Hands on Activities to teach Location Analytics in Business Education

JosephKerski

The best way to learn location analytics is to actually do it -- that is, engage with it in a hands-on way.  The maps, infographics, dashboards, and story maps are captivating, and the problems that can be solved are relevant and timely. 

Faculty:  Feel free to use this assortment of hands-on activities in your courses and programs and give you confidence that you can use these tools in instruction. 

Students:  Use these activities to further your own learning, empowered with skills that you can take into your future  workplace. 

1. A Learn Path guiding you through a sequence of 12 videos, readings, case studies, and lessons, is here.
2. A set of videos on the ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App.
3. A set of additional lessons on railroads, supply chain management, and more, here: https://community.esri.com/t5/education-blog/location-analytics-for-business-education-list-of/ba-p/1220944  
4. Attached to this essay are hands-on activities about: (1) regional business patterns, (2) choosing the optimal location for a convenience store, (3)  choosing the optimal location for a dog kennel business, (4) analyzing art behavior in a city for placement of an Art-o-Mat machine, (5) crime patterns in a city, which might impact the business community, and other themes.  These activities have been used in a variety of schools of business, and focus on developing spatial thinking, critical thinking, and problem solving with GIS.  Along with each lesson is an answer key. 
5. For additional hands-on activities, including Learn Paths containing a sequenced set of lessons, including the above tools as well as ArcGIS Pro, see the Learn ArcGIS library of business-related lessons.

Drive times using Business Analyst Web - part of one of the attached lessons. 

 

 

crime_lincoln_ne_lesson.pdf

crime_lincoln_ne_lesson_answer_key.pdf

artomat_lesson.pdf

dog_boarding_service_siting.pdf

convenience_stores_bao_optimal_site_answer_key.pdf

convenience_stores_bao_optimal_site.pdf

convenience_stores_bao_regional_analysis.pdf

convenience_stores_bao_regional_analysis_answer_key.pdf

baw_and_community_analyst_overview.pdf

mshanaghan_1-1715108606419.png

mshanaghan_0-1715108358059.png

Screenshot 2024-05-07 145419.png

Screenshot 2024-05-07 145047.png

LeslieFountain_1-1617809918044.png

Scott_Harris_0-1715107002776.png

ArcGISMontor_DevSummit2024.png

JohnMuir_0-1715105864211.png

KenBouchard_0-1715104389878.png

James_Armstrong

Please count me as a mentor and collabortor in teaching, facilitating, and exposing GIS and Non GIS students  to  more industry-specific GIS application solutions; such as Business, SCM, Insurance, Health, transportation, government, etc.   It is one thing to learn how to split a polygon or geocode some address, and it seems to me that the real juice in GIS is understanding the how  and the purpose of using the vast number of geoprocessing tools.  Thanks for posting,  James