Latest Contributions by GeriMiller

PURPOSE OF BLOG Classic Esri Story Maps will be retired in Q1 2026.  Communication has been sent to ArcGIS Online Administrators via email (those who have opted to receive communication).  In addition, there are several resources regarding this retirement. The purpose of this blog is to help you understand what will change and to help you make a smooth transition from classic Esri Story Maps to ArcGIS Story Maps. WHAT THIS RETIREMENT MEANS After retirement, the classic Esri Story Maps templates will no longer be available, and the stories will not be viewable at their previous URLs.  While the content items (text, media, maps, app links, etc.) will remain in your subscription as ArcGIS Online items, classic Esri Story Maps stories will no longer be accessible via their previous arcgis.com URLs. ACTION TO TAKE Please transition to ArcGIS StoryMaps or other current-generation ArcGIS apps to continue leveraging the latest web mapping technology and storytelling capabilities. For guidance on transitioning from classic Esri Story Maps to ArcGIS StoryMaps, see the blog Managing the classic Esri Story Maps retirement in your organization . The blog provides helpful instructions, tools, best practices, and recommendations to ensure a smooth and successful migration process. It contains information on how to identify existing classic Esri Story Maps, and how to plan for archiving or re-creation. As a common workflow, if you are looking for a way to search only classic Esri Story Maps, please leverage this search which filters the results to only classic Esri Story Maps:   https://www.arcgis.com/home/search.html?restrict=false&sortField=relevance&sortOrder=desc&searchTerm=type%3A%22Web+Mapping+Application%22+AND+typekeywords%3A%22Story+Map%22+#content < > In terms of the conversion process, we recommend that you identify the stories that you would like to convert by searching for most views or recently edited stories. Then you can leverage the conversion tools with Python or recreate them manually, as described in the above blog resource. PLANNED CAPABILITIES IN UPCOMING RELEASES In the October 2025 release, customers will be able to set a “replacement item ID” for any app that’s being retired (classic Esri Story Maps, ArcGIS Configurable Apps). This will allow customers to specify the new ArcGIS StoryMap they would like users to be redirected to in the future. However, the actual redirect behavior - where accessing the old app automatically sends users to the new one - won’t take effect until the February 2026 release or later. Until then, customers will only be able to preview and test their replacement setup from the item details page, but no automatic redirect will occur within the retired app itself. This two-phase approach gives customers time to configure and verify their replacement IDs before redirects go live. WHERE TO GO FOR HELP Please also refer to the Classic Esri Story Maps Roadmap for Retirement blog. For any additional questions or to continue discussion, please refer to the ArcGIS Story Maps pages on Esri Community. There is a section there specifically on classic Esri Story Maps. In addition, please contact your Account Manager or highered@esri.com for any additional questions. Esri Professional Services could help with mass migrations.         ... View more

INTRODUCTION - PURPOSE OF BLOG GIS has changed from desktop to web-centric technology. It also has evolved as a system which encompasses a myriad of moving parts and pieces – it is not just about technology itself, but also how we implement, collaborate, integrate and work across various subsystems and frameworks. How is this system implemented today by various organizations? How do we envision GIS fits in organizations’ IT ecosystem? How do we align GIS programs with such industry needs? What are changes and approaches that we must acknowledge, take action on, upskill ourselves, incorporate in curriculum? How do we build and evolve to encourage innovation? GIS Programs (graduate and undergraduate) which perceive GIS as a System (rather than just technology/software implementation) will be most successful in fulfilling the goal of preparing students for the workforce, as well as attracting new students eager to learn relevant skills. When we think about workforce readiness, it is important to recognize and cultivate those skills and knowledge that learners need to be successful in the workplace. It includes both technical skills and soft (also referred to essential) skills, and the ability to adapt to new challenges. In addition, balancing theoretical and practical knowledge is key. This is a series of two blogs which define GIS as a SYSTEM, along with technical and soft skills that are important to learn for today’s GIS environment. Workforce Readiness - The Systems Approach - Technical Skills  Workforce Readiness - The Systems Approach – Soft Skills   GIS TODAY Modern GIS is a SYSTEM – in recent years there has been changes in underlining technical architecture and as well as changes in how organizations and people operate. Thousands of cities, agencies, nonprofits, and businesses depend on GIS. Moving the focus of GIS from the desktop to the web makes it mobile, automated, responsive, interconnected, cloud based, and configurable—these themes are an integral part of a modern GIS curriculum. This “system’s approach” is a holistic framework for connecting people, processes, and technology - to solve problems.  A "systems approach" to GIS means considering a Geographic Information System not just as a standalone mapping tool, but as an integrated part of a larger organizational system, encompassing data collection, storage, analysis, visualization, and distribution, ensuring seamless interaction with other relevant systems within the organization to support decision-making across different departments and levels.  A system is composed of capabilities, software, data, technology infrastructure, people, and workflows that fulfill specific business requirements.   INDUSTRY NEEDS - WORKFORCE READINESS Various organizations (private, public) view and implement GIS as a System. Why - the benefit of implementing GIS as a System are: Enhanced Decision Making: By integrating spatial data with other relevant information, users can make more informed decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of the situation.  Improved Efficiency: Streamlined workflows and data sharing across systems can reduce redundancy and improve operational efficiency.  Greater Visibility: Visualizing complex data relationships through GIS maps allows for better understanding of trends and patterns.  Better Success Rate: By adapting a holistic approach to integrate people with developing and maintaining GIS through change management and governance frameworks. Delivered Business Values: Through alignment of GIS with changing business needs. Workforce Readiness Therefore, if industry cares and perceives GIS as a system, it is logical to think that workforce skills should align. While that means that technical skills are required, it also means that soft (essential) skills and associated competencies are required as well - skills and competencies related to connecting people, processes, and capabilities. Skills and competencies related to understanding the problem at its core, collaborating, communicating, managing projects, adapting, leading, and so on. The curriculum and instruction of GIS education must keep pace and ensure such technical and soft skills are acquired and supplemented by real-world examples and project-based learning, to become competencies. Focusing on maintaining a balance of 'keeping up with technology' and equipping students with 'durable' (or 'transferable' or 'soft skills') that will help them succeed throughout their career, is important. In addition, the foundational concepts change more slowly than technology. Some foundational concepts have evolved, and new concepts have emerged.  If one understands the concepts, it is easier to adjust to changes in technology.     SOFT (ESSENTIAL) SKILLS Understanding of process and organizational structure, as well as mastering people skills are at least as important (if not more important), than the technical skills for developing a GIS system. And often what is lacking is the understanding of the people and process side of a systems approach to GIS thinking. The durable/soft skills are not unique to GIS; how do they get incorporated through courses?               If we think about GIS as a System which has the components above, it is logical to organize skills as part of these components. Some require technical skills, some lend themselves more to soft (essential) skills. What are the soft (essential) skills that should be conveyed? Technical skills (Capabilities, Technology Infrastructure, Software, Data) are addressed in this blog. Soft Skills to “Systems Approach” People - continuous refining and upskilling. Understanding Organizational Structure Understanding people and their roles and responsibilities in the organization.  Part of planning process for a GIS System – from request for funding approval, to hiring the right people to build the right team, to continuous evolvement of stakeholder responsibilities. Team Skills, Problem-Solving Skills Communication – communicating and interacting with stakeholders (project members, customers, senior leadership, other relevant stakeholders), managing expectations, and resolving conflicts. Teamwork – collaborate and support each other, seek and provide feedback to improve team performance. Problem solving – ability to find win-win solutions to challenges. Leadership – the ability to inspire and motivate others, set clear goals, and provide guidance and support, and making decisions and taking responsibility for your own action for the team's performance. Adaptability – ability to adjust to changing needs in the workplace.  Positive Attitude – having a positive attitude and being respectful.  Time Management – finite timescale. Workplace expectations – understanding what is expected of employees in a given role.  Active listening – being able to understand what others are saying without formulating your own response and judgement. Perspective taking – view situations from multiple perspectives with empathy.  Workflows Business process to secure organizational support Create a business case and request initial funding. Define geospatial strategy. Develop program charter with success metrics defined and secure full funding. Project management framework - understanding business problems to solve, defining scope of work, researching, before coming up with a solution. Project lifecycle typically involves five phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure.  Initiation: The beginning of the project, defining the project at a high level and obtaining authorization to start the project. Planning: Creating a detailed plan for the project, establishing the project's scope, setting objectives, and developing resources, schedules, budgets, and risk management plans. Execution: Carrying out the project plan by coordinating people and resources, managing stakeholder expectations, and ensuring that project deliverables are produced. Monitoring and control: Tracking, reviewing, and regulating the project's progress and making changes to the project scope, schedule, and costs to ensure that the project stays on track. Closure: Formally closing the project by ensuring that all project work is completed, accepted, approved, and releasing project resources, and documenting lessons learned. Change Management framework   Awareness: make sure everyone in the organization understands the need for change and what it entails. Desire: fostering a willingness to support and participate in the change by addressing individual motivations, helping them to see the benefits of the change for themselves and reducing resistance. Knowledge: providing the information and training needed to implement the change. Ability: developing the skills and behaviors necessary to implement the change by hands-on training, coaching, and practicing building competence. Reinforcement: ensuring that the changes are sustained over time by recognizing and rewarding success.  RESOURCES AND APPROACHES What resources and approaches are there to balance theoretical and practical knowledge? Web Courses - Systems Thinking/Architecture  The Systems Approach to ArcGIS: An Introduction web course The Systems Approach to ArcGIS: Architecture of ArcGIS web course The Systems Approach to ArcGIS: Architecture Pillars web course eBook Why you need a Geospatial Strategy Technical Paper  The Value of  Geospatial Strategy    Online Resource The Path to Geospatial Excellence Documentation Define and implement a geospatial strategy Book – Crosswell-Schulte The GIS Management Handbook, by Peter L. Croswell, PMP, GISP, CMS. Book – Esri Press  Getting to Know ArcGIS Enterprise   Project Management Institute (PMI) https://www.pmi.org/ PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide   The standard for program Management (Fifth Edition)    Prosci ADKAR model https://www.prosci.com/methodology/adkar The ADKAR Advantage: Your New Lens For Successful Change by Karen Ball, also on Amazon. Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers, Fifth edition by Roger Tomlinson Note, this is a dated resource, though its methodology is still applicable. Esri Press is in process of envisioning a Geospatial Strategy book, which could be a resource for the future. Ideas for assignments/practice that could be introduced in the classroom:   Develop a geospatial strategy Develop a proposal or business case for GIS implementation project Develop a comprehensive project plan Case studies on successes of GIS programs within various types of organizations Continuous Professional Development As instructors, or students who take the initiative to learn on their own - how do we keep up with all the above? As GIS is ever evolving, investing time in professional development is integral for Educators and life-long learners.  There are many different methods of learning that suit all needs. Check various learning approaches in this Professional Development: Are You on Top of Your Game blog.  Next Steps and Feedback Please leverage the resources above, in the classroom or for your own learning. Any feedback on what is valuable, or not, is appreciated! ... View more

INTRODUCTION - PURPOSE OF BLOG GIS has changed from desktop to web-centric technology. It also has evolved as a system which encompasses a myriad of moving parts and pieces – it is not just about technology itself, but also how we implement, collaborate, integrate and work across various subsystems and frameworks. How is this system implemented today by various organizations? How do we envision GIS fits in organizations’ IT ecosystem? How do we align GIS programs with such industry needs? What are changes and approaches that we must acknowledge, take action on, upskill ourselves, incorporate in curriculum? How do we build and evolve to encourage innovation? GIS Programs (graduate and undergraduate) which perceive GIS as a System (rather than just technology/software implementation) will be most successful in fulfilling the goal of preparing students for the workforce, as well as attracting new students eager to learn relevant skills. When we think about workforce readiness, it is important to recognize and cultivate those skills and knowledge that learners need to be successful in the workplace. It includes both technical skills and soft (also referred to essential) skills, and the ability to adapt to new challenges. In addition, balancing theoretical and practical knowledge is key. This is a series of two blogs which define GIS as a SYSTEM, along with technical and soft skills that are important to learn for today’s GIS environment. Workforce Readiness - The Systems Approach - Technical Skills  Workforce Readiness - The Systems Approach – Soft Skills   GIS TODAY Modern GIS is a SYSTEM – in recent years there has been changes in underlining technical architecture and as well as changes in how organizations and people operate. Thousands of cities, agencies, nonprofits, and businesses depend on GIS. Moving the focus of GIS from the desktop to the web makes it mobile, automated, responsive, interconnected, cloud based, and configurable—these themes are an integral part of a modern GIS curriculum. This “system’s approach” is a holistic framework for connecting people, processes, and technology - to solve problems.  A "systems approach" to GIS means considering a Geographic Information System not just as a standalone mapping tool, but as an integrated part of a larger organizational system, encompassing data collection, storage, analysis, visualization, and distribution, ensuring seamless interaction with other relevant systems within the organization to support decision-making across different departments and levels.  A system is composed of capabilities, software, data, technology infrastructure, people, and workflows that fulfill specific business requirements.   INDUSTRY NEEDS - WORKFORCE READINESS Various organizations (private, public) view and implement GIS as a System. Why - the benefit of implementing GIS as a System are: Enhanced Decision Making: By integrating spatial data with other relevant information, users can make more informed decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of the situation.  Improved Efficiency: Streamlined workflows and data sharing across systems can reduce redundancy and improve operational efficiency.  Greater Visibility: Visualizing complex data relationships through GIS maps allows for better understanding of trends and patterns.  Better Success Rate: By adapting a holistic approach to integrate people with developing and maintaining GIS through change management and governance frameworks. Delivered Business Values: Through alignment of GIS with changing business needs. Workforce Readiness Therefore, if industry cares and perceives GIS as a system, it is logical to think that workforce skills should align. While that means that technical skills are required, it also means that soft (essential) skills and associated competencies are required as well - skills and competencies related to connecting people, processes, and capabilities. Skills and competencies related to understanding the problem at its core, collaborating, communicating, managing projects, adapting, leading, and so on. The curriculum and instruction of GIS education must keep pace and ensure such technical and soft skills are acquired and supplemented by real-world examples and project-based learning, to become competencies. Focusing on maintaining a balance of 'keeping up with technology' and equipping students with 'durable' (or 'transferable' or 'soft skills') that will help them succeed throughout their career, is important. In addition, the foundational concepts change more slowly than technology. Some foundational concepts have evolved, and new concepts have emerged.  If one understands the concepts, it is easier to adjust to changes in technology.     TECHNICAL SKILLS If we think about GIS as a System which has the components above, it is logical to organize skills as part of these components. Some require technical skills, some lend themselves more to soft (essential) skills. What are the technical skills that need to be conveyed? Soft skills (People, Workflows) are addressed in this blog. Capabilities - these are typical GIS core functions which have been around for a while, but have evolved over time Data Management  Mapping and Cartography Spatial Analysis  Field Operations/Mobile Workflows Imagery/Remote Sensing   Sharing/Presenting  3D GIS Real Time Technology Infrastructure Enterprise GIS knowledge Cloud Systems On Premises Systems Hybrid Systems Designing a System and Systems Architecture with scalability, high availability and disaster recovery Enterprise application hosting and management with publishing/hosting of spatial data layers and non-spatial attributes Capacity Planning Networking, elasticity Integration and Interoperability Security and Compliance Software – technology itself Cloud Apps Desktop Server Mobile Database Developer Tools Support for the above technology, including: Collaboration and Workflow Automation Multi-user access Support for AI, Big Data and Cloud Computing Data Data Acquisition and Sources Data Management/Editing/Data Integration Data Quality Management Data Governance and Metadata Data Security and Privacy Database Management – relational databases, multiuser geodatabase, multiuser workflows, versioning, replication Integration with other business systems RESOURCES AND APPROACHES What resources and approaches are there to balance theoretical and practical knowledge? Below is a list of general resources which can help with introducing these technical skills. Web Courses - Systems Thinking/Architecture   The Systems Approach to ArcGIS: An Introduction web course The Systems Approach to ArcGIS: Architecture of ArcGIS web course The Systems Approach to ArcGIS: Architecture Pillars web course eBook Why you need a Geospatial Strategy Technical Paper   The Value of Geospatial Strategy    Online Resource The Path to Geospatial Excellence Documentation Define and implement a geospatial strategy Book – Esri Press  Getting to Know ArcGIS Enterprise   Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers, Fifth edition by Roger Tomlinson Note: This is a dated resource, though its methodology is still applicable. Esri Press is in process of envisioning a Geospatial Strategy book, which could be a resource for the future. Core Concepts and Capabilities Core Concepts of a Modern GIS Mapping & Cartography Spatial Analysis Sharing & Presenting Imagery (remote sensing) Mobile workflows Ideas for assignments/practice that could be introduced in the classroom:    Develop a geospatial strategy Develop a proposal or business case for GIS implementation project Develop a comprehensive project plan Case studies on successes of GIS programs within various types of organizations Continuous Professional Development As instructors, or students who take the initiative to learn on their own - how do we keep up with all the above? As GIS is ever evolving, investing time in professional development is integral for Educators and life-long learners.   There are many different methods of learning that suit all needs. Check various learning approaches in this Professional Development: Are You on Top of Your Game blog.   Next Steps and Feedback Please leverage the resources above, in the classroom or for your own learning. Any feedback on what is valuable, or not, is appreciated! ... View more

FOLLOW UP: - SLIDES AND RESOURCES ARE ATTACHED. - WEBINAR RECORDING IS HERE. You are invited to two events focused on ArcGIS Governance in Higher Education - ideal for license administrators, GIS administrators, and Enterprise IT Managers. EVENTS WEBINAR: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 | 10:00 AM–11:00 AM (PT) – 1 hour webinar, focused on ArcGIS Governance Best Practices. This webinar will present a high-level overview of best practices for governing ArcGIS and managing lifecycle of content, credit and users. Presenters: Peter Knoop, University of Michigan and Geri Miller, Esri. Registration is required, please register here.  WORKSHOP: Thursday, September 18, 2025 | 09:00 AM–1:00 PM (PT) – 4-hour workshop series, providing opportunity for additional details, including Q&A and discussion. Ideally, attendees will join the 1-hour webinar on September 17, then join the workshop for a deeper dive in these important topics. Presenters: Peter Knoop, University of Michigan and Geri Miller, Esri. There is no registration for the workshop, held via Zoom at 9am Pacific time on Thursday, September 18th.  WORKSHOP DETAILS Detailed description and times for the September 18th workshop series are below.  We welcome you to participate in all the workshop sessions. If you can join only at certain times, that is OK as well. -        Best Practices for Managing ArcGIS – providing access and support (9am – 9:50am) PT Implementing ArcGIS is part of a broad enterprise IT strategy for providing GIS at your institution. Learn core best practices for configuring and managing ArcGIS in higher education, including SAML logins, New Member defaults, Credit budgeting, taking ArcGIS Pro offline, among others. Support and collaboration models with stakeholders on campus will be discussed. -        ArcGIS Governance – Developing Policies and Managing Content (10am – 10:50am) PT The concept of governance - institution-wide standards and policies for managing resources - is instrumental to managing ArcGIS effectively. We'll discuss key ideas for developing governance policies for ArcGIS users and content and consider the lifecycle of users and their content and groups. Options for managing ArcGIS storage, such as increasing capacity or reducing content, and communication strategies for onboarding and offboarding users, will be covered. -        ArcGIS Governance – Managing Credits and Users (11am – 11: 50am) PT Discuss best practices for developing a governance strategy for ArcGIS at an institutional level, related to credits and users; as the number of users grows across an institution, so does the consumption of credits. Learn about strategies for managing credits proactively through allocations and monitoring, and redirection to alternative options for high credit consumption activities. Strategies will also be discussed for offboarding and deleting users, groups, and content. -        ArcGIS Governance - Monitoring Usage and system health (12noon – 12:50pm) PT Today, ArcGIS is a system composed of multiple software, data, and service components. As its use grows across an educational institution, it is important to monitor and understand use of the system to develop and implement effective governance policies. Learn how to monitor the health of ArcGIS, gather information for data-driven planning and maintenance, and support communication strategies empowering users to proactively manage their content ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Please review the following blogs/resources ahead of the events. Blog 1: Content and Storage Management Blog 2: Credit Management Blog 3: User Management and offboarding Blog 4: Monitoring Usage and Health-checking your ArcGIS organization Blog 5: Proactive Content Management by Users Let us know any questions. ... View more

Education Summit Workshops During the Esri Education Summit in July, 2025, we held a series of Governance Best Practices workshops: Managing ArcGIS in Higher Education: Providing Access and Support Providing access Funding, support and collaboration ArcGIS Governance – Developing Policies and Managing Content Upcoming changes, key concepts Content/Storage Management ArcGIS Governance – Managing Credits and Users Credit Management User Management ArcGIS Governance - Monitoring Usage and System Health Monitoring Usage and Health-checks Communication to stakeholders Goals for the series were: Discuss best practices for Managing ArcGIS in Higher Education Evolve Best Practices for managing Content/Storage Evolve Best Practices for managing Users  Evolve Best Practices for managing Credits Evolve Best Practices to implement ongoing governance tasks (monitoring usage, health checks, etc.)  Evolve Best Practices for proactive management of content (by users) Discuss support, collaboration and communication models Key Messages: Governance Goals Implement effective lifecycle management of content and users  Operate within the bounds of existing institutional policies Operate within the bounds of license allocations  Have the right data in the right place with right access Maintain security of users PI and data Maximize value of IT spending Considerations Credits are cost May have to consider alternative solutions – increase storage, buy credits  Storage is not unlimited, and it incurs costs May need to remove content and/or budget for alternative storage solutions Providing one's own infrastructure is not a free alternative for SaaS offering It comes with significant real-dollar costs as well Add-on licensing (StreetMap Premium, Premium Feature Data Store) is an option Will potentially reduce credit-based costs, but increase fixed-dollar costs Takeaways: Understand your usage Understand your storage and credit consumption. Implement periodic health-checks and monitoring. Institutional Policies Evaluate data governance practices and policies for other systems (e.g., Sharepoint, Google Drive, DropBox, LMS such as Canvas, Blackboard, etc.)  Align ArcGIS with these data retention policies. Collaboration Collaborate with IT and legal stakeholders to verify and implement relevant practices and policies for ArcGIS. Communication Formulate a communication plan for your ArcGIS users.    Have proper offboarding messages. Proactively encourage users to manage their content. Timing Start planning now, so you can make changes on your schedule. Do not wait until “crisis mode’ / last minute. Slides Slides from the workshops, elaborating on the messages above, are attached in PDF form. Additional Resources The series of blogs below could be used as additional resources. Blog 1: Content and Storage Management Blog 2: Credit Management Blog 3: User Management and offboarding Blog 4: Monitoring Usage and Health-checking your ArcGIS organization Blog 5: Proactive Content Management by Users For any additional questions, please provide feedback here, contact your Account Manager or highered@esri.com. ... View more

INTRODUCTION As ArcGIS Online usage grows across educational institutions, it is important to establish processes and procedures for managing content. Some of the management tasks will be performed by Administrators. However, users of ArcGIS should also be guided and encouraged to manage their own content. Users taking actions proactively, throughout their tenure at the institution, can help reduce the amount of storage and content that is accumulated in ArcGIS Online and can result in better curated data and apps. Creating such guidelines and communicating them with users consistently is a key piece of an institution’s data governance strategy. This is part of a broader message of governance in Education - setting institution-wide standards and policies that apply to how ArcGIS is administered. A governance plan for managing ArcGIS can help institutions plan for growth. The purpose of this blog is not to address everything that goes into a governance plan, rather, to focus specifically on actions users can take to proactively manage their own content – not only at graduation and departure, but throughout. It is part of 5 blog series: Blog 1: Content and Storage Management Blog 2: Credit Management Blog 3: User Management and offboarding Blog 4: Monitoring Usage and Health-checking your ArcGIS organization Blog 5: Proactive Content Management by Users PROACTIVE CONTENT MANAGEMENT BY USERS – UNDERSTANDING Understanding institutional approaches with similar technologies Consult your IT colleagues/centralized IT support within your institution to evaluate whether communication strategies or touch points exist to guide users on proactive content management with other institutional systems (e.g., Canvas, SharePoint, Google Drive, DropBox, etc.). Coordinated messaging and shared guidelines can help users deal with common needs across multiple institutional systems. Some ArcGIS specifics may need to be added to shared approaches, however,  leveraging your colleagues’ expertise makes a great starting point, can save time and effort overall, and equips users with more intuitive or transferrable knowledge. Emerging best practices and examples The idea is to do proactive content management throughout the span of students attending the university, or faculty/staff working there - not just upon graduation. Best practices for such policies, and proactively communicating them, are emerging. At the time of writing this blog, there are no consistent policies across educational institutions, and often there are not a lot of education or communication examples of guidance to users on what to do with their content while they work or study at the institution.  Even if there are policies, they vary significantly between institutions. Below are examples of different approaches:    University of Florida ArGIS Online Cleanup document for users – see attached PDF. Esri Netherlands Education Story Map Tips to Manage Items in ArcGIS Online (click for English translation) If interested in messaging specifically related to offboarding (and not throughout the span of attending/working at the university), examples are in the ArcGIS Governance in Education: User Management and Offboarding blog. PROACTIVE CONTENT MANAGEMENT BY USERS – BEST PRACTICES The sections below outline suggestions for best practices on proactive content management by users, as well as how to communicate such practices with users. Proactive Content Management Proactive planning and discussions (especially for research projects and content) Provide guidance to users early in the process in terms of options for managing and transferring content. In a scenario where a student works with ArcGIS on a project, and they graduate, it could be time consuming for Administrators or other project members to figure out what to do with the content. The account may have accumulated 100 items, and only several of them are needed, yet PI or other project members, along with Administrators, must figure out what is to be kept. Update metadata Provide guidance on proper metadata, including known tags to flag important content.   Delete ‘test’ or unwanted/unnecessary items Provide suggestions for data management in a system that has a finite amount of storage. A student or researcher doesn’t need to save v1-v4 of a dataset when they are testing things out. Ensure Recycle Bin is enabled to provide protection against mistaken deletions. Share Delete Items part of the ArcGIS Documentation, which has a check-list of “Before you delete” processes.   Dispose of groups, if not used Suggest that groups that have been created, yet are not used, are disposed of. Share Manage Groups documentation. Consider best place to store ‘large’ items in the long run User education and automated, proactive messaging are a great way to tackle use cases where there are individual "big" hosted feature layers and/or individual "big" users whose hosted feature layer use adds up. Additional suggestions are in the ArcGIS Governance in Education: Content and Storage Management blog. Consider timeline that items should persist in organization Even though this communication is meant to inform users of ArcGIS on what to do throughout their presence at the institution (not just upon graduation), proactively share timelines of how long content is kept in general. Communication  Once put in place, the above guidelines would need to be communicated with users.  Send periodic reminders with guidelines – at least once a semester. Empower users to perform these actions by themselves, yet provide information on where to go for help. Script Communication – collaborate with IT to potentially script the communication. Consider placing excerpts in course syllabi or assignments - especially with GIS-focused courses. This could be a learning opportunity to understand cloud/content management models, credits and costs - especially since once students are employed in GIS roles across various industries, they will need to understand these business models. In private or public sector, the availability of licenses and credits is much more restricted than in Education.  CONCLUSION – NEXT STEPS AND WHERE TO GO FOR HELP Invariably, there is complexity associated with the various options above. What is important is that good stewardship of resources is maintained. The most important takeaway from this blog is to start proactively communicating and guiding users of ArcGIS how and when to manage their content throughout their tenure at the institution.   Some of the solutions above will continue to evolve, and we’d like you to be part of this journey – a contributor with ideas, processes and workflows. Please share any comments and feedback here. If you have a workflow in place that has worked, we’d like to hear it. For any additional questions, please contact your Account Manager or highered@esri.com. ... View more

INTRODUCTION As ArcGIS usage grows across educational institutions, it is important to establish processes and procedures for monitoring this usage. There are multiple reasons for doing so, such as: Illustrating the impact of GIS on the university’s educational and research mission. Communicating the growing breadth and depth of GIS use to university stakeholders responsible for funding. Maintaining and supporting institutional systems, like ArcGIS has become. Planning for future needs. Preventing potential storage or other related issues down the road. Further, in addition to monitoring usage of ArcGIS, it is important to have procedures in place for health-checking your ArcGIS Online organization to support expansion or contraction planning, i.e. adding or removing storage, users, credits, etc., to ensure sustainable use. The notion of health-checking, which is periodically reviewing checklist of items as described below, is important to ensure optimal performance and uninterrupted service.  This is part of a broader message of governance in Education - setting institution-wide standards and policies that apply to how ArcGIS is administered. A governance plan for managing ArcGIS can help institutions plan for growth and use resources effectively. The purpose of this blog to focus specifically on monitoring usage and health-checking your ArcGIS Online organization periodically, and not to address everything that goes into a governance plan. It is part of 5 blog series: Blog 1: Content and Storage Management Blog 2: Credit Management Blog 3: User Management and offboarding Blog 4: Monitoring Usage and Health-checking your ArcGIS organization Blog 5: Proactive Content Management by Users MONITORING USAGE IN ARCGIS ONLINE – UNDERSTANDING Understanding how your institution handles other technologies Consult your IT colleagues/centralized IT support within your institution to evaluate whether existing monitoring practices for other systems (e.g., Sharepoint, Google Drive, DropBox, LMS such as Canvas, Blackboard, etc.) can be applied to ArcGIS.   Some modifications may be required but you can leverage your colleagues’ expertise to build a strong foundation, as well as leverage existing investments in institutional monitoring systems (e.g., Zabbix). Understanding how usage can be monitored One way to understand and monitor how ArcGIS Online is used is to glean information from the ArcGIS usage dashboards. They provide administrators with tools to monitor and analyze various aspects of their organization's usage, such as checking feature data store usage level, tracking credit consumption, app usage, member activities, etc. More information here. Examples of usage monitoring in Education Another way to understand usage is to leverage a customized dashboard which could provide much easier visualization of named users and apps, and – when integrated with other institutional systems of record – provide additional information on usage across majors, degree programs, affiliation, etc., which go beyond what the ArcGIS Online Usage Dashboards provide. Below are examples of how several institutions have implemented their own dashboards to show the growing impact of ArcGIS across their respective communities. University of Michigan (this is main User Dashboard, check additional Data Store, Credit and Item Dashboards below as examples) Data Store Dashboard (not all elements are publicly viewable) Credit Dashboard Item Dashboard UC Merced   UC Davis    Penn State University of Maryland The Claremont Colleges MONITORING USAGE AND HEALTHCHECKS – BEST PRACTICES The sections below outline options for monitoring usage and health-checking your organization. Monitoring Usage It is important to start collecting data now, or as soon as possible, to be able to develop a historical record that can help with predicting future growth trends. Refer to the following GIS for Everyone (...and how to build your own ArcGIS Dashboard to show it!) blog, which details how to build your own usage dashboard (similar to the University of Michigan dashboard and others above), including a Jupyter notebook that can be leveraged as a starting point. Alternative approach is shared here by Claremont Colleges.  Health-checking your ArcGIS Online organization Periodic checking of your ArcGIS Online organization is recommended to ensure optimal use of the system – recommendation is to do this once per semester or at least once per year.  Review Feature Data Store usage, regularly visit Organization dashboard (OrganizationàOverview page) Monitor storage usage and resource usage to anticipate the need to upgrade, or to take other actions, in order to sustain a reasonable user experience. Review storage, run Item report Refer to ArcGIS Governance in Education: Content and Storage Management blog Review credits, run Credit report Refer to ArcGIS Governance in Education: Credit Management blog Review named users, delete if necessary Refer to ArcGIS Governance in Education: User Management and offboarding blog Ensure your Administrator contacts are up to date  Refer to Know who holds the keys: Review your organization administrators blog Ensure you have more than one Administrator. It is important to have more than one administrator assigned to each subscription.  Esri has increased security within ArcGIS Online to meet FedRAMP certifications and as a result, Esri can no longer easily add new administrators on behalf of an institution.  For example, if your administrator leaves and if you do not have a backup, there is an involved process that will need to be followed to add an administrator.  This process will include a letter with C Level executive signature approving of the change.  This process could take time and resources to complete, resulting in significant delay in service interruption. Refer to the Write an ArcGIS Online Admin Change Letter of Authorization article for steps to follow if your administrator leaves and you have no way to get in touch with them. Review permissions for team members who manage ArcGIS Review your My Esri contacts for proper permissions. Make sure permissions are set correctly and they are current.   Verify Authorized Support Callers are still accurate. CONCLUSION – NEXT STEPS AND WHERE TO GO FOR HELP Invariably, there is complexity associated with the various options above. What is important is that good stewardship of resources is maintained. The most important takeaway from this blog is to start proactively monitoring usage of your organization and performing health-checks periodically. Some of the solutions above will continue to evolve, and we’d like you to be part of this journey – a contributor with ideas, processes and workflows. Please share any comments and feedback here. If you have a workflow in place that has worked, we’d like to hear it. For any additional questions, please contact your Account Manager or highered@esri.com. ... View more

Purpose of Blog AI has had profound impact on how we do our work. This blog aims at elaborating on how we get started with Teaching with AI Assistants in GIS – where do we incorporate in curriculum, what the resources are, as well as possible limitations. It is a series of 4 blogs: Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   Teaching/How do I get started Educational approaches and objectives vary – please review the resources listed within these blog series to get ideas of what could be applicable to you. Think about how to prioritize topics or infuse existing content with AI examples – you could be faced with a scenario of “too much content/what to give away” in a course, or better yet, consider how existing topics/concepts could enhanced/infused with AI Assistant approaches.   Think about prerequisites/foundational knowledge - it is very important for students to understand those foundational concepts before using AI Assistant tools. This is very much course-objective dependent, but consider prerequisites ahead of time, before modifying any materials. Should students have basic knowledge of GIS/Remote Sensing analytics and technologies (e.g. data visualization, overlay, visual interpretation)? Should students have Programming skills?  Should students have Statistics skills?  Items to keep in mind Ensure students understand limitations of using AI in learning - importance of developing a healthy critical view of data and outputs produced with AI tools.  Think about what kinds of analyses make sense to offload to a bot, and which will require a lot more human interaction? Should we be driving complex, subjective analysis using bots? Probably not.  In other words, think about what types of problems are appealing/could be solved with AI Assistants? Is it effective? There is a general concern by some of whether students are really learning with AI. Evaluate this for your own scenario/student learning. AI Assistants Technology/Options Note that the Esri AI Assistants leverage generative AI and large language models to help you with specific tasks, like search or mapping or survey design. And they are often embedded directly within the ArcGIS apps you’re already using. This allows us to focus on the experience of using assistants within ArcGIS to deliver concrete value. Please be aware that the AI Assistants in ArcGIS are all in different stages of development. Some are already available for ArcGIS Early Adopters. Others are in the early development phase. ArcGIS Assistants must be enabled in ArcGIS Online – this is an ArcGIS Online organization setting. For now, once enabled, the capability will apply to everyone – it cannot be granted to individual users in the ArcGIS Online Organization. For more information, check here. AI Assistant in ArcGIS Pro (Beta) – the most obvious place for us to leverage generative AI is through ArcGIS doc assistants. Over the years Esri has written detailed documentation about ArcGIS functionality and about foundational GIS concepts and best practices. ArcGIS doc assistants will give you a new, more effective way to explore this information through a chatbot-like experience. ArcGIS Doc assistant for ArcGIS Pro is currently available in Beta. A separate installation is required. More information here. AI Assistants in ArcGIS currently in beta - below are the various options. Join the Esri Early Adopter Program to learn more and provide feedback. ArcGIS Pro assistants (Beta) ArcGIS Survey123 assistants (Beta) ArcGIS Business Analyst assistant (Beta) ArcGIS Hub assistants (Beta) ArcGIS Instant Apps translation assistant (Beta) ArcGIS Arcade assistant (Beta) AI Assistants outside of Esri - easily accessed via a browser (such as ChatGPT). Many options are available, check your institutional policies to see if your institution has guidelines of use. Note: AI Assistants in ArcGIS are not supported in ArcGIS for Student Use, ArcGIS for Personal Use or ArcGIS Public accounts. Governance, Compliance, Ethics Check your institutional policies and resources as there is a lot of variation and guidance on using AI, which vary by institution. Check your institutional AI resources (if any exist) – some institutions offer the below. AI Guidance, Approved AI Tools, and AI Training AI project checklist to gather information about AI projects AI-related external workshops and webinar links AI Learning Community space to share, learn, and discuss teaching with AI lessons learned, challenges, and solutions. Provide action items and safeguards for students (example items below). Sample Syllabus disclaimers, outlining user responsibility, ethical use, data security and privacy, potential risks, support. Again, those vary institution by institution. IT Risks Assessment Processes (checklists, procedures) – also vary by institution. Department or institution level guidelines. Some institutions employ policies that everyone must undergo, or undergo if certain conditions are met, such as access to institutions systems, logins/authentication, physical hosting of data on institutional IT systems, etc.) Resources, where to go for help Feel free to refer to previous blogs in the series: Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   There are a lot of resources that can be used to get started. Please take a look at the below, and comment on what else could be helpful. Getting started AI + Location Intelligence AI in GIS – Promise, Progress, Possibilities Resources for unlocking the power of geospatial AI using ArcGIS   AI in GIS Education – Realm of Possibilities webinar recording  Higher Ed Guide to Esri E-Learning for GeoAI Pretrained Models on ArcGIS Living Atlas Learn Tutorials and Esri Academy (search for AI, GeoAI, AI Assistants, example tutorial series) Learn Tutorial Gallery Esri Academy Deep learning in ArcGIS (tutorial series) Documentation and sample packages Medium/GeoAI Pretrained deep learning packages Sample Notebooks Python module: arcgis.learn Deep Learning libraries installers for ArcGIS If you need to speak to a person, please reach out: United States Your Account Manager  highered@esri.com Outside United States Your Esri distributor ... View more

Purpose of Blog AI has had profound impact on how we do our work. This blog aims at elaborating on how we get started with Teaching with GeoAI in ArcGIS – where do we incorporate in curriculum, what the resources are, as well as possible limitations.   It is a series of 4 blogs: Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   How do I get started Educational approaches and objectives vary – please review the resources listed within these blog series to get ideas of what could be applicable to you. For those who favor books, there aren’t too many options on “AI with lessons/hands-on activities” currently. Esri Press is working on “GeoAI – Artificial Intelligence in GIS” book. Consider using pre-trained models available in Living Atlas and tutorials/courses from ArcGIS Tutorials team and Esri Academy – listed in the Resources section. Think about how to prioritize topics or infuse existing content with AI examples – you could be faced with a scenario of “too much content/what to give away” in a course, or better yet, consider how existing topics/concepts could be enhanced/infused with GeoAI approaches.   Think about prerequisites/foundational knowledge - it is very important for students to understand those foundational concepts before using GeoAI tools. This is very much course-objective dependent, but consider prerequisites ahead of time, before modifying any materials. Should students have basic knowledge of GIS/Remote Sensing analytics and technologies (e.g. data visualization, overlay, visual interpretation)? Should students have Programming skills?  Should students have Statistics skills? Items to keep in mind Use a smaller dataset as proof of concept – works better than complex models. There are several factors contributing to the successful use of pre-trained models. Firstly, the data used is crucial; it is best to use data that is similar in type, resolution, and location to achieve optimal results. Adhering to metadata and guidelines is also important. Be prepared for multiple tries - one pass may not give satisfactory result; it usually takes more than one try. Since one attempt may not suffice, improvements can be made through techniques such as retraining the model, using transfer learning or experimenting with other deep learning models, etc. Ensure students understand limitations of using AI in learning - importance of developing a healthy critical view of data and outputs produced with AI tools.  Governance, Compliance, Ethics Check your institutional policies and resources as there is a lot of variation and guidance on using AI, which vary by institution. Check your institutional AI resources (if any exist) – some institutions offer guidance such as the below. AI Guidance, Approved AI Tools, and AI Training AI project checklist to gather information about AI projects AI-related external workshops and webinar links AI Learning Community space to share, learn, and discuss teaching with AI lessons learned, challenges, and solutions. Provide action items and safeguards for students (example items below). Sample Syllabus disclaimers, outlining user responsibility, ethical use, data security and privacy, potential risks, support. Again, those vary institution by institution. IT Risks Assessment Processes (checklists, procedures) – also vary by institution. Department or institution level guidelines. Some institutions employ policies that everyone must undergo, or undergo if certain conditions are met, such as access to institutions systems, logins/authentication, physical hosting of data on institutional IT systems, etc.) Technology/Hardware For certain processes/workflows, consider necessary hardware requirements: GPU requirements should be considered If the above is the case, hardware access should be thought of before deploying in class (i.e. would students do work in computer labs, on their own computers, etc.) Additional libraries for performing deep learning in ArcGIS Pro need to be installed before using the tools. Resources, where to go for help Feel free to refer to previous blogs in the series: Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   Key points when thinking about the next steps: Do not be afraid – it is easy to get started, even in introductory courses. The tools are accessible, already within ArcGIS. Please take a look at the below resources, which could be helpful in the classroom, providing students with an easier learning experience. Feel free to comment on what else could be helpful.  Getting started AI + Location Intelligence AI in GIS – Promise, Progress, Possibilities Resources for unlocking the power of geospatial AI using ArcGIS   AI in GIS Education – Realm of Possibilities webinar recording Higher Ed Guide to Esri E-Learning for GeoAI  Pretrained Models on ArcGIS Living Atlas Learn Tutorials and Esri Academy (search for AI, GeoAI, AI Assistants, example tutorial series) Learn Tutorial Gallery Esri Academy Deep learning in ArcGIS (tutorial series) Documentation and sample packages Medium/GeoAI Pretrained deep learning packages Sample Notebooks Python module: arcgis.learn Deep Learning libraries installers for ArcGIS If you need to speak to a person, please reach out: United States Your Account Manager  highered@esri.com Outside United States Your Esri distributor ... 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Purpose of Blog AI has had a profound impact on how we do our work. This blog aims at elaborating on what can be done with AI in GIS, including Education examples, and where to go as next steps. It is a series of 4 blogs: Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   When we think about AI in GIS, there are two approaches, GeoAI and AI Assistants. Importantly, there is an underlining framework of data and technology knowledge that is necessary, before leveraging these capabilities: GeoAI – tools that automate processes and workflows, next steps to advance GIScience. AI Assistants/ Generative AI – creating better experiences when using GIS tools, boosting productivity, making people more productive at using GIS. Before you get started (framework/items to think about) Before delving into some of these AI approaches, options and tools, there are important considerations to think about and keep in mind – a framework upon which we can build. Having a clear problem to solve - the problems we are trying to solve should drive the analysis (and how we use these tools), not the other way around. Understanding what you are doing and why you are doing it (or what/why the AI is doing), is crucial. It is important to ensure that AI is the right choice to solve the problem. Understanding foundational concepts - to leverage GeoAI or AI assistants, it is very important to understand the relevant foundational concepts before using the tools. For example, to leverage the deep learning tools with Imagery, which can deliver great results - one still needs to understand the fundamentals of Remote Sensing: data resolution, electromagnetic spectrum, temporal frequency, simple statistical classifications, etc. - i.e. some of the needed basics, as well as understand deep learning model architectures, parameters to use, etc.  Knowing the data – one must know the data they are working with, to use the tools successfully. The concept of “garbage in-garbage out” applies heavily to AI. In addition, it is important to learn what kind of data that a particular AI tool you want to use can work on. Each of the AI tools and pre-trained models come with metadata, guides, and transparency cards. It is important to follow the guidelines and data types to ensure success. Having a good understanding of ArcGIS – once the foundational concepts are clear, one would use tools to solve a problem. Understanding the tools themselves, and how they work, is important. Always keeping accuracy and ethics in mind – AI can introduce inaccuracies and lead toward a wrong path. One needs to critically evaluate results and have a degree of confidence in the output. One needs to be able to analyze where and when the model didn’t work, or why it may be failing. GeoAI GeoAI  – we defined GeoAI as advancing the Science of GIS, with AI models, tools and techniques - to automate data extraction at scale and uncover valuable insights faster than ever. The first blog in our series highlighted several different examples of GeoAI, which were being used to perform predictive analytics or extract data. For example, in the past, it was a laborious effort to manually identify features in imagery, but GeoAI methods allow us to train deep learning models to extract these features. There are many such examples of improved workflows. Education patterns and examples – below are options of how GeoAI techniques can be leveraged.    Within a class (section/module/assignment) Entire course focused on AI Entire program on AI DIY (self learning, informal education) Education use cases – below are a handful of examples, there are many others: University of Pittsburgh – example of section/module/assignment using AI as part of an introductory course Leveraged deep learning frameworks to help teach modern GIS skills in introductory GIS course Used a simplified deep learning installer for ArcGIS, which streamlines user experience Inspired students to leverage learned techniques in other courses (Electives or Capstones), students hired by employers. Read story here. Johns Hopkins University – example of entire course, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Geospatial Technology”. Topics covered: Start, install setup and stop a virtual machine with GeoAI software components Manipulate spatial data and perform numerical operations using Python Visualize spatial data in various forms Perform spatial data clustering using multiple algorithms, such as k-means and DBSCAN Perform regression and classification on spatial data using multiple algorithms, such as GWR and XGBoost Perform spatial object recognition using neural network See sample Syllabi/Topics attached. University of Florida – example of entire certificate/program/department Certificate titled “Geographic Artificial Intelligence and Big Data” More details here. University of Buffalo – example of entire certificate/program/department Department titled “Department of AI and Society”. More details here. AI Assistants AI Assistants  – we defined AI assistants as tools which create more natural and intuitive experiences in ArcGIS, to empower GIS users and boost productivity. There are two options, broadly speaking: AI assistants (Esri) AI assistants (general, i.e. ChatGPT) Education patterns and examples – below are a handful of examples, there are many others. When it comes to AI assistants, the “art of asking meaningful questions” is a crucial concept to teach/discuss. Help with learning concepts (personalized learning assistant)   Get ideas (on projects, workflows, methods, presentations) Troubleshoot when stuck Verify results (of non-AI work) Education Examples: Columbia University Data Analysis course, encourages students to leverage ChatGPT if they don’t understand programming or data analysis concepts, AI can help learn in an easy-to-understand way. Johns Hopkins University Encouragement for any student to leverage AI for troubleshooting steps, or ideas for projects. Example of student with ADHD who is struggling with reading comprehension especially with long texts – using AI to help brainstorm and breakdown how theoretical concepts tie into material that is taught. AI generates 1–2-page brief on subject matter, then via conversation, it walks through understanding the concepts. Massachusetts Maritime Academy Use in Applied GIS course, part of Marine Science, Safety, and Environmental Protection (MSSEP) course offerings, where students get introduced to Python Purposefully unstructured approach - using AI to learn about different concepts. Encouragement to ask questions, help develop basic code, build scripts, check results, identify a task for their final project to use generative AI  Resources, where to go for help Please check the next blogs in the series, “Teaching with AI”. Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   There are a lot of resources that can be used to get started. Please take a look at the below, and comment on what else could be helpful. Getting started AI + Location Intelligence AI in GIS – Promise, Progress, Possibilities Resources for unlocking the power of geospatial AI using ArcGIS   AI in GIS Education – Realm of Possibilities webinar recording  Higher Ed Guide to Esri E-Learning for GeoAI Pretrained Models on ArcGIS Living Atlas Learn Tutorials and Esri Academy (search for AI, GeoAI, AI Assistants, example tutorial series) Learn Tutorial Gallery Esri Academy Deep learning in ArcGIS (tutorial series) Documentation and sample packages Medium/GeoAI Pretrained deep learning packages Sample Notebooks Python module: arcgis.learn Deep Learning libraries installers for ArcGIS If you need to speak to a person, please reach out: United States Your Account Manager  highered@esri.com Outside United States Your Esri distributor ... View more

Purpose of Blog AI has had a profound impact on how we do our work. This blog aims to explain why we want to use AI in GIS Education, and where to go as next steps. It is a series of 4 blogs: Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   What is possible with AI – customer examples outside of Education Before we dive into educational uses, it is always good to cross-check what industry, private or public sector are doing. Below are some examples of existing uses, which illustrate the point that this topic must be incorporated into curricula activities as these skills are needed for today and tomorrow’s workforce. Below are samples of common workflows, along with specific GIS customer examples. AI integrates with GIS workflows to solve problems, and ArcGIS makes it easy to implement AI capabilities, as they are already part of the system. It’s important to understand that AI is not a product, but a collection of capabilities that can be applied across ArcGIS.  Extracting and generating data Using pre-trained models to solve spatial problems Pixel classification and object detection with deep learning Automating and scaling creation and manipulation of spatial data from various sources Leveraging NLP (Natural Language Processing) to create spatial data from unstructured text Incorporating Deep Learning on imagery, video and point clouds to extract features, classify objects   Customer Examples: Finnish Forest Centre - improved data accuracy to prepare for automation, use of AI to conduct accurate forest inventories without field inspections, and ensure data is accurate and accessible, see story here. Fairfax County, VA – Using GeoAI to Detect Hemlock Trees, fight pest infestation, check story here. Escondido, CA – use of IoT for Park Planning, improving dashboard visualizations. Sample dashboard here. Analyzing data Interpreting geospatial data effectively to extract valuable insights Implementing pattern analysis/clustering Doing prediction and classification Performing time-series and forecasting Customer Examples: Cobb County, GA - used GeoAI to analyze multiple years of single vehicle fixed object crashes across the county and found that the highest contributing factors to those were slope and curvature. They can now focus transportation improvements in those areas to mitigate the risk. See video here. Douglas County, Nebraska - saved six months of staff time, to analyze identify ADA Curb Ramps using 1 inch resolution imagery, check story here. Turkcell, Turkey - expanding Telecommunications with Machine Learning. Results were displayed in a web application using ArcGIS Online, with a time slider that shows projected increases in Turkcell subscribers, check story here. Integrating with field workflows (mobile) Integration of AI techniques could be a powerful way to automate mobile field data collection.   Customer Examples: City of Tempe graffiti removal - city vehicles are fitted with cameras that capture imagery of possible graffiti and stream that to the cloud. The imagery is then run against object recognition models, and if graffiti is detected, staff are notified of current incidents via event messaging, check story here. City of Vilnius, Lithuania - employs drones and AI functions - AI models scan drone footage to note the condition of streets, walkways, and other public spaces. Movement data applied to the map gives Vilnius planners a way to analyze and change the city’s infrastructure, check story here. Why AI in GIS Education There are multiple reasons to use AI in Education. Enhanced productivity – AI enhances productivity. It is a system of understanding, and it can help us achieve faster results to solving a problem. It can advance our work in GIS and create a more intuitive experience along the way.  Prepare the next generation workforce with AI skills - students must learn AI as a decision-making or guiding tool, as AI is being leveraged in the workplace. And if organizations aren’t using AI yet, a student may get hired because of this knowledge, i.e. they would bring AI to improve organizational workflows. Inevitably AI will be used, understanding of limitations – no matter what we do or don’t do in the classroom, students will use AI. We should ensure students understand the benefits and limitations of AI tools, as well as understand that human brain is important for assessment of results. Balancing ethical standards is crucial. Get students excited, prepared for next steps – when AI is introduced early on, even in introductory courses, it provides students opportunity to leverage learned skills in other courses (Electives, Capstones, etc.). It gives students a wider range of knowledge of what can/cannot be done. Why ArcGIS For those teaching with ArcGIS, there are multiple reasons to leverage the tools within ArcGIS, especially as industry and government organizations are already using these tools. AI is already in ArcGIS – it is available and supported. ArcGIS is infused/enhanced with AI for main GIS functions - there are various options – GeoAI tools/workflows, and AI assistants, depending on educational objectives.  Esri provides pre-trained models and learning resources - designed around GIS workflows, it is easy to get started. Esri has strong guiding principles for Trusted AI in ArcGIS - resources on Trust website related to security, privacy, transparency, reliability, accountability. Esri has strong principles in supporting scientific community - integration of our tools with open AI platforms. Make science more approachable and accessible. Esri and the GIS education community provide support / best practices – via various event presentations and community spaces.   Resources, where to go for help Please check the next blog in the series, “What is possible with AI in GIS Education”. Why AI in GIS Education   What is possible with AI in GIS Education   Teaching with AI – GeoAI   Teaching with AI – AI Assistants   There are a lot of resources that can be used to get started. Please take a look at the below, and comment on what else could be helpful. Getting started AI + Location Intelligence AI in GIS – Promise, Progress, Possibilities Resources for unlocking the power of geospatial AI using ArcGIS   AI in GIS Education – Realm of Possibilities webinar recording   Higher Ed Guide to Esri E-Learning for GeoAI Pretrained Models on ArcGIS Living Atlas Learn Tutorials and Esri Academy (search for AI, GeoAI, AI Assistants, example tutorial series) Learn Tutorial Gallery Esri Academy Deep learning in ArcGIS (tutorial series) Documentation and sample packages Medium/GeoAI Pretrained deep learning packages Sample Notebooks Python module: arcgis.learn Deep Learning libraries installers for ArcGIS If you need to speak to a person, please reach out: United States Your Account Manager  highered@esri.com Outside United States Your Esri distributor   ... View more

With the advancement of GIS technology over the last several years, and overall shifts in IT industry, the focus has been on web-based licensing. This means named user licensing (i.e. using username/password) is only method to provide access across the suite of ArcGIS web, mobile, and desktop apps. Below are options and recommendation to help you deploy and manage ArcGIS at your institution, if you are a Departmental License customer.  BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING ARCGIS  Access – there are two options: Implementing SAML logins/Single Sign On, by invitation only, for managing user-based licenses (could be beneficial for Medium or Large Departmental licenses).  Advantages of SSO would be seamless access, and lesser likelihood of managing password resets/lost passwords/access issues. SAML logins will also ensure that when students graduate, they will no longer be able to access ArcGIS. Accounts will still have to be deleted manually, to free up space for the next class. Disadvantage is time spent upfront to setup for SAML logins. Manually creating arcgis-only user accounts. Disadvantage is that this must be repeated for every class/student/faculty who needs access to ArcGIS. Disadvantage is that passwords could be lost, and this would mean additional interaction to recover them/regain access. New Member Defaults - configure New Member Defaults to enable new users with needed licenses, set credit limitations, enable Esri Access for training courses and access to Esri Community. Licensing ArcGIS Pro in lab environments - if you are using ArcGIS Pro in lab environments, here is information on How do I license ArcGIS Pro in lab environments. Sharing of executables/installer files – if ArcGIS Pro or other executable/installer files are needed, best practices recommendations are in this blog. Delete users – follow the steps to delete members. Messaging for Students/Faculty whose accounts will be deleted or they will be leaving the university – check this blog for ideas on messaging for students/faculty whose named user account will be removed. OPTIONS FOR OBTAINING ADDITIONAL NAMED USERS   Below are options for obtaining additional named user licenses, if needed, beyond the 5, 50 or 100 named user allocation (for Small, Medium and Large departmental licenses).  Check to ensure your institution does not already have an Institution Agreement. If it does, you could leverage your institution’s main ArcGIS Online organization.   Upgrade to a next level departmental license – i.e. if you have a Medium 50-user license, upgrade to a Large 100-user license.  Purchase another departmental license – purchase an additional Small, Medium or Large license. Additional named users can be added to your existing ArcGIS Online organization. Upgrade to an Institution Agreement - provides a much larger named user base – this is the best option for serving many users who constantly change. Delete users (to free up space for next set of users). Caution: This could be a disadvantage for students as they cannot save/show their portfolio of projects. Please contact highered@esri.com with any questions. ... View more

INTRODUCTION To access ArcGIS, one needs an account or login – an identity - which is tied to a Named User in ArcGIS Online. Via this Named User model, ArcGIS users (also called members of the ArcGIS Online organization) get access to a suite of ArcGIS web, mobile, and desktop applications. As ArcGIS Online usage grows across educational institutions, an increasing number of Named User licenses is required. Since the number of Named Users is not unlimited, Education customers need to proactively manage their quota of named users. With the cyclical nature of incoming and graduating students, it is important to think about governance standards related to Named Users, including offboarding of graduating students. This is part of a broader message of governance in Education - setting institution-wide standards and policies that apply to how Named Users, and their associated content, are managed. Such a governance plan for managing ArcGIS is a key component in planning for institutional growth in GIS. The purpose of this blog is not to address everything that goes into a governance plan, rather, to focus specifically on Named Users, which ultimately encompasses considerations for content and groups. It is part of 5 blog series: Blog 1: Content and Storage Management Blog 2: Credit Management Blog 3: User Management and offboarding Blog 4: Monitoring Usage and Health-checking your ArcGIS organization Blog 5: Proactive Content Management by Users NAMED USERS IN ARCGIS ONLINE – UNDERSTANDING Understanding of named user model Named User licensing is based on a login or account associated with a user. Therefore, every member of the organization has their own login or identity. Various applications are accessed via this login. When a named user signs into an application, such as ArcGIS Pro, they are authenticated and authorized via ArcGIS Online and to access the application. ArcGIS Online has a flexible system for adding members to an ArcGIS Online organization. Organizations add members by inviting them to join or adding them directly - check documentation here. Given the constant addition of new members (students, faculty, staff), a recommended best practice is to use SAML logins  (previously known as enterprise logins), which leverage the institution's authoritative systems for authentication and authorization. Such integration with the institutional identity store, versus manually adding users, will save valuable time and effort. It is not possible to transfer named users between different ArcGIS Online organizations. It is possible to have named user accounts in multiple ArcGIS Online organizations. Named Users from one organization can be invited to Groups in a different Organization, which provides read only access. Understanding patterns of named users in Education For institutions with Education Institution Agreement, the license is meant to serve the entire campus community. Therefore, the potential user base includes your entire institution. In reality, not every student, faculty and staff use ArcGIS, rather, a fraction of the population does. In some instances, members are part of a “GIS-centric” community, such as GIS instructors, students in GIS courses, staff in GIS roles, etc., who use a wide variety of ArcGIS products. Increasingly, a much larger, “non-GIS-centric” community is leveraging web-based, simple ArcGIS tools for their work or studies. This includes all other disciplines outside of GIS/Geography. For the purpose of user management and ArcGIS administration, it is easier and simpler to treat the above groups equally, providing all of them with the same ArcGIS access and licensing. The nature of Education organizations is such that there is a constant influx of incoming students who are enrolling in GIS courses or using the technology in various disciplines (as part of course work or research projects). Ultimately these students graduate, so there is a constant cycle of onboarding/offboarding. Understanding how your institution handles other technologies Consult your IT colleagues/centralized IT support to determine if there are existing institutional data governance practices that need to be applied to ArcGIS Online. If not, then your IT colleagues can also be a resource for helping develop data governance practices for ArcGIS Online, based on existing institutional data governance practices for similar systems (e.g., Sharepoint, Google Drive, DropBox, LMS such as Canvas, Blackboard, etc.). Some modifications may be required but you can leverage your colleagues’ expertise to build a strong foundation. USER MANAGEMENT – BEST PRACTICES Our goal with the recommendations below is to help you understand when you need to act, and plan proactively. Being a good steward of resources and operating within the bounds of existing named user allocations is important for future management of ArcGIS resources. The sections below outline options for managing named users, including communication for offboarding.   Implement SAML logins As mentioned earlier, a highly recommended best practice for educational institutions is to set up SAML logins, which leverage your institution’s identity provider, and eliminate manual management of users/account creation. SAML logins also prevent unauthorized access when a student graduates or faculty/staff leave the institution. In other words, SAML logins help regulate access in an authoritative way, once students graduate - SAML configuration will only grant eligible users access. In conjunction with setting up SAML logins, a best practice is configuring New Member Defaults – enabling new users with everything they will need (licenses, Esri Access/training, etc.), which eliminates manual administration. When combined with SAML logins and its "Automatically" join option, the result is a fully automated process, often referred to as auto-provisioning, for providing access to ArcGIS to your entire campus community. Identify whether users are active or not While it is not easy to identify whether users are active or not, it is a good practice to do periodically. This is an out-of-band task, which falls beyond GUI tools process. You will have to collaborate with the IT team who maintains the system of record/identity provider at your institution. This will be easier if you already have implemented SAML accounts, and potentially harder if you don't. If given a list of SAML accounts or arcgis-only accounts in ArcGIS Online, current status can be checked against the system of record to determine which students are, or are not, authorized. In the case of arcgis-only accounts, depending on how your institutional systems are set up, it may be possible that in addition to collaborating with your IT colleagues, you’d have to check students' status with the Registrar's Office, and faculty/staff status with HR Office. Bottom line, most likely as an ArcGIS Online Administrator, you will have to share a list of ArcGIS Online accounts to your IT colleagues and get a list back of authorized/unauthorized users. With this information, you can assess the true usage statistics of ArcGIS Online (as part of monitoring practice), as well as work toward deleting users who are no longer active. Deleting users - example approaches to user management    Careful thought and consideration should be put in place before deleting users. Deleting users is a complex task, which cannot be reversed. It should involve considerations such as: 1) when is the right time to delete users and 2) what to do with user’s content and groups. When is the right time to delete users? There is no “one size fits all” answer. Organizational standards should be put in place. For example, identifying ineligible users who have not logged in for a period of time, such as 2 years, could be deleted. Depending on institutional policies or legal obligations for certain countries (such as GDPR), this time period, i.e. the decision of when to delete users, can differ between institutions.    What should an Administrator do with the user’s content and groups? If you are deleting a single member who owns content and groups, you must first transfer their content and groups to a different member or delete their content and groups. If you are bulk deleting members, you can either transfer or delete their content. You cannot transfer groups when bulk deleting members; their groups will be deleted. There are two approaches which can be taken to delete members. Using the ArcGIS Online tools (GUI) – while this approach could work, it does not scale and typically results in haphazard enforcement of retention guidelines and policies. See Delete Members section of the documentation. Scripting – below is an example scriptable workflow. This could be put in place annually, before the start of the academic year. Identify ineligible users who have not logged in recently Using a cutoff of 2 years (or as defined by your institutional policy) Delete any of their content that is not shared No one has accessed it in the last 2 years; therefore it is deemed safe to delete Check groups owned by user, and delete group if it has no content If user owns no content nor groups, delete them Un-share remaining users' shared content, capturing sharing settings in a tag This provides a grace period (for example, 1 year); this content will get deleted in step #2 upon the next iteration of the process. Here is an ArcGIS Online Notebook which can be used as an example: Demo User-Group-Content Lifecycle Management (credit: Peter Knoop, University of Michigan). After opening link, Sign in to your ArcGIS Online organization You must use an administrator account to run this notebook Use at your own risk, ensure that you are collaborating with IT stakeholders who are knowledgeable about policies and scripting procedures. Use of Service Accounts Instead of deleting content, to satisfy the requirement to delete a user, another option could be to transfer the content to another user. Many institutions have taken an approach of using Service Accounts – an account which can be used to ‘house’ content from multiple users. Typically, this is content which is still being used. In other words, institutions may choose to employ a workaround of moving content to a single account, so that it can continue to be hosted (hence being able to delete the original user who created the content). ArcGIS Online is a SaaS system, and accounts need to be tied to individuals - except for Service accounts. As general practice, Service Accounts can be used if the individuals managing it (typically ArcGIS Administrators) have their own named user accounts (i.e. the Service account is not their only account). Alumni According to the Esri Institution Agreement, an "Authorized User" means registered students, educators, and staff members of the Institution. For certain institutions, ‘registered students’ could also encompass alumni. As an organization, Esri is always supportive of the Education community, and allows for general interpretation of the above description. Therefore, it is up to the institution to decide if alumni could be considered an ‘authorized user”. The intent of the Institution Agreement is to provide access to students, and we recommend that institutions do not provide access to alumni but will let the institution decide the meaning of the definition above - depending on institutional practices.  Offboarding users There are several approaches to offboarding alumni and departing/retiring staff and faculty - depending on institutional preference: Delete content and user on the same timetable that determines when users lose access to similar institutional systems. Un-share content on the same timetable that determines when users lose access to similar institutional systems. Keep content for some predefined time period, for example one year, so there is time to restore content upon request (if needed), or transfer to another user, then delete it after that time period expires. Delete user after content is deleted. Keep content as-is for some time period, then un-share any shared content and wait an additional time period (restoring on request), then finally deleting content, and deleting user. Communication example/pattern when offboarding users Communicating clear guidelines and appropriate messaging with graduating students or departing staff/faculty is key. This communication must proactively remind users – before they leave – about their options for transferring content, and what happens to their content after they leave. It is important that you take the approach of empowering users to take care of themselves as much as possible. Below are general best practices: Proactively inform users of their responsibilities Post guidelines and policies publicly Send periodic reminder emails Use the ArcGIS Online internal messaging mechanisms during critical time periods (e.g., prior to graduation) - include an Information banner message and Access notice. Empower users to take care of themselves Advise users to dispose of their groups and content before they leave (i.e. change ownership to another eligible user in the organization, or transfer to a different organization). This means that all users should have a custom role with privileges that enable changing ownership of their content and groups (enabled via New member defaults). A user can request Esri's assistance in transferring their training history (i.e., Esri Academy) to an account in a different organization – check Managing Enterprisewide Access to Esri E-Learning. Enable Recycle Bin for your organization to provide some protection against mistaken deletion, as users clean their content. Scripting can help automate communications As described above under the "Identify whether users are active or not" section, it is possible to collaborate with your IT colleagues to identify a subset of users, groups, and/or content that meet a set of criteria for which you want to target a specific message. It is possible to collaborate with IT colleagues to script sending of emails, as an option. This again will be specific to your institution bulk email procedures and solutions. The attached "Sample Message for Users Leaving the University" template could be leveraged for communication and changed to your institutional preferences. Note that the links in the email referring to FAQ (Google Doc) are internal to University of Michigan, and will not work outside of the University of Michigan. Therefore, please leverage as a template and adjust to your institutional preferences and resources. (Credit: Peter Knoop, University of Michigan). Additional examples are: Northeastern University User Agreement and ArcGIS Longevity and Data Retention policies outline what happens with user's content and how to preserve and access it after graduation and departure. Clemson  University policies and options for for archiving, moving, transferring or deleting content for  graduating students or departing staff/faculty are shared here.  CONCLUSION – NEXT STEPS AND WHERE TO GO FOR HELP Invariably, there is complexity associated with the various options above. What is important is that good stewardship of resources is maintained. The most important takeaway from this blog is to enable SAML logins for your ArcGIS Online organization and to implement policies that apply to your institution in terms of managing/deleting members and what to do with associated content. In addition, proper offboarding messaging must be in place. Some of the solutions above will continue to evolve, and we’d like you to be part of this journey – a contributor with ideas, processes and workflows. Please share any comments and feedback here. If you have a workflow in place that has worked well, we’d like to hear about it. For any additional questions, please contact your Account Manager or highered@esri.com. ... View more

The Esri Innovation Program (EIP) is proud to announce the 2025 Student of Year nominations. EIP encourages students and educators to create innovative applications using ArcGIS technology - as part of research projects, course work, or skills development.   Every year, university members of EIP select one student to be their Student of the Year recipient. Benefits for the nominated students are cash prizes, certificates, and Esri Press book - awarded to those who are nominated as Students of the Year. This Story Map Collection highlights the 2025 projects – thank you to all the students for their inspirational work, and to their mentors for the support and encouragement. Out of all submissions, one student is selected as International Student of the Year and invited to attend the 2025 Esri Education Summit and/or 2025 Esri User Conference. This year, this special nomination goes to Christina Zorenboehmer, a student at University of Salzburg, Recipient of the University of Salzburg EIP Student of the Year nomination. Congratulations to Christina for her work on this Semantic Big EO Data/Sen2Cube.at project. Currently, many EO data cubes such as the semantic EO data cube  Sen2Cube.at (in-house development at the Department of Geoinformatics at Salzburg) operate as powerful, yet largely isolated systems. Due to the vast amounts of data storage, a heavy-duty, big-data optimized infrastructure is usually required. Christina developed a technologically ambitious solution, which allows any semantic inference in the Sen2Cube.at implementation for > 30 000 Sentinel-2 images anywhere in Austria for the last 10 years, visualizing the results directly in ArcGIS Pro. Thank you, Christina, for your wonderful work and creativity, and congratulations to all Students of the Year! ... View more