Educational Achievement Points
While formal educational experiences may not contribute as much as experience to a GIS professional’s qualifications, they certainly do have the potential to be valuable means of acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that individuals need to be successful in any profession. These guidelines are meant to encourage practitioners to seek out continuing education opportunities while providing incentives to education providers to build substantive GIS programs with quality courses. The GISCI is not an accrediting body, and therefore will not attempt to evaluate the quality of educational institutions or programs. Instead, it will ensure that individuals who seek certification have successfully participated in a minimum of relevant, formal educational experiences.
Education Point Schedule
The Education Point Schedule consists of three parts:
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Credential Points: points earned through successful completion of a formal degree or certificate program offered by accredited educational institutions.
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Course Points: points earned through successful completion of individual courses, workshops, and other formal, documented educational activities whose subject matter relates directly to geographic information technologies.
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Conference Attendance Points: Conference attendance points are awarded in recognition of the valuable informal learning afforded by participation in meetings and conferences sponsored by professional societies and regional and local user groups.
Applicants may claim a total number of Education points equal to the sum of Credential Points plus Course Points plus Conference Attendance Points. The minimum number of Education points required for certification is 30 points.
View EDU-S: The Educational Achievement
Point Summary Sheet
(in .pdf form)
Educational Achievement Documentation
Applicants who claim Credential Points are expected to document their degrees and/or certificates with photocopies of their highest degree diploma and/or certificate if the official transcript(s) does not contain that information.
Applicants who claim Course Points are expected to provide evidence of their achievements with an official transcript that states courses by title. In addition, applicants are encouraged to provide class syllabi or other forms of documentation for courses with non-GIS specific course titles. |
