GIS Certification

If all you want to do is produce Web-GIS applications then I'd recommend you take my GEOG585 course "Open Web Mapping" (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog585/). But I have to say that you may well benefit from the other courses in the certificate to help you get up to speed in why geography is harder than it looks. I see a lot of web development experts and expert programmers asking questions on this forum and other lists which show that they just don't get the geographic concepts they are trying to implement. I suspect that nearly all of us could point to web map apps that really would work better (at all?) if the developers had asked a geographer at some point.

Personally think that for development work, there's not too much a programmer can get from a GIS course, unless the course is run specifically for Computer Science students (which is rare). My learning (coming from a similar background to yours with lesser experience at the time) after enrolling in a Master's course was applied physics, spatial/locational modelling and statistical theory used in Remote Sensing amd Urban planning. It was all very interesting then, but I haven't used it since. Most of the work in GIS I have done has been standard IT work with basic GIS data model concepts involved. However, one of the biggest benifits of doing a Master's for me was learning how to write and present better and more confidently, which is a transferrable skill.

Questions you might want to ask yourself : Do you prefer open-source development or would you rather work with vendors such ESRI/Manifold/MapInfo etc.?

My personal choice for programming was open source tools and I picked up GIS specific Java tools such as JTS/GeoTools etc on my own and more recently GeoServer/gdal.

Do you prefer Desktop or web?

web development jobs are harder to find and the user base can be hard to please as they are used to highly interactive desktop apps

What field would you like to work in - government, military, environment?

By far the biggest advantages of a GIS career is opens up avenues into fields you might not have considered or had access to with just an IT background

Hope this helps

sfk

Is the Penn State Program teaching classes according to the test?

I have been working with ESRI's software in the industry for almost 3 years, and I really feel like this certification would help me toward my goal of being a high level GIS developer.

My personal rule of thumb is that you get your best education out in the field. However, it sounds like the Penn State program may have some information that would be very useful to you, plus you get the degree. If it adds to your ability to get GIS certification, that is definitely a plus.

--Seth