r/cartography • u/ApprehensiveBox5799 • Apr 30 '24

I want to teach GIS/ Cartography, create a community

Hey there!

I currently have a Masters in GIS and have a company focused on the cartography/ artwork/ graphic design side of map making. My heart has always been in wanting to teach. I don't really know who exactly the target audience would be- maybe those who have basic GIS skills but want to make better looking maps, I can hone in on how to create more cartographically appealing maps...but I don't think there are too many people looking to do this.

I also thought about focusing on having just basic GIS/ Cartography where I can teach and provide a lot of free resources. Like working on open source software like QGIS, etc. How to data mine for free data, using free design platforms like Canva. I'd love to teach and show people how they can create maps on their own without paying for a degree. Obviously I would need to charge a small fee for their membership- but being able to not have as much student loans like I do would be cool to help people.

Any ideas/ feedback- thanks!

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u/LindsayMarshCreative May 01 '24

As someone who is starting to make artistic maps, i’m on the side where I would like to learn more about how to use GIS so that i can put my own spin on things vs making better looking maps. I was trying to learn some of things on my own so i could create a base map that i use as a template for my designs, but i found myself getting lost a lot. I personally love the idea of resources that cross the line between art/design and STEM. That said, i don’t know the true audience level for this. I also personally don’t like paying for courses without some sort of authority in the resource. I made a mistake doing that once and felt so stupid that I wasted my money. BUT i would follow something like this on social media until it felt trusted enough for me to buy a course.

2

u/agilek May 01 '24

Start small. You can use your IG profile and start teaching there. Over time the community will grow around it.

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u/t0on Apr 30 '24

I follow Milos Makes Maps on YouTube (where he makes tutorials) and Linkedin and he seems to have built quite the community of students whose work he regularly features on his pages as well. You can "join" his YouTube channel which basically means to become a paid member in return for some perks (could be extra content/project files etc).

The difficulty with these kinds of things is that you usually need to build a community before people are likely to pay for it. I'd suggest scouring YouTube to find out what exists and what is missing, see what other creators are doing and what you could do better, and film a few videos that fill the gaps to see how they do. Apart from tutorials, I find that videos answering specific questions that many people run into often do well.

If you manage to build an audience, you could make a paid beginner's/intermediate/special interest course later on after you gained some experience making content. Also, I can kinda imagine a "design with me" edit of you making a map while explaining what you are doing and why could result in interesting content.