Can students use Districting Online?

[MartinSchmidt3]

In Learn ArcGIS, there's a lesson on Congressional districting, which happens to be about Maryland (my state) and even discusses using areas where some of my students live - so it is particularly relevant. Using this lesson involves the Redistricting Online app, and of course we would go for the 15-day trial (not $4500/year!) and do the lesson promptly. It says this lesson needs an Administrator or Publisher role, but even if I change a student account role to Publisher (even if only for the time of this lesson), I find the "Request free trial" choice is grayed out in the marketplace page, so no student would be able to sign up for their account. The free trial choice is available to me as an Administrator, but Publisher doesn't seem to work. Anyone able to make this lesson work?  Thanks.

My only other choice is to download the free Districting Extension for ArcMao and do this on desktop (I have used that extension before). I'd have to do that and see if any of the downloadable files for the lesson would work with the ArcMap extension.

[CharlieFitzpatrick]

Hi Martin, this is actually a complicated question. Esri does not want student personal data, consciously seeks to avoid it, and especially does not want to market to minors. Signing up for membership in the Learn Org provides access to all the tools for which there are Learn lessons, such as the Districting app ... but also requires Fname, Lname, and email, precisely so we can market to the participants. I have informed the Learn team that, until there is a prominent visible disclaimer on that site, I will tell people "MEMBERSHIP IN THE LEARN ORG IS FOR ADULTS ONLY ... PERIOD ... NO EXCEPTIONS." That means your best option is to work your way thru it and record a video. The Districting app is undergoing major revision now and the new version is not yet ready, so this is an older version. And we know that educators are interested in it, so, stay tuned.

[MartinSchmidt3]

Charlie -  Thanks for the answer to the question, we will find other things to do besides re-districting.  I think some (maybe even "many") lessons at learn.arcgis.com don't require a specific Learn.ArcGIS account, but will run with our generic student (names are like "Student Four", so doesn't have a specific student name) school Org accounts.  However, it if ever balks and says "must sign up for a Learn.ArcGIS (or Learn.org) account", we just won't do those or I'll make my own adaptation of it that runs without connecting to the learn.arcgis.com website..