About Digital Quest
Digital Quest is a Mississippi-based development- and training-oriented company enabling educational institutions to provide their students with skill-based training in the growing, vital field of geospatial technology.
The company’s varied product line is used by instructors in GIS-specific programs of study at the college, community college and high-school levels. Digital Quest products also are used to enhance non-GIS-specific programs of study such as environmental engineering, law enforcement, city planning, or forestry and many others.
We know GIS and geospatial technology, being that we’ve written many user-friendly courses and books on the subject. We deliver complete turn-key courses that instructors with little or no previous GIS knowledge can teach to students. We also provide entry-level GIS technician certification.
Our products prepare students for geospatial careers, or they round out a student’s education in another field, giving that student a greater edge when entering the workplace. Ninety percent of all geospatial jobs are part of other jobs.
Digital Quest products have trained a variety of professionals including city, local and state government employees, and many in private industry. The success stories are endless.
History
Digital Quest was established in 1999 as one of 12 members of the Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative, now known as the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology. Digital Quest has grown into a national force include over forty sales representatives and offices in Ridgeland, Miss.; at MsET’s Center of Excellence in Geospatial Technology at NASA’s John C. Stennis Center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; and in North Carolina and Texas.
Strategic partnerships with organizations including Mississippi Enterprise for Technology (MsET), Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), NASA and SkillsUSA ensure the excellence and uniqueness of the Digital Quest’s educational solutions. Digital Quest also runs the STARS Geo Apprenticeship Program through the U.S. Department of Labor.
Educational institutions, from middle school to post-secondary, use Digital Quest products. More than 300 geospatial technicians have been certified via Digital Quest’s rigorous STARS certification program.
Product Lines
Digital Quest has geospatial educational solutions for any educational institution. Digital Quest’s three course series are: 1) aGIS (a Geospatial Industry Series); 2) SPACE (Spatial Products And Community Exchange); and 3) STARS (Spatial Technology And Remote Sensing).
• Each aGIS book examines an entire industry/career cluster to show students how geospatial technology impacts and improves that industry/career cluster. All career clusters are drawn from "16 Career Clusters" developed by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. AGIS courses give detailed narratives about the relationship between a particular industry and geospatial technology. Guided lessons and scenarios give students hands-on experience with GIS Software. “Students can learn what they need to know to begin a career in a variety of industries,” says Hanebuth. “Professionals also will find this book useful in defining how best geospatial technologies can be used in their organization.” Books in the aGIS series include aGIS: Introduction to Geospatial Technologies, aGIS in Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources, and aGIS in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics.
• SPACE (Spatial Projects And Community Exchange) applies geospatial technology to real, local, community-based projects. Students find solutions to problems in their local community. SPACE can be taken in a conventional classroom, in the workplace or at home. “Students can apply their new geospatial skills in real-life situations producing real-life results,” explains Austin Smith, Digital Quest’s vice president of development and support. The SPACE series teaches GIS through the eyes of the businesses and government agencies that protect, and increase the efficiency of, citizens’ everyday lives. SPACE courses include GIS in Economic Development, GIS in Homeland Security and GIS in Law Enforcement. Students can 1) follow the East Mississippi Development Corporation as it uses GIS to efficiently develop industry; 2) experience how Homeland Security uses GIS to plan and ensure effective planning in natural and human-driven events that may effect U.S. security; or, 3) see how GIS is redefining how our law enforcement agencies track criminals, predict crime and manage agencies’ day-to-day workings.
• STARS (Spatial Technology And Remote Sensing) is a series of connected courses preparing students to take an industry-backed, entry-level GIS certification test—the first and only competency based, industry-backed, entry-level geospatial certification. The turn-key STARS program was developed in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship. STARS is offered in colleges/universities, community colleges, vocational-technical schools and some high schools. Four semesters of courses provide students with skills to be an entry level geospatial technician. STARS ends with a guided capstone project executed either in the field of agriculture, public health and safety, or business and marketing. Students seeking STARS certification must demonstrate an ability to apply skills and concepts learned in previous STARS courses, and they also must pass a rigorous exam.
All three geospatial series utilize ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop software, the leading software in the GIS industry.
With its large national support staff, the team at Digital Quest is committed to helping students, professors and businesses keep up with the rapidly developing fields of GIS and geospatial technology.
Our philosophy is to give both the teacher and the student everything they need to be successful.
Digital Quest also recently branched out into the field of aerospace, with plans to release a book on the subject in the near future. Topics to be covered in the book include: “Space Missions/Command and Control of Satellites,” “Space Missions/Exploration” and “Military Applications/Battlefield Management.”
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