Latest Contributions by Suzanne-Boden

How do organizations achieve the promise of GIS technology? A simple question, but one that may inspire a multitude of answers. From saving money by eliminating inefficient workflows to enabling smarter, data-driven decisions, the business benefits of GIS are huge—enormous when the technology is deployed at enterprise scale. While GIS apps have become much easier to use in recent years, a learning curve remains, especially for those with no previous exposure. This is to be expected since GIS provides numerous and powerful capabilities. One doesn't develop the skills and stamina to summit Mount Everest in a day, but the view is magnificent when you get there. (Don't take this metaphor to mean that producing impactful results from GIS requires years of training—it doesn't. It's just a metaphor.) A simple answer to the simple question is that achieving technology's promise requires skilled humans. And this explains why so many organizations using ArcGIS software have embraced Esri learning plans. The learning plan concept is simple too. For us, it started with listening to our customers to understand how they use our products (for what workflows? to support what business objectives?). Then drive collaboration between product and educational experts to define the skills and knowledge needed to efficiently perform those workflows. Build training content that provides context and guidance through the best practices to perform the workflows and produce valid results. Here's the really simple part. Take multiple pieces of content, in various formats, all related to the same focused topic, all contributing toward defined learning goals, group them into a learning plan, and make the plan easily available from the web. This is the essence of what we're doing in Esri Training, but there's more. Learning plans are a tool for individuals to build skills and advance their professional goals, and they are also a tool for organizations to build geospatial capabilities and manage workforce development. We've built tools that allow managers to create learning plans tailored to their specific workforce training needs, assign learning plans to one or many individuals (and set due dates if desired), track progress through learning plans, and easily see when learning plans are completed. Esri learning plans and the tools to manage them are completely free to anyone. Some plans may include instructor-led courses (which have a cost), but many contain only e-Learning options. All customers with a current maintenance subscription enjoy unlimited access to all e-Learning on the Training site. With hundreds of e-Learning options, all developed by Esri experts, this is an amazing benefit we want all customers to take advantage of. When organizations encourage a culture of learning and align GIS skills acquisition with GIS-enabled business objectives, technology delivers big time. Esri learning plans are here to help.   Want More on This Topic? Read Learning Plans 101 for details on how to create and manage Esri learning plans. ... View more

If your organization uses ArcGIS to support field operations, be sure to join our free live training seminar next week. ArcGIS QuickCapture is the newest app for rapid field data collection and dissemination. QuickCapture has a simple interface that makes it fast and easy to capture data from a moving vehicle (on the ground or in the air) —especially useful when decision makers need data quickly after a natural disaster or in remote locations with rough terrain.   Esri presenters Danielle Hopkins and Ismael Chivite will give an overview of app features and use cases, and show how to create and manage QuickCapture projects within an ArcGIS organization.   Three, one-hour sessions will be broadcast live, and each includes Q&A with the presenters. View more details and get a calendar reminder at the link below.   What: Get Started with ArcGIS QuickCapture When: Thursday, November 14, 2019 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. Pacific Where: Online at the Esri Training website ... View more

October 25 Update: The seminar was recorded and is available for viewing here.    Interested in AI, machine learning, or deep learning? If so, be sure to join our next free live training seminar on October 24. ArcGIS Deep Learning Tools for Imagery is a one-hour seminar that will take you through the latest capabilities and workflows to create an object-detection deep learning model and extract features from large imagery files. Esri presenters Vinay Viswambharan and David Yu will show an end-to-end workflow to create a land-cover map from imagery using ArcGIS Notebooks and ArcGIS API for Python.   Three sessions will be broadcast live, and each includes Q&A with the presenters. View more details and get a calendar reminder at the link below.   What: ArcGIS Deep Learning Tools for Imagery When: Thursday, October 24, 2019. 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. Pacific Where: Online at the Esri Training website ... View more

Up next in our live training seminar series is Engage Your Community with ArcGIS Hub. Join this one-hour seminar to learn how cities, nonprofits, and other organizations are using ArcGIS Hub to share data, engage stakeholders and the public, and tackle issues that matter. The presenters will show how to design a hub site, provide access to the site to community members, and share authoritative resources that support initiatives. Three sessions will be broadcast live, and each includes Q&A with the presenters.   What: Engage Your Community with ArcGIS Hub When: Thursday, September 26, 2019 Where: Online at the Esri Training website ... View more

Update on 3/23/2021: The next iteration of Going Places with Spatial Analysis begins September 22, 2021. Registration is open to anyone interested in lifelong learning, trying out ArcGIS Online analysis capabilities, or just interacting with thousands of other students from around the world. Join the course using the link below. Have fun and happy learning! ----------------------------------------------------------------------   This year's final offering of Esri's popular Going Places with Spatial Analysis free massive open online course (MOOC) starts next week. Over six weeks, attendees will explore fundamental spatial analysis concepts and get hands-on practice with spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS Online. The course includes video lectures, quizzes, polls, discussions, and step-by-step software exercises.   Each week's section takes about three hours to complete. All coursework happens online via the Esri Training website, and access to an ArcGIS Online organizational site is provided. Everyone who finishes all the course content by the course close date will receive an Esri certificate of completion.   If you want to grow your understanding of spatial analysis techniques and applications while getting to know the analytical capabilities in ArcGIS Online, the Going Places MOOC is a fun way to meet those goals.    Want to join the course? All you need to do is register at https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/57660f19bb54adb30c9454b0/going-places-with-spatial-analysis/.  ... View more