Latest Contributions by GeriMiller

Over the past years, we have been encouraging customers to adopt a Modern GIS pattern, which includes ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro and Apps. By definition, Modern GIS uses named user licensing to provide access across the suite of ArcGIS web, mobile, and desktop apps. We have been recommending ArcGIS Online as a licensing portal, leveraging Single Sign On/SAML logins as the most efficient way to provide access to ArcGIS both in lab environments and on students’ personal devices. With the upcoming removal of Single Use/Concurrent Use licenses for ArcGIS Pro from the Education programs, ArcGIS named user will be the only method to license ArcGIS in the future. Hence, it is crucial that organizations implement SAML logins for efficient access to all ArcGIS apps, including ArcGIS Pro. Some of you have asked how to deploy ArcGIS Pro in a lab environment with shared computers. A common concern is that students may forget to log out, and/or one student may get unauthorized access to another student’s work. Fortunately, many institutions have successfully deployed ArcGIS Pro in lab environments where licenses are managed with ArcGIS named user accounts rather than concurrent use licenses. User-based licensing has become a common industry standard in academia, used by many vendors, including in labs. This approach saves time and costs, since no license server needs to be maintained. Please collaborate with your IT/lab managers to enable proper settings for logging out (to alleviate concerns of students continuing to be logged in to ArcGIS Pro for extended period, or sharing logins, or accessing data). Below are some considerations as you collaborate with your IT colleagues in this process. These settings are common in lab environments and are not specific to ArcGIS: Avoid a setup where students use a common username and password to log into Windows rather than use individual credentials. In general, using shared credentials violates most universities’ information privacy policies. In other words, users of the computer lab must log into the Windows computers with their own individual credentials, versus using a single, shared username and password. If shared credentials are used, indeed one student could accidentally access another student's GIS work, as the ArcGIS Pro login information is cached inside a Windows account that more than one person can use. Hence, the recommendation is to avoid shared accounts. If that’s not possible, implement controls (Windows, not ArcGIS) to prevent retention of user-specific information across login sessions. Setup proper log off timeout in case students forget to logoff themselves – your IT/lab manager likely already has a preferred timeout setting in place.   Encourage students to log off when done working in the lab – this will ensure no one can access their work in ArcGIS Pro or other applications. “Sign in automatically” is enabled by default and the recommendation is to keep it that way. As long as individual Windows logins are used (versus shared logins), there is no concern of sharing ArcGIS Pro sessions and accessing someone else’s data or content.   The following question was asked of institutions who have implemented named user licenses in lab environments successfully. Question: Do you use named user licensing in your lab, and if so, have you encountered issues if students do not log out? Answers:   “Yes, we use named user licensing. We have never run into an issue where a student’s license gets locked to a lab PC. The lab I manager has group policies in place that wipe some data from the PCs every night that resets the ArcGIS Pro instance to an unlicensed default.”  -- Campus License Administrator and GIS Lab Manager, Tier 1 Research Institution.  “We don’t have Pro installed in a lab in the GIS Department anymore since we are online (and students use their own computers). There are a few seats installed in computer labs – we use the named user approach. All our machines get wiped each night so even if they are signed in, the policy wipes that out because each product reverts to its original state.”  -- Geography/GIS Professor and Campus License Administrator, Nationally Recognized Community College   Further feedback is welcome! ... View more

The Esri Innovation Program (EIP) is proud to announce the 2023 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. A benefit for the nominated student is a cash prize, certificate, and Esri Press book awarded to those who are nominated as Students of the Year. This Story Map Collection highlights the 2023 projects - thanks to all students for the wonderful work, and to their mentors for the support and encouragement. Out of the pool of all submissions, one student is selected as International Student of the Year and invited to attend the 2023 Education Summit and 2023 Esri User Conference. We are very excited to announce this year’s winner, Luke Zaruba, Recipient of the University of Minnesota EIP Student of the Year nomination. Thank you, Luke, for your wonderful work and creativity! Congratulations to all Students of the Year! ... View more

*Updated February, 2024 There has been a change in product direction for ArcGIS Desktop - the date on which ArcGIS Desktop delivery will end for all existing customers, has been changed from March 1 to July 1 2024. The product lifecycle remains unchanged - ArcGIS Desktop enters Mature Support phase on March 1. Education Colleagues: For a few years now , we have encouraged the GIS Education Community to teach Modern GIS workflows, adopting a cloud-first approach and moving away from ArcMap in curriculum and research. Modern GIS skills (requirements gathering, application configuration, data as services, automation and scripting, cloud infrastructure and architecture)  are crucial in today’s environment. We’ve worked hard to provide supporting resources and guidance on transitioning from teaching only ArcMap to teaching the entire ArcGIS system to help the community prepare for the retirement of ArcMap. In addition, Modern GIS uses named user licensing to provide access across the suite of ArcGIS web, mobile, and desktop apps. We have been recommending ArcGIS Online as a licensing portal, leveraging Single Sign On/SAML logins as the most efficient way to provide access to ArcGIS both in lab environments and on students’ personal devices. Moving forward, ArcGIS named user will be the only method to license ArcGIS Pro and other ArcGIS applications in the future. We want to share a timeline, along with answers to some frequently asked questions, on what to expect with the retirement of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use).  TIMELINE In 2022-2023, depending on your customers’ license renewal date, the quantity of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use) licenses delivered by default with an Education Institution Agreement decreased from 5,000 to 250. Additional licenses may be requested for specific needs. In 2024, ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use) will be removed from the Education Program. ArcGIS Desktop enters the Mature Support phase of the product lifecycle on March 1, 2024. ArcGIS Desktop will no longer be delivered in Education Institution Agreements or Education Department Licenses as of July 1, 2024. Notes: Changes to the quantity of ArcGIS Desktop licenses delivered are made at renewal. License quantities will not change in the middle of your license term.      To emphasize, ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use licenses will NOT be included in future terms of your Esri Education Program license for renewals after March 1 2024 July 1, 2024. ArcGIS Pro WILL continue to be included and enabled via named user licensing.  Customers whose licenses renew between March 1 and June 30 2024 will receive 250 license of ArcGIS Desktop for the next term. RESOURCES There are many resources to help guide you through this journey, between ArcGIS tutorials, Esri Academy courses, and Esri Press books, among others. In addition, we have hosted, and will continue to do, several workshops and discussions to share best practices and address your questions.  Below are links to some of these resources. Please use them as stepping stones and/or supplements for your curriculum and research activities. ArcGIS tutorials, specifically this Modern GIS tutorial series Esri Academy, specifically the guide to Modern GIS e-learning Esri Press books Modern GIS Blog Modern GIS User Stories Access to other Esri subject matter experts (in USA, please reach out to your Account Manager, Outside USA please reach out to your distributor). COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT MANAGING ARCGIS LICENSES Q: What about ArcGIS Pro licenses? A: The quantity of named user licenses (GIS Professional user type) did not change. As before, the recommended method for licensing ArcGIS Pro is via a named user. The quantity of ArcGIS Pro single use/concurrent use licenses delivered did change starting in 2022-2023; it was reduced to 250. If ArcGIS Online (or ArcGIS Enterprise) cannot be used as a licensing portal for GIS Professional user types, additional quantities of ArcGIS Pro single use licenses could be requested, as needed. However, after March 1, depending on your renewal date, 2024 the GIS Professional User Type will be the only method of licensing ArcGIS Pro. Q: How do I license ArcGIS Pro in lab environments? A: As stated already, we encourage customers to adopt a Modern GIS pattern, which includes ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online and Apps. By definition, Modern GIS requires named user licensing and we have been recommending ArcGIS Online as a licensing portal, particularly leveraging Single Sign On (SSO) as the most efficient way to provide access. We discourage use of concurrent use licenses in labs, and many institutions successfully use ArcGIS Pro in lab environments using the named user model. This eliminates the need to run  a license server. Please work with your IT/lab managers to enable proper settings for logging out (to alleviate concerns of students continuing to be logged in to ArcGIS Pro for extended period of time). Q: Distributing ArcMap licenses was easy. We serve a large body of students, faculty and staff, how do I manage access for everyone with this newer model? A: As ArcGIS has grown beyond a single desktop application, the way we manage access and licenses has changed. Please follow these recommendations on Managing ArcGIS, if you do not already. Using SSO and New Member defaults are the most important approaches to minimize time managing access to ArcGIS.  In addition, it is important to have good communication about software distribution and options for using ArcGIS Pro on Apple devices. Q: How do I notify all my stakeholders (students, faculty, staff) of these changes, or any changes? A: This is an institution-dependent question. We recommend a combination of “push” and “pull” communication such as email (push) and notification on a website (pull).  The blog ArcGIS access website for your institution  describes how to create a website that enables self-service access to ArcGIS software and support. Please ensure your institution has such a website, and the website clearly describes how to access ArcGIS software, support and learning resources at your institution.   ... View more

Education Colleagues: As you know, My Esri is an invaluable one-stop destination for generating licenses, downloading installation files, requesting technical support, and accessing many Esri products and services.   You have likely already seen/experienced the new My Esri look, which is now the default version that you see when you login, versus the default Classic My Esri view. This new My Esri version became the default in December 1, 2022. Some of the enhancements of this My Esri Update are: Decreased number of selection tiers, simplifying the ability to find items Streamlined access to licensing information More intuitive Downloads options, making it easier to find products/executables to download Better connection to ArcGIS Online organizations (option to pick from available ones) Many others If you are still leveraging the Classic view, we encourage you to experiment with the New Overview page, and all the underlining links. The naming convention for Academic versus Administrative licenses (i.e., specifying/having a designation of which ones are Academic and which are Administrative) is not implemented yet - we are hopeful to have this done in the near future. Please take a look at this New My Esri Experience is Live! blog, documenting some of the changes. Please also feel free to subscribe to the My Esri Blog on Esri Community, in order to receive timely updates about My Esri. Your feedback as always is greatly appreciated.   ... View more

One of the more common questions we get from students, faculty and staff is how to get access to ArcGIS at their institution – questions such as the below: I am a faculty at X university and would like to introduce ArcGIS – how do I get access? I am a student and I’d like to use ArcGIS for my class/project – how do I get it at my institution? We would like to be able to point them to an authoritative website to get started with.  A while back we started a project to compile authoritative ArcGIS access websites for all institutions with institution agreements, which could serve as a self-service resource for such inquiries. The process for compiling this information was time-consuming and prone to error. It resulted in this Does My University Have ArcGIS application, which is heavily utilized, but we could use help providing accurate information for your institution.   That said, our ask is – could you please help us update this application with the most appropriate ArcGIS access website for your campus? This will help everyone by minimizing inquiries, and ensuring students, faculty and staff have the most updated information. To do so, please visit this Update the ArcGIS access website for your institution application, identify your university, and check if a website is listed. If a website is listed, please ensure it is correct. If a website is not listed, or if the wrong website is listed, please update the “ArcGIS Access Website” URL. Note: The main application Does My University Have ArcGIS will not get updated immediately. Furthermore, we’ve discussed the importance of having a good ArcGIS access website for your institution, which could save significant time and resources, as it enables self-service and minimizes the number of inquiries to you. We have seen a range of websites designed to provide this information. Please refer to the blog above with recommendations of main items to include in a website, such as techology available, services/support and learning resources, along with examplary websites to provide ideas on how to improve your existing website.   ... View more

The Esri Innovation Program (EIP) is proud to announce the 2022 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. A benefit for the nominated student is a cash prize, certificate, and Esri Press book awarded to those who are nominated as Students of the Year. This Story Map Collection highlights the 2022 projects - thanks to all students for the wonderful work, and to their mentors for the support and encouragement. Out of the pool of all submissions, one student is selected as International Student of the Year and invited to attend the 2022 Education Summit and 2022 Esri User Conference. During last couple of years as the conference was held virtually, we didn’t have the opportunity to award this special benefit. We are very excited to do so this year, and to extend this invite to Yichen Yang, Recipient of Yale University’s EIP Student of the Year. Thank you, Yichen, for your creativity! Congratulations to all Students of the Year! ... View more

There are multiple ways of how we communicate with one another and work together as a community. Yes, virtual and in-person meetings and events continue to be integral part of this collaboration. Email blasts and newsletters continue to be a preferred method as well. Another strong, yet underutilized, method to communicate information and collaborate, is the Esri Community, particularly our Education Community and Education Blog.    As an Education team at Esri, we do share a lot of information about education program changes, product updates, educational resources, events, and many other education-related matters via this blog. We strongly encourage discussions via this community also – you can contribute. If you are wondering questions such as “What was updated in the most recent release of ArcGIS Online”, or “What Educational Resources are available for Climate Action”, “How are colleague transitioning to Modern GIS practices in teaching”, or “Sunsetting ArcMap: What to Expect in the Education Programs”, you can find this information on the Education blog, and comment/ask additional questions. Please do subscribe to this Education blog, which will ensure you get immediate feeds of news and postings. The way to do so is by clicking the “Subscribe to This Board” in upper right corner. Subscribing to a board will automatically alert you via email when a new blog is posted making valuable content available to you immediately.    In addition, please tweak the Notification Settings under My Settings --> Subscriptions & Notifications, to allow push and email notifications, or as desired. The use of Labels could be an effective way to filter the stream of information to your desired topic of discussion.   Note: Subscribers did not carry over from the old GeoNet platform. Even if you had these settings before, you will have to re-enable them on the new Esri Community. Let us know what else we can do to help bring this community together, short of scheduling even more virtual meetings. We are proud to share that of all other Esri industry communities, Education has strongest presence – please let’s leverage this to its fullest extent. Your feedback as always is greatly appreciated.       ... View more

Education Colleagues: We want to make you aware of a new version of StoryMaps that Esri is launching, designed for individual consumers rather than GIS users.  This version of StoryMaps is completely different from ArcGIS StoryMaps, the product we currently use and love.  You may see the new version referred to as StoryMaps.com or StoryMaps Express to distinguish it from ArcGIS StoryMaps. StoryMaps (.com) - https://storymaps.com/ Geared toward individual consumers, self-employed individuals, and small business owners, for example: Travelers Journalists Real estate agents Hobbyists Anyone wishing to share their passion in a visual way. It is not associated with ArcGIS, and there is no portability of content between the new StoryMaps product and the ArcGIS framework ArcGIS StoryMaps - https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories Geared toward organizations Education State and Local Government National Government Non-Profits Any organization and its members wishing to leverage ArcGIS for visual storytelling Integrated with the rest of ArcGIS technology framework There are some functional differences between the two, ArcGIS Story Maps having more advanced capabilities. What does this mean for us in Education? For many of you, existing users of ArcGIS Story Maps, please keep leveraging ArcGIS Story Maps in the wonderful way you have been doing. Please encourage any new users of ArcGIS to use ArcGIS Story Maps as well. This new offering does not change what we do to support learning and research. This new StoryMaps offering will not be added to existing institution agreements or departmental licenses because it is geared towards individuals, not organizations. We simply wanted to make you aware of the above, as students, faculty or staff may come across the direct-to-consumer StoryMaps product and wonder which one to use: Please encourage them to use ArcGIS Story Maps for any course work, research projects, or self-learning of ArcGIS.    Feel free to encourage the use of the new StoryMaps if they wish to create stories for personal use. Levels and pricing tier are explained here. For individuals wanting access to ArcGIS (including ArcGIS StoryMaps) independently of their institution’s license,  ArcGIS for Student Use or ArcGIS for Personal Use are available. ... View more

Education Colleagues: As you have likely heard, ArcMap is being retired in March 2026. ArcGIS has evolved into a modern suite of apps - ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Field Maps, ArcGIS Story Maps, ArcGIS Dashboards, ArcGIS Pro, and many others. We’ve recommended in recent years to educate and train students with the entire ArcGIS system, starting with SaaS technology where applicable, rather than ArcMap only. We know many of you have transitioned your teaching and research to Modern GIS workflows. If you haven’t yet, it is urgent that you and your colleagues do so now.   There are many resources to help guide you through this journey, between Learn ArcGIS lessons, Esri Academy Courses, Esri Press books, among others. In addition, we are hosting several workshops and discussions to share best practices and address your questions.   What does this mean for Education program offerings? Changes anticipated for June 2022: ArcMap will no longer be delivered by default in Department licenses. ArcMap will be available on request to existing customers (not to new customers). The quantity of ArcMap licenses delivered in the Education Institution Agreement will be reduced. Changes anticipated for January 2023: ArcMap will no longer be delivered by default in Education Institution Agreement and the Research Institute Agreement. ArcMap will be available on request to existing customers (not to new customers). Please feel free to continue ask questions here on the Esri Community Education blog.  ... View more

Colleagues, You’ve likely seen many examples of innovative GIS work shared throughout last year. We wanted to take the liberty and share a compiled collection of examples, case studies and success stories by fellow educators, covering various topics/domains. Please feel free to share these examples of GIS use with your colleagues across your institution, should you find them useful and inspirational. Supercharging Curriculum/Enabling Geospatial Campus Clemson University: Creating the Clemson Center for Geospatial Technologies and Inspiring Interdisciplinary GIS Services University of Vermont: Students Gain Competitive Skills, Combining GIS and R Programming Language Virginia Commonwealth University: Students Gain Valuable Workplace Skills with Drone Education and GIS Courses University of Vermont: Counting Birds in the Falkland Islands', and other Remote Sensing Fundamentals USC: For Equity and Environmental Justice, USC’s Manuel Pastor Knows Maps’ Power Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: Building a Geospatial Legacy Multiple Institutions: German Universities Explore Indoor Mapping System Capabilities for Wayfinding Improvement GIS Across Various Disciplines Georgetown University: GIS Literacy at the Core of Georgetown’s Graduate Program (Geodesign/Urban Planning) Georgia Tech: Tokyo: Reimagining the World’s Largest City with Advanced Analytics Penn State University: The New Geodesign Generation (Geodesign/Urban Planning) William and Mary: Giving Students a Dynamic, Shareable Work Space with ArcGIS Notebooks (Data Science/ArcGIS Notebooks) Carroll University: Using GIS to Innovate Business Education (Business Education) Charles Drew University: Data Visualization Provides Unique Capabilities to Explain and Understand Complex Healthcare Issues (Public Health) UC San Diego: It’s in the Wastewater: How UC San Diego Senses and Maps COVID-19 (Public Health) University of Athens: University of Athens Applies Modern GIS Technology to Manage Ancient Data (Archaeology) Innovative Student Work/Sharpening Needed Skills USC: Student Wins LA Geospatial Student Poster Competition on Spatiotemporal Analysis of Snow Crab USC: Student Wins Discovery Scholar Award Using R-ArcGIS Bridge to Study Land Fallowing in Europe Texas Christian University: Inspiring the Next Generation of Supply Chain Innovators Penn State University: Geodesign Students See Opportunities for Community Growth Western Illinois University: How Technology and GIS Students Aided Response to the Great Flood of 2019 Bulgaria University of Mining and Geology: University Students in Bulgaria Adopt GIS Skills for Careers in Sustainable Mining Multiple Institutions: Higher Education Student Examples of Innovative Use of ArcGIS Technology Multiple Institutions/Alumni: Recent Graduates Discuss the Skills and Technologies You Should Focus on in This Q&A Thanks to all of those who contributed to writing these stories and sharing their work in advancing GIS education. In addition, if you haven’t already done so, check out our updated Educators industry website containing teaching and learning resources, case studies, and more – for Educators, Researchers, Administrators, and Geospatial Support roles. Enjoy and hopefully everyone’s year is off to a great start!! ... View more

Some of the first questions about ArcGIS that students, faculty, and staff ask are: “How can I get access?”, “What do I have access to?”, and “Is there any support available?” Ensuring that the answers to these questions are readily available in a website makes everyone’s lives easier. For GIS administrators/license coordinators, this could be a lifeline in terms of saving time and resources. It enables self-service and reduces inquiries directed towards one person or group, in addition to providing easier and consistent support for stakeholders across the institution for ArcGIS-related work. It minimizes one-off interactions and frees up time for other tasks, enhancing the level of GIS support. In addition, as an Education team at Esri, we often get asked the below questions directly by students and faculty: Does my university have ArcGIS? How do I get access to ArcGIS? I am a faculty at X university and would like to introduce ArcGIS – how do I get access? We would like to be able to point them to an authoritative website for your institution.   We have seen a range of websites designed to provide this information, from non-existent, to websites listing outdated software that need updating, to websites that communicate clearly what is available and how it can be accessed. Therefore, we wanted to provide recommendations for what to include in a website, along with examples from other institutions. Main items to include: Technology List of available software (at least commonly used applications), along with next steps of how to access. Services/support Providing a link to any existing services for geospatial support, or outlining what kind of support is provided, and specifically - where to go for help. Learning resources Materials that could enable students, faculty, staff to self-learn and help themselves. Technology available: ArcGIS Online – start with cloud/SAAS offering, as it provides easy entry and increasingly advanced capabilities. ArcGIS Pro - provide instructions on system requirements, accessing executables and login instructions, running ArcGIS Pro on MAC computers ArcMap – we would like to shift focus away from ArcMap but do realize some people still use it. Any other technology that will be helpful or commonly used by your stakeholders – some institutions provide direct links to ArcGIS Story Maps, for example. Examples of institution websites: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY - Johns Hopkins University Esri Software Access pages – note the Quick Links on the left to ArcGIS Online, GIS Software Downloads (including instructions for ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap).       UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - University of Michigan GIS Support pages – note the Software and licensing page, listing ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, along with other relevant technologies, plus additional support, workshops, community of practice group.       UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - University of Minnesota ArcGIS Access Pages – outlining how students and employees get access, terms and conditions, available resources. Note direct Software pages, outlining what a particular tool/application is, and how to access, focus being placed on ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Story Maps as a start, moving to ArcGIS Pro and other technologies.     PENN STATE UNIVERSITY - Penn State Software Access Pages – starting with ArcGIS Online, simple overview of technology, how to access, along with additional tabs for support, resources, etc.       Additional item to consider is adding your ArcGIS access website to your institution's central software repository listing if they have one. Stakeholders at your institution may already be used to going to one place to find software. We welcome any feedback to enhance this blog and help peer institutions make this information easily available in a website.   ... View more

As GIS has become ubiquitous for all disciplines and has been made widely available across academic campuses, we have seen many questions in terms of various deployment options. When it comes to desktop GIS applications (such as ArcGIS Pro), we often get questions such as “How can I use ArcGIS on Mac”, or “How do I virtualize ArcGIS”? The answers could vary, and the purpose of this blog is to provide considerations and options for providing access to ArcGIS. OPTIONS FOR PROVIDING ACCESS TO ARCGIS SaaS (Software as a Service) Install ArcGIS on student/staff/faculty computers (Macs or Windows PC) Virtualization (managed and provided by institution) SAAS ArcGIS Online as SaaS provides an easy to access standardized environment, where the requirement is simply having a browser.   The technology has grown immensely over the years - many capabilities are possible with ArcGIS Online and Apps, potentially eliminating the need for locally installed client software. The key question to ask, before going down the road of desktop-only GIS applications, is: Can you achieve your course objectives using SaaS (i.e., ArcGIS Online and Apps), instead of ArcGIS Pro? Some more advanced objectives (most likely in advanced GIS course work), however, may still require desktop GIS; in some these cases, blend of SaaS and Desktop GIS could be appropriate.   Below are quotes from peer institutions on their approaches when it comes to SaaS. JHU: "Where we can, especially for undergraduate courses where faculty are interested in doing some GIS work (but where it’s not a focus area), we’ve switched many over to a fully ArcGIS Online model." Clemson University: "We encouraged faculty to move instruction to ArcGIS Online. This is our advice if institutions haven’t virtualized yet, or have little experience with it, as students might not have the right computer/access/space), etc." NC State University:  "If our in-house virtual environment were to become overloaded for some reason and all else fails, we would look for ways to supplement our instruction with more ArcGIS Online examples where we can, particularly at the undergraduate level." INSTALLING ARCGIS ON STUDENT/FACULTY/STAFF COMPUTERS, VIRTUALIZATION PROVIDED BY INSTITUTION The GIS applications that could be installed on student/faculty/staff machines, or virtualized (managed and provided by institution), are the following:   ArcGIS Pro ArcMap ArcGIS CityEngine ArcGIS Insights AppStudio Desktop Survey 123 Connect For the purpose of this blog, we’ll focus on ArcGIS Pro. Providing Access to ArcGIS Pro It is important to recognize that while there are various approaches of providing access to ArcGIS Pro, they differ in user experience (i.e. varied versus standardized/consistent environment), as well as time/resources to setup. Two broad categories are below: Install ArcGIS on student/staff/faculty computers (Macs or Windows PC) - BYOD, varied environment Macs require extra virtualization setup Use an institution-managed solution - standardized environment Campus computer lab Virtual environment (on-premise, cloud) One has to manage expectations for user experience and for support workload. The "correct" choice is one where the institution/department is able to fund and provide available expertise to support. Institutional landscape is a key factor in finding the best solution for your organization, after considering what environments already exist, where expertise lies, complexities of people, units and budgets, among other considerations.  Typically, we have seen that standardized environment (institution-managed virtual environment), provide higher ROI (return on investment), after considering resources (time, costs) spent on setting up and managing an environment. In other words, generally takes more time to support individual users install on their own computers, compared to collaborating with IT colleagues to provide a standardized one. Additional benefit of standardized environment is that everybody gets the same user experience, versus varied environments which may provide a different experience. A standardized environment provided by the institution will address the needs of all Mac users, which is an important consideration, given many students have Mac computers. It is also useful to note that the value and usability of a virtualized GIS desktop application in a standardized environment can be increased when certain ancillary applications are made available in the same environment, (Notepad++, Windows Explorer, Excel, etc.)  This is possible using both application-centric delivery methods like AWS AppStream, and desktop-centric virtualization patterns like AWS Workspaces, AWS EC2, etc. Below is a quote from Yale University GIS instructor, after utilizing their institution-managed virtual environment (built and managed by Yale ITS End Point Engineering, in collaboration with University Library GIS Services, and School of Environment). “The remote virtual desktop has been absolutely terrific.  It’s been wonderful to have all of the students ready to go on the first day of class in a reliable and predictable environment. I teach live from the remote virtual desktop, do all of my own work there, and support students using it.  It’s been indispensable!” Lessons Learned Below are a few observations shared by peer institutions. Collaborate with your IT colleagues, as they do this for many other applications other than GIS!!! This is probably the most important lessons learned of all. Get virtual environment right (Mac, cloud, or on-premise virtualization) - for ArcGIS Pro to work at a useful level, one must dedicate time in the beginning to plan and size the environment properly. Follow system requirements from the start – considering graphics resources, not just GPUs, will save time/headaches in the long run. An anecdote from Virginia Tech, signifying the importance of reaching out and collaborating with IT colleagues, who were already running cloud virtual desktops for other applications:  “After months of work preparing ArcGIS Pro AWS AppStream for a production launch, we discovered that another unit in our Division of IT was offering a “Cloud Virtual Desktops” service to the campus via a third party SaaS provider, Apporto.  After evaluating the performance of the Apporto solution for common GIS workflows, and finding that it was comparable to a g4dn.2xlarge EC2 instance, we realized that for the use case of a “computer lab replacement” for general purpose project work, the Cloud Virtual Desktops solution met the need and we could direct our users to them.  Doing so will help to broaden their user base as they work to establish their service as the  “standard” virtualized desktop platform for the university, avoids offering a competing service, and takes an advantage of a service that someone else is already running. We will still have AppStream as a tool in our toolbox for specialized use cases. “ Virtualization Resources There are many resources to help with virtualization (whether cloud or on-premise), and below are a few. Providing Access to Non-SaaS Components of Modern GIS (Education Summit 2021 workshop)    Virtualizing ArcGIS in Higher Education (blog) ArcGIS Pro virtualization (white paper) Enabling Remote Access to ArcGIS (webinar) ArcGIS Pro on Mac (documentation) ArcGIS Pro on M1 MacBooks (blog)  We welcome any feedback to enhance this blog and help peer institutions make informed decisions.   ... View more