Top 8 Tips for Educators Assigning Esri MOOCs to Students

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06-08-2022 02:16 PM
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KatieSmith
Esri Regular Contributor
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Educators from all over the world have assigned students to complete free Esri MOOCs (massive open online courses) as part of their coursework. Esri Training is extremely pleased to have students and educators join our MOOCs because we are committed to lifelong learning. 

If you are an educator considering assigning a MOOC for coursework, please review these best practices to ensure your students are successful and get the most out of the learning experience.  

Side note: you must be a fun educator if you incorporate creative learning experiences like MOOCs into your curriculum. Kudos to you. 🙂 

 

1. Complete the MOOC alongside your students. 

Learn alongside your students and embark on this unique learning journey together. If you’re registered for the MOOC and are actively completing sections, you can help your students if questions arise. If you’ve already taken the MOOC, you don’t necessarily need to sign up again; however, you’re welcome to join and see if any updates have occurred.  

 

2. Ensure students sign up before registration closes. 

Students register for each MOOC by signing into Esri Academy with their ArcGIS account credentials. Registration typically closes one to two weeks after a course opens, and we are unable to add students to the current offering after the registration cutoff date. 

When a student successfully registers, the course will appear on the student's My Schedule page. If a student registers after the course opens, they may start the course immediately, but there may be a delay of up to two business days for course ArcGIS (organizational) accounts to be set up. This account is created by Esri for attendees to use in the hands-on exercises. It has all the software and permissions needed to complete the exercises. 

We send an e-mail to registered students once the course is open, but we encourage all MOOC attendees to put course start and end dates in their personal calendars. 

 

3. Communicate to students that they are responsible for meeting course deadlines. 

Esri MOOCs run on a set schedule. Be sure to know that each MOOC has a firm close date on which course content must be completed to achieve a course certificate.  On MOOC opening day, ensure you and your students note the Dates to Remember posted inside the course and mark your calendars accordingly. 

 

4. Emphasize the need to understand course accounts. 

MOOC attendees will need to use an (Esri-enabled) ArcGIS account (which they may already have) to register for the course and sign into the course. If they don’t have one, it’s free and easy to create an ArcGIS public account here 

Additionally, Esri provides an ArcGIS Online organizational account for all students to use in hands-on exercises.  Learn more about the ArcGIS accounts here.  

 

5. Encourage students to help one another and their fellow online students. 

Make sure you and your students know where to go for help. When questions arise, the first place to look for answers is the course Help tab. It’s possible that your question has been asked before and it’s included in the Common Questions.  

If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, use the discussion forums. Each lesson has its own forum, so if an attendee has an issue with an exercise, they should go to that lesson's discussion forum, search or read through the posts to see if it's already been asked and/or answered. If not, they should post their question so an Esri staff person or another attendee will see it and assist. Also, encourage students to reply to posts made by other MOOC attendees if they know the answer. 

If you’re unable to sign into the course and have general MOOC or account questions, this Help page is handy because it’s accessible without logging in to the course. 

 

6. Know the requirements for a student to receive a certificate of completion. 

Students earn a certificate by “touching” all the course content and ensuring they receive a green check mark next to each section. It’s possible to touch all lessons without learning anything or completing a single hands-on exercise, so it’s important to be aware of this.   

To confirm that students complete specific exercises or learning objectives, you may want students to send a link to a finished map or provide a screenshot of an analysis.  

New content is released each Wednesday morning, so students must wait for the final section to be available to complete all coursework and earn their certificate. To help stay on track, we recommend attendees complete each lesson the week it releases, but we understand that sometimes things come up. As long as all lessons are completed by the time course access closes, a certificate will be awarded. Those certificates look mighty fine on a résumé or LinkedIn profile. 🙂 

 

7. Plan for student ArcGIS Online accounts, their content, and associated software licenses to “disappear” when the course is over. 

The temporary course ArcGIS accounts and any content saved in them are deleted after the course closes (the exact time and date is noted in the Dates to Remember pane on the Dashboard tab). Software licenses associated with the course accounts (ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, etc.) will also be deactivated at that time. 

If you or your students want to keep the maps, apps, and other products in their course ArcGIS accounts, this post discusses options for doing so. 

 

8. Point Students to the “Get Ready for an Excellent MOOC Experience" blog. 

This short blog is designed to help all MOOC attendees successfully complete the course and ensure they have the best possible learning experience.  

 

Bonus tip: Have fun! We hope you and your students enjoy building new skills and growing your GIS knowledge.  

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About the Author
Katie Smith was born in the beautiful state of Minnesota and now resides in sunny Southern California. She is on the Esri Training Team and desires to help people learn about the fascinating world of GIS.