Slow loading maps in StoryMaps

DebN

I like to use StoryMaps in the classroom for teaching, however I have noticed that many students are having to wait ages for the maps to appear. The maps are simple ones (just a few layers) that I have generated and added to the StoryMaps - photos and other media come in straight away with no issues. It's getting to the point where the students are 'giving up' because it simply takes too long, and even when they do appear they vanish again during scrolling. There are approximately 20 students trying to access at the same time, which isn't a big demand. Does anyone have any advice how to get around this, please?  

oevans_storymaps

@DebN -- I'm sorry you and your class are experiencing performance issues with your maps.

We'll need more information to be able to help. There are thousands of other examples of maps in stories that are behaving as expected without these wait times, so there must be something about the maps or environment that you are using that is causing the issue. Even a map that appears simple can be slow if the layers are complex or not designed properly or if one of the layers is coming from a slow map server.

Are the maps also slow to load if they are opened in the ArcGIS map viewer or are they only slow when viewing them in the StoryMap? Answering that question will help us understand whether this is an issue with the map itself or with the StoryMap.

Are there any conditions where the maps are working well? Perhaps on specific networks or when not connected to the campus network or VPN?

Could you share a link to some of the maps that are slow to load so we can look into this?