Latest Contributions by GeriMiller

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   We have seen a range of websites designed to provide this information, from non-existent, to websites listing outdated software that need updating, to websites that communicate clearly what is available and how it can be accessed.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

Colleagues, For those of you working with Imagery, we wanted to share recordings from the 2021 Imagery and Remote Sensing Educators Summit, along with general resources. Playlist of all recordings from the Summit is here (direct links to sessions and lightning talks is below). In addition, as a follow up from the Summit, the following Resources page contains various trainings, tutorials, web pages, and case studies, among other valuable resources.   We hope you leverage these materials, and please share any feedback on what resources you’ve used, what has worked, and any additional requests for Imagery/Remote Sensing resources. Last, we are beginning plans for 2022 Imagery and Remote Sensing Summit (Spring 2022 timeframe). Please stay tuned and feel free to sign up for “Notify Me when 2022 opens”. 2021 Session Videos: Opening Welcome and Introductions Session https://youtu.be/Cv1UrRppp6c Drones in Education - Challenges Implementing UAS Technology https://youtu.be/7etjnWetNeA GEO AI/ML/DL - Recognizing Opportunities and Challenges Utilizing GEO AI for Education https://youtu.be/7JbidqO0Los Remote Sensing - The Foundation for 3D Capture and Reality Mapping https://youtu.be/lMt6F_MsxRc Day 1 Closing Session https://youtu.be/dV776zuI1us Welcome Back Session https://youtu.be/ZQADW63_eos How the Academy Works with Esri https://youtu.be/I3jJadugD-c What's New with Esri Imagery and Remote Sensing https://youtu.be/pq7AhE1BVFc Results from Working Groups https://youtu.be/lshr6xPE0oI Day 2 Closing Session & Panel Discussion https://youtu.be/2RFk79_eIW0 2021 Lightning Talks: Lightning Talk - What Are the Remote Sensing Fundamentals? https://youtu.be/SycK95pAIhM Lightning Talk - Self Directed Learning Using an Augmented Reality App & ArcGIS Online https://youtu.be/ad0e7AGXsJU Lightning Talk - Wait, How Much Land is "Managed"? https://youtu.be/QMzgGHsz8e0 Lightning Talk - Teaching with Drones https://youtu.be/eS7WIOc1W7w Lightning Talk - Engaging Students in Image Data Collection, Analysis and Visualization https://youtu.be/_CfZFvORNiw Lightning Talk - Deep Learning and Drones to Automate Seabird Population Counts https://youtu.be/wMhvUtdzTyg Lightning Talk - Extracting and Analyzing Features from Drone Capture https://youtu.be/No82RGwcvKI Lightning Talk - COVID-19 Response in Khartoum, Sudan https://youtu.be/lcNRtKmOXwA Lightning Talk - Visualizing Glacier National Park https://youtu.be/8o4hVCZjduI ... View more

Education Colleagues: We are happy to share that during Esri’s 41st annual User Conference, Jack Dangermond, Esri’s founder and president, awarded University of Michigan the most prestigious award, the President’s Award. Video link of the award is here.   This is the first time in Esri’s history that a university user is receiving this special recognition. We are all very proud of the work and contributions University of Michigan has done for encouraging innovative GIS use across campus, as well as for their contribution of lessons learned and best practices, which have served the broader Education community. University of Michigan was recognized for being a model for the higher education community in how to become a true geospatial university. They have enabled and supported its community through the implementation of a large-scale, campus-wide GIS, where faculty, staff and students in all disciplines implement GIS as an innovative tool in research, learning and administration. This has enabled numerous initiatives across campus such as field research programs in Geology, Archaeology and Biology, scholarship research in Digital Humanities and antiracism studies, among many others. When ArcGIS Online was first released in 2012, they were an early adopter and implemented it as Software-as-a-Service, which has enabled the university to create a paradigm shift in the way ArcGIS is deployed across the institution.  GIS has become a university-wide enterprise system capability for everyone, allowing it to become as ubiquitous as Google or Microsoft products. Just as electricity is delivered equally across the university, so is GIS.  University of Michigan has been a great collaborator with Esri product management and development teams as well – partnering with other fellow educators, collecting feedback, and providing that feedback to those various Esri teams. By spearheading this partnership and collaboration to enhance Esri’s development efforts, they have helped influence changes and updates to Esri’s SaaS technology to better serve the Education community, and the broader GIS user community. They are also a distinguished Esri Innovation Program (EIP) member and collaborator. University of Michigan GIS advocate, Peter Knoop, a Research Computing Consultant at LSA (Literature, Sciences, and the Arts), has led a lot of the above efforts, and has devoted time to share lessons learned with others in the academic community. Numerous workshops, webinars, and events, covering topics such as best practices for a successful implementation of GIS technology, managing ArcGIS in Higher Education, and providing GIS support on campus, have been held over recent years. This time has been a precious moment of learning for all of us in the Education community.     Congratulations to the University of Michigan for a well-deserved achievement. ... View more

The Esri Innovation Program (EIP) encourages innovative educators and students to advance geospatial science in research and education. Students are encouraged and guided to create innovative applications and projects with ArcGIS technology.  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 year, there were total of 28 awardees at 22 institutions (including a couple of group projects)! This Story Map Collection highlights this wonderful student work.   Congratulation to all Students of the Year. Special thanks to all EIP members who mentored the students to submit Student of the Year nominations – we very much appreciate your work and support to these outstanding students.    ... View more

We have seen many questions from the Education community surrounding transferring of content between users and organizations, copying items, managing multiple accounts, and other similar workflows. In effort to support such functions, the ArcGIS Assistant Beta was released. https://assistant.esri-ps.com/ This is the next-gen version of the classic AGO Assistant tool beloved by many ArcGIS users. It's been rebuilt from scratch by a team from Esri Professional Services. The beta includes the ability to: Copy items (+resources) across accounts and organizations   Add and manage multiple ArcGIS accounts List, view, download, replace, and upload item resources View and edit item info and item data JSON A little history: Getting Started | ArcGIS Assistant User Guide (esri-ps.com) Note this is not a "deep copy" of apps or web page item types (like Story Maps, Dashboards, Insights pages, Hub pages, app templates, etc.) However, it does include all the file resources, which the AGO Assistant didn’t do. Many Education users are interested in working with and copying Story Maps - please take a look at the Common Workflows section, which addresses typical questions about using the ArcGIS Assistant with Story Maps.    ArcGIS Assistant is a community driven project and not an officially supported by Esri Technical Support. Check out the FAQ and the Discussion Forum on GitHub. While this is not the ultimate solution for managing content and users in Education, it’s an exciting step! ... View more

We have heard many questions from the education community surrounding funding and support models for GIS across campuses. What is a successful model to support people doing GIS across the institution? How is GIS support funded? How is staff funded? How are costs of licenses funded? How many people do GIS support for the campus, and what does success look like? What activities are done to provide support?  Below is recording and follow up from a panel which took place on May 5th, 2021. Special thanks to all panelists for sharing their experiences!! Recording: https://esri.zoom.us/rec/share/ypMW1RSbW2tySZEC4vWFFnqo7iGkInKKGCvCOg6OOJRb70_AE1zKSBTwYEtRw_q5.33WrG9TdQw-y5J4I Passcode: .Y+p+5bT Presenters:             Allison Meezan, Foothill College (slides here)          Len Kne, University of Minnesota  (slides here)          Nicole Ernst, Harrisburg Area Community College (slides here)          Peter Knoop, University of Michigan (slides here)          Seth Peery, Virginia Tech (slides here)   Lessons Learned (shared by panelists): Administration Keep the support center out of an individual college (silos). Libraries are a good option. Office of VP for Research, or other offices which provide support across the campus community. Get Administration buy-in. Managing GIS Make ArcGIS Online administration as easy as possible. It takes significantly more effort to restrict access than to empower all users. Give everyone access to everything automatically. It is simpler and less obstructive to limit how much users can do, rather than what they can do. Enforce reasonable use through credit allocations. Log user counts, item counts, and similar daily so the figures can be used in the future to support the need for GIS and resources. Leverage Economies of Scale for Enterprise GIS Administration. If you don't know what all of your users are doing with GIS, you are doing it right! Supporting/Helping people use GIS Offer no cost support to demonstrate applications and enhance funding proposals to garner interest far and wide, as well as to build reputation. Don’t rely on internal cost-recovery [lesson learned]. Decentralized support model can result in unequal help. If you cannot help everyone, enable people to at least help themselves (give everyone access to everything).  Situate responsibility in recognized Honest Brokers. Funding GIS license It is less expensive and simpler to centrally fund, than to try to do cost-recovery. Don’t rely on internal cost-recovery, institute central payment of license. Lower barriers to the use of GIS, empower all users.   Collaboration is the foundation for GIS Success!   ... View more

Educators, We want to let you know of changes to the Learn ArcGIS membership. The length of software access will change from 60 days to 21 days starting April 27th and the name will change to the Education Trial. Please note: These changes WILL NOT affect the majority of the GIS Education Community who already have access to ArcGIS via an institution agreement (site license), departmental license or a school bundle. These changes WILL affect a small portion of the community who have leveraged the 60-day membership to provide software for coursework.  The Education Trial is not designed for use in formal coursework or research. These changes WILL NOT affect access to the lessons and resources provided by the Learn ArcGIS team.  As always, the wonderful Learn ArcGIS lesson/resources are freely available to everyone for any length of time for both self-directed learning and for use in coursework. The Education Trial membership provides temporary access for self-directed learners who are new to Esri technology to experiment, try a new workflow, or test an interesting tool. The Learn ArcGIS 21-day Education Trial account is:    For life-long learners and educators who are working independently and are new to ArcGIS. For those over 18. For non-commercial, educational use only. A ‘sandbox’ environment from which all content will be deleted at the end of the 21-day trial period. A temporary account that cannot be converted into a permanent organizational account. If you need help obtaining longer-term access to ArcGIS suitable for coursework or have other questions, please reach out to highered@esri.com or your local Esri office (global distributor). ... View more

Colleagues, You have likely noticed by now that the ArcGIS Online release was moved to April 13th. If not, this note serves as an FYI. You, your students/faculty/staff, will see a red banner message when logged in ArcGIS Online. If anyone asks: “How will this affect my class work?”: Of course, as with any release, please advise students/faculty/staff to plan accordingly, as access may be limited during the update. In addition, there are updates coming up to various apps, but one major update will be the New Map Viewer coming out of beta. Upon login (after the release), users will be given the option to choose which viewer to work with, but the Map Viewer Classic (which we have been using for quite some time now), will still be the default viewer for a while, providing ample opportunity to adjust to the New Map Viewer. You will see more information as we get closer to the release, but we wanted to give a heads up, in case you have not seen the message above. ... View more

This blog compiles recent resources, webinars, user presentations and stories on the topic of Smart Campuses (Administration/Operations focus). Special thanks to all our university colleagues who have contributed their work and experiences in the below events and resources (stories shared by Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, University of Washington, University of Arizona, Harvard University, University of Maryland, Cornell University, Clemson University, The Ohio State University, University of Oregon, Montclair State University, among others).  Smart Campus Operations Resources page Contains foundational resources, case studies and examples   Fall 2020 Webinar series - recordings/collateral are available on demand Getting Started: Building Your Spatial Foundation Bringing GIS Indoors: Space Planning and Optimization Building a Mobile Workforce: Getting Decision Support into the Field Optimizing Utilities: Digitally Transforming Network Management Spring 2021 Webinar series - Spatially Enable Facilities Management for Your Campus, supplemental Story Map From CAD to GIS: The value of spatially enabling utility and facility information (March 18th). Configuring Solutions: Building information and decision-making tools (April 8th) Smart Campus Operations: Integrating GIS with facility, work, and space management systems (April 29th) GeoNet Administration place Area to engage and collaborate with community ... View more

You may have seen announcements about Esri’s new ArcGIS Platform launch. We wanted to provide some guidance on what this product is, how it could be accessed, and how it could be applicable to Educators. What is ArcGIS Platform? ArcGIS Platform is a location analytics Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering for developers who would like to incorporate location-based services (basemaps, geocoding, routing, visualization, etc.) in apps, products and business systems they build. It is a way for developers to leverage standalone services in a frictionless and easy to use way. It provides access to location-based services in your API of choice, including open source mapping libraries such as Leaflet, Open Layers, and GL JS, as well as Esri’s web and native APIs. ArcGIS Platform has a consumption-based business model, meaning costs are related directly to services consumed.  ArcGIS Online has a subscription-based model, meaning access is provided for a specific time period; ArcGIS Online also provides additional capabilities and end-user applications to create, share, edit, and analyze maps and data. ArcGIS Platform is primarily meant for developers who do not currently have Esri technology; it is an alternative to accessing location-based services through an ArcGIS Online subscription. How can the ArcGIS Platform be accessed by Educators? ArcGIS Platform is accessed via ArcGIS Developer Subscription. All the ArcGIS Platform location-based services  and developer experiences can be leveraged by using ArcGIS Online. For those of you with Institution Agreements, you also already have access to the Enterprise edition of ArcGIS Developer Subscription. Bottom Line: Whether you are a researcher wishing to incorporate location-based services in your work, whether you are faculty teaching programming concepts (please continue to enhance development skills in Python, Web APIs and SDKs!), or whether you are a student working on class projects to develop applications incorporating location-based services, you already have access to the services and capabilities of ArcGIS Platform via the Education Institution Agreement (former Site License). Therefore, please continue to leverage ArcGIS Online and the ArcGIS Developer Subscription available with your Education agreements. ArcGIS Platform is simply a different way for customers new to Esri technology to acquire and pay for the consumption of those location-based services. If your institution does not already have ArcGIS, please reach out to us to help with the best option for your needs – highered@esri.com Feel free to post any questions here. ... View more

In 2020, we launched the 1-year Learn ArcGIS Student Program, designed to provide access to ArcGIS, along with self-paced learning resources, to higher education Students who do not currently have access through their institution. We are continuing the program in 2021 and wanted to provide clarity on who this program is designed for. If you are Student: If your institution already has educational licensing, you should seek access to ArcGIS via your institution. Please check the following app, which lists colleges and universities in the US which already have institution-wide licenses. For some, there is publicly available URL/information on how to access. If not, please check with your advisor/department. Often, access is facilitated by Library, Geography or other departments/centers. If you are learning independently of your instructor, outside of a formal course, and do not have access via your institution, then this program is for you! For further details, please check this FAQ. Then sign up to access over 450 self-faced lessons and resources!! If you are Administrator/Faculty/Staff: If you are teaching a formal course/degree program, or having students work on research projects, access should be provided by the institution versus this student program. Therefore, for those of you who already have institutional licenses, please continue to provide access as you normally would. Many of you are implementing these best practices for enabling access to ArcGIS for all students, faculty and staff via your institution’s license. Please continue to follow these best practices; this program should not change any existing workflows.  If you do not have institution-wide access or license, please let us know if we can help – highered@esri.com.        ... View more