The search bar in the "getMapData" is buggy for some people, but if you manually zoom into your area of interest and set the extent, you should be able to proceed. The extent has to be a certain distance, not too small/big or it will ask you to resize. Also, I don't know how it would work if you don't have an Arcgis Online account (or if school licenses are different), as that is all I have known.
The shapes may not have CGA attached to them at import/load but it is easy to select a code from the ESRI library and apply it. Select your shapes first and use the "assign" in the inspector pane, or select your shapes and drag and drop the code directly onto them using a code from the navigator pane. You'll find some starting codes in the "rules" folders. Also, there are lots of free codes that you can find if you search through these forums.