Latest Contributions by Kylie

If you are reading this blog, you likely already understand the value maps have in your classroom. But do you have a colleague you'd also like to see using maps in their classroom? Perhaps a teacher you know is inspired by what you do, but is unfamiliar with maps and unsure where to start. Share the updated (and free) Use a map for classroom instruction Esri Academy class with them to jumpstart their comfort with digital maps in the classroom. The course helps teachers understand the value of digital maps in the classroom, get experience with using maps, develop strategies for incorporating a map into a lesson, and get comfortable discussing a map in their classroom. This week the course was updated and it now uses MapMaker to provide experience working with digital maps. Teachers now come away from the course knowing how to use maps and with familiarity with a collection of maps that are designed for K-12 audiences.  Who are you going to get started on their mapping journey? Keep in mind the course is not a course on MapMaker - the goal isn't teaching how to use the app. Instead, the course provides a footing for teachers who'd like to use digital maps with their students but are unsure how to start. ... View more

The June 2024 update to MapMaker brings improvements for working with sketches and sublayers. There are also better notifications if you've made changes you might want to save. And as we regularly update and add data, there are new maps and layers ready for your classroom. Read the whole update in the What's new doc. Sketches are now a layer Now when you sketch on a map, you can work with the layer of your sketches like you do your other layers. Change the transparency, swipe them, or turn their visibility on and off.  Try it out: Add some sketches and look at the Map layers. Work directly with layers in a group layer Sometimes you'll see one layer that has different types of features - like coral bleaching areas and stations. With the latest release, you can work with the areas and stations independently. Only want to swipe or turn off one? Go for it. Need to work with the data table? Now you can. Try it out: Open the Coral Bleaching Heat Stress map or Real-time Earthquakes map and you can now access the data table for the coral bleaching areas or the earthquakes. Don't lose work - better notifications remind you to save Not sure if you've saved your work? A dot on the Save button now helps you remember. There are also notifications if you close the app with unsaved changes. New and improved maps and data Check out some new maps - Climate Change Indicators and Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification System. And keep an eye out for some more maps that are coming soon, including Seafloor Crustal Age and Terrestrial Biodiversity. Fixed issues We've also fixed some reported issues, including the following: When signed in, you can now resave a previously saved map. When searching for maps and layers, subcategories with the same name now filter correctly. Saving screenshots and PDFs now works better. ... View more

At the SkillsUSA California competition, two teams of students using GIS in their projects took home gold. Gold in the California competition earned each of these teams a trip to the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference in Atlanta, Georgia later this month. ToxiGuard Pro The ToxiGuard Pro team, made up of one recent graduate and two rising seniors, took gold in the Career Pathway Showcase’s Industrial Engineering and Technology sector. They created ToxiGuard Pro – a web app for medical professionals that determines the potential contaminants to which a patient may have been exposed based on their past residences. Their app uses data from the EPA and CDC, combined with data collected through ArcGIS Survey123, and presents findings in ArcGIS Dashboards. See their project here: https://arcg.is/1y1K411   Brush Clearance The Brush Clearance team, made up of two rising seniors and one rising junior, took gold in the Career Pathway Showcase’s Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources category. They used GIS to prioritize brush clearance areas in Los Angeles County. Their project also included suggesting the best methods for brush clearance based on geographic factors. They worked with Los Angeles County for some of their datasets and found other datasets through online resources like USGS. They used ArcGIS Pro and multiple analysis tools, including calculate slope and surface parameters. See their project here: https://arcg.is/1ivq5v   Great work, and good luck! Both teams did some great work, and we wish them the best of luck at the SkillsUSA national competition! ... View more

A great way to get comfortable working with data, or to answer questions and solve problems with your class, is to collect and analyze your own data. Yet in the classroom, you run the risk of students submitting invalid data - either funny and inappropriate, or not aligned with the project's standards - that you don't want shared with the class. Ensure shared data is data you want your students seeing by reviewing it before it is visible to the class.  Spoiler: You'll find all the details and a working example in my "how-to" guide StoryMap, Reviewing student-collected data. Adding a review step is an involved process, requiring you to use a combination of data techniques and apps to create the survey, layers, maps, and apps. If you are comfortable working in ArcGIS Online, you've got this! Not only have I created a guide for you to follow to set up a review process for your own projects, it also includes a working example that you can try out to get familiar with the pieces you need to create. The workflow At a high-level, the guide will take you through trying and building the review workflow, which has three steps: Students collect data through a survey. The survey is configured to mark all data as submitted, using a review status attribute field that's hidden from the survey. Teachers and other designated individuals review the submitted data. They mark each entry as approved or rejected by updating the review status attribute. Students use the approved data to answer questions and solve problems. How and where they use it depends on what they need to do - you'll configure an app that meets their needs but is restricted to the approved data. Try it out and see how to set it up Ready to try it out yourself? Jump into the Reviewing student-collected data StoryMap where you can try out the working demo as well as learn how to set up a review process for your own data collection project. Questions? Leave a comment!   This is an update to the workflow shared in May 2022. While that review workflow still works, this has a few advantages: Using Survey123 to add a review status field saves you from editing the fields in the layer.  Using new Instant Apps simplifies what you need to create to support the review process.    ... View more

Last year Esri introduced a certification exam that’s appropriate for teachers and high school students with 150+ hours of training in GIS. To keep the exam current, it is regularly reviewed and updated. You’ll find a new version available with some key updates: Content updates to reflect changes in the software and a new exam offering number Some states will need to update their approved exam lists to account for the new exam number. Notice that the new version has a new URL – so update your references. Now offered through Pearson On-Vue! You can now choose to either take the exam at a test center, or through the online platform. A note about minors taking the exam If you have a minor you’d like to have sit for the exam, they need to have their guardian fill out the Minor Candidate Agreement form (see page 8 of the PDF). They also need to take it at a test center. Learn more about the exam on Esri Academy and see some tips on preparing for exam day. ... View more

The February 2024 update to MapMaker is all about improved access to maps! It’s easier to find the maps and layers you need, work with the contents of the open map, learn about maps, and find what you need in the help. And yes, of course we’ve added some new maps and layers that are ready for your classroom. More robust search for maps and layers When searching for maps and layers, MapMaker now searches the map or layer short and long description, along with the title. Learn about opening maps or adding layers. Enhanced map exploration More screen space—The map is the center of MapMaker. Now, when working with a table or elevation profile, the toolbar collapses to give the map more room. (If you need access to another tool, you can expand the toolbar with the icon on the left.) Learn about working with the table or elevation profile. Bookmarks in 3D—Bookmarked areas of interest, including both those that are part of the maps included in MapMaker and those in your own maps, are now available when working in 3D and not just in 2D.  Learn about using bookmarks. Keep your focus when adding layers—Adding a layer no longer changes the extent at which you are viewing the map. Go to your area of interest and add layers without losing your place. Better elevation profiles—Elevation profiles now include information about the elevation along the ocean floor. Improved experience for layers out of scale range—Some layers only appear on the map at certain scale ranges. Now, in Map layers, it is easier to work with those layers and zoom to where they'll appear.   Increased access to map descriptions Sometimes you are sent a map or have one open and don’t remember the details about it or its data. Now you can access the description of the open map through the info icon in the header.   Updated Help The Help site has an updated search. Need help using the table? You can now search for “draw on the map” and find the Skill builder you need.   New and improved maps and data, with supporting resources New maps include Marine Biodiversity, The Battle of Vicksburg, Elevation and Depth, and Roads, Trails, and Rails West.       Redlining was updated with additional cities and non-HOLC data. Note: Some of these maps have learning resources that support their use. Check out The Vicksburg Campaign, Rails and trails west, and The Ongoing Effects of Redlined Maps.   Fixed issues The toolbar no longer covers some long panels (ex: Legend, Map layers, Basemaps). Proportional symbols in the Legend panel aren't cut off anymore. The user experience on smaller screens has been cleaned up. ... View more

A familiar workflow is to access apps through the ArcGIS Online app launcher (opened via the Apps button - aka the waffle icon). Org admins can add other apps, websites, and documents into the app launcher. They don’t have to be Esri ones. And you can even control which apps appear for which users. All this in 3 steps: Create an application item page in ArcGIS Online. Share the item page with the users you want seeing it in their app launcher. Add your item page to the Approved apps in your org settings. Keep reading this blog for detailed instructions. > The waffle icon, app launcher, and my own app What can you add By being a little bit sneaky, you can add quite a variety of things into the app launcher. By defining your item as an "application," you can include many things, including: Web applications Websites Documents   How to add an item to the app launcher   Step 1: Create an application item page in ArcGIS Online   While you could be adding an application, a website, or a document, you need to make an application type item page to add it to the app launcher. > Clicks to start creating an item page In ArcGIS Online, click Content at the top of the site. Click My content. Click + New item. In the New item window, click Application. Even if it’s a document or a website, you have to choose “Application” if you want to add it to the app launcher. Choose Web mapping and enter the URL to the app, website, or document you want to add to the app launcher. Click Next. Provide info about the item you are adding and click Save to create your item page.   Step 2: Share the item page with the users you want seeing it in their app launcher   In the app launcher, users see only those items they can access. If you add something to the app launcher that User Frank can’t access, User Frank won’t see its icon in the app launcher. You use the ArcGIS Online sharing model to have different apps appear in the app launcher for different people. Share your item page with a group to limit it to the app launchers of people in that group. Share it with your org if you want everyone in the org to see it in their app launcher. > Share button In your item page, click Share. Specify the sharing settings so that the people you want to see your item in the app launcher have access to it. See Share items for details.   Step 3: Add your item page to the Approved apps in your org settings:   > Clicks to add your page into the app launcher As an org admin and in ArcGIS Online, click Organization at the top of the site. Click the Settings tab. Click Security on the left side of the page. Click Apps on the right side of the page to jump to the Apps section of the page. Under Approved apps, click Add approved app. Enter the URL to the item page you made in step 1 and select that app to add it. Make sure you use the link to the page you created and saved in step 1, not the “target” (app, website, or document) that your page points to. In the Add approved app window make sure the Show in app launcher toggle button is turned on. Provide a label for the app (it is the name that displays in the app launcher). Optionally provide an icon (48x48 pixels) or characters to display as the icon. Click Save to add the app to the app launcher. For more details on adding to the app launcher, see Manage apps in the app launcher. And there you go! Your users will now see the app, website, or document in their app launcher and can quickly access it. > My app in the app launcher Pro tip: Are your org members not seeing what you expect? Keep in mind that each member of your org can customize their own app launcher. They can change the order in which the apps display, and they can hide apps (in the “show more” section). So if they aren’t seeing apps you expect, make sure to check if they moved them to “show more.” Quick review So remember, create an application item page, share it with your desired users, and set that item page as an approved app. Your app launcher will become superpowered!   ... View more

You want to ask a question with multiple answers. In Survey123, you can use a multiple select question. However, the data it creates needs to be processed before it is used. This blog looks at the data and how to process it for use. We also look at the alternate option of using a single select grid question, which collects similar data without the processing requirement. Survey123 allows you to ask multiple select questions, where the person can choose any number of the answer choices. For example, think about questions where, when presented with a list of choices, the same person can have multiple choices that are correct. What subjects do you like? Which of these medicines are you allergic to? Which of these places have you visited? What kind of books do you like to read? However, in Survey123, multiple select questions record the answer as a string. Specifically, a comma-delimited string where each choice is listed and separated by a comma from the next choice. If you look at these anywhere other than Survey123, you’ll see either: Single answers as a short string For example, "Social_studies" Answers where multiple options were chosen as long, mashed up strings For example, "Science,Math,Social_studies,Other" Let’s say you like both English and Social Studies, and select those two answers. Your answer would be recorded as "English,Social_studies" or perhaps "Social_studies,English" – and yes, since we are looking at strings, those are different. This makes the data tough to use in a dashboard. Spoiler alert! You’ll need to do some processing on this data to use it as you likely expect to. (That’s what most of the blog is going to show you.) ________ Is there a way to avoid processing the data? Of course, you can just use the string answer as it is. But be aware that some answers you might consider the same will be used separately. You’ll get charts like this: Notice that "English,Social_studies" is considered a different answer than "Social_studies,English" – the order the choices are listed impacts if they are considered the same answer. A better way to avoid processing the data is to avoid multiple select questions – and in fact, I recommend that to people new to Survey123 and dashboards. Instead, ask about each subject separately. A recommendation for doing so is to use a single select grid. Ask your question, like "What subjects do you like?" and have a row for each subject in the grid. The reader does have to answer each row, but each answer is stored in its own field. _________ How do I process the data if I use a multiple select question? Once you have some confidence working with data and are prepared to process the data before using it, multiple select questions and dashboards can work together. You just need to put in a little extra work and think about how you want to use the data. Two common ways it is used it to answer questions like the following: Who gave the same set of answers (for example, picking A, B, and D, but not C or E)?   Who gave a particular answer at all (for example, did they pick A)?   There are a couple of ways to see the answer to either of these in a dashboard. The trick is doing some processing of the data, either with data expressions or by processing it when it’s submitted. Option 1: Process the data with data expressions ArcGIS Dashboards have a functionality called "data expressions" – these take data and process it through ArcGIS Arcade into a new dataset that can be used in the dashboard. Data expressions are useful for answering both questions A and B – who gave an answer at all, and who made the same set of choices. Caption: Snippet of the data expression code for looking at subjects Data expressions are an advanced technique – they are written in ArcGIS Arcade and require programming ability (or at least the ability to find an example and edit it). In addition, when using data expressions, you work with a FeatureSet in the Dashboard. Think of the feature set as a new set of data – it doesn’t know the full details of your original data. As such, you lose the connection to the exact datapoint on the map. You can see that, for example, 60% of people choose English and Social studies. But you can’t use that information to filter the map and see where those people are.   To use a data expression to parse a multiselect answer, see the data expression example Split comma separated values across multiple rows. Option 2: Process the data on submission and populate additional fields You can present the user with a multi-choice question, and then behind the scenes change what is stored to an attribute per answer. For example, you can alphabetize the choices in the string so that the same answer sets generate the same strings, or you can store the answer to each choice as a yes/no. There are a few ways you can edit your layer to have additional information also included in it: Using a notebook in ArcGIS (example notebook) Through a webhook that parses the data and updates the layer (using Microsoft Power Automate or Make.com) With calculations in the survey itself (requires Survey123 Connect; see “Controlling how user selections are stored in ArcGIS” in the blog Understanding Multiple-Choice Questions in Survey123 for ArcGIS) This results in growing the size of your database – for example, you might add a column for each choice in the multiselect to make it easier to see who picked which answers. Have 3 options? That’s 3 more columns. Have 12? That’s 12 more columns. And if you have multiple multiselect questions, you can see how this can quickly grow. (However, it will be the same number of columns you would have if you chose to use a single select grid instead of a multiple select question.) Unlike data expressions, since you keep the details of the answer tied to the same feature, you retain the connection between the feature and the answer. Since the processed answers are just part of the data, you can even symbolize on the added fields.   Example Here’s at an example survey and a dashboard of the data collected by the survey. Add your answers, see how the data change and what you can and can’t see and do with the raw data, data expressions, and processed data. Note: This is not an example demonstrating best practices for a dashboard. Instead, it is an example showing possibilities for working with this type of data. Want to see how we made the dashboard? Remember you can copy a dashboard and then modify your copy to see how it was configured.   ... View more