Graduate programs
Professional Master’s Degree in GIST
This master’s degree offers working professionals or distance students the opportunity to develop and improve their geospatial knowledge and skills online and at their own pace. Core courses cover GIS basics, geospatial programming, data visualization, enterprise systems, web GIS, and spatial modeling, while electives provide the chance to explore specific areas of interest. This 33-credit master’s degree can be completed in 2 years.
Research Master’s Degree in GIST (with thesis)
Students earning our traditional master’s degree work with a faculty mentor to complete a thesis project, giving them the opportunity to plan and execute a geospatial science project in collaboration with an expert. Students complete 28 credits of coursework and 4 thesis credits, and they interact regularly with their mentors, either in person or remotely. This degree can be completed in 2 years.
Graduate Certificate in GIS
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis have become an important part of everything we do—from navigating with GPS to solving complex place-based problems across disciplines. This 15-credit graduate certificate gives you a rigorous academic credential in GIS that includes exposure to fundamental and advanced concepts and the chance to pursue your own interests with generous elective opportunities.
Graduate Certificate in Remote Sensing
Remote sensing scientists use data collected by satellites, aircraft, and Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones) to address questions important for agriculture, natural resource and wildlife management, global change science, energy development, and many more. From Google Earth to complex spectral analysis, remote sensing is playing an increasingly important role in many fields. This 15-credit online graduate certificate teaches you the fundamentals of remote sensing and digital image processing, and the freedom to use elective courses to pursue your own interests in related topics.
Graduate Certificate in UAS
In this certificate program, you will learn to safely operate Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones) and to collect and process geospatial data acquired by drones. Demand for professionals trained to operate drones and process drone imagery is growing rapidly in agriculture, natural resource management, construction, energy, transportation, business, and many other fields. A significant aspect of this 11-credit online graduate certificate (with a 2-credit, field-based flight school) is to prepare you to become an FAA certified pilot and to use industry-standard image processing techniques.
Graduate Courses in GIST
We offer a wide range of online graduate courses in GIST to give students and working professionals the means to learn about specific aspects of geospatial science that are relevant to them.
(Graduate courses include 5000 level courses and above.)