us thousands of
dollars so, it's a no-brainer.
I realize that, in a utopian society, all GIS users would be able to
afford an ESRI sponsored instructional course. However, small
businesses and local government folks don't usually work within such an
environment - typically, we have to find less expensive ways to do
things. Invariably, it disappoints me when I talk to current and
potential GIS users who make the comment that they'd like to attend a
certified ESRI training course but can't afford to do so. When I
suggest that they use ESRI's online courses, attend GIS user conferences
or become members of GIS user groups in order to get more training, many
of these folks respond that they don't like online training and that the
costs associated with travel to conferences or meetings is often cost
and/or time prohibitive.
The only real alternative for many local government and private sector
businesses is to have a class taught locally with minimal costs
associated with it. This means taught by a county GIS Coordinator like
myself in a local county meeting room with only the cost of
instructional materials to consider. I've already done a fair amount of
research on instructional materials and have found a couple of ESRI
workbooks including temporary software licenses that look like they
would work for this purpose (GIS Tutorial and Getting to Know ArcGIS
Desktop).
However, my frustration with ESRI is that they refuse to release their
instructor resource materials to a non-certified or non-university
instructor. ESRI has left me in limbo by telling me to go online and
search out my own teaching aids (Power Points, etc) or to make my own.
My response to my local ESRI representative was simply, 'why the heck
can't I just acquire the same teaching materials that you would readily
make available to any university or certified course instructor? What's
the harm in it?'
Their response was simply to reiterate corporate policy - really not the
answer I was looking for.
Does my request for assistance in this matter seem out of line? Are
there
others out there that are dealing with the same situation? Is ESRI
really so oblivious to the value of training (and subsequent product
endorsement) by local folks like me that they can't see that, if through
my classes, I can get more local folks interested in GIS, my efforts
will likely sell more of their software licenses?
This is just the opinion of one disappointed and increasingly frustrated
ESRI customer. Maybe I'm just talking to the wrong people at ESRI. If
so, could somebody please point me in a more productive direction before
I grudgingly
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