The Johns Hopkins' Online Certificate Program in GIS is a graduate program. Students can complete five courses over the course of a year or take longer if they need to. The program included spatial modeling and spatial decision-making.
There five courses in the program are: Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing: Earth Observing Systems and Applications, Introduction to Spatial Analysis with GIS, Advanced GIS Modeling and Development and Management of GIS Projects.
Penn State University offers an 11-credit Postbacalaureate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems. The program is flexible to allow students to set their own study schedules. By completing the program, students also fulfill the requirements for the first year of Penn State's online master's degree program in GIS.
The GIS certificate requires four courses: The Nature of Geographic Information, Problem Solving with GIS, GIS Database Development, and an elective selected from a list of a dozen or so.
Elmhurst College offers an online GIS Certificate program aimed at adult students and professionals. The program employs both collaborative and active learning techniques with courses taught by GIS instructors certified by ESRI, a major maker of GIS software.
Students seeking only a GIS certificate from Elmhurst are admitted as "non-degree" students and only need a high school diploma or GED to enroll. The certificate program consists of four courses: Programming with ArcObjects, Advanced Remote Sensing, Implementing Geodatabases, and Applications in GIS. Some students may also be required to take Fundamentals of GIS if they have no prior GIS experience.