Latest Contributions by GeriMiller

COVID-19 has impacted us in many ways. There is an increasing number of institutions who are temporarily postponing or cancelling in-person courses, and on-ground faculty may be faced with having to migrate their courses to online learning. Of course, planning, available support, and clear communication are paramount to helping make such transition and ease both faculty and student anxiety.   We wanted to share several online resources that are available to supplement online learning. You likely know many of them, but they could be a lifeline for those faculty who have not utilized them, as many of these resources are conducive to remote and self-paced student learning.   Learn ArcGIS – a wonderful collection of short and focused lessons. A relatively new option is the notion of Paths, feel free to browse them.  Esri Training – search web courses and explore notion of a “learning plans”. ArcGIS Documentation – lots of tutorials depending on technology focus. Hiding in there are gems such as these Analytics case studies, many of which have accompanying Story Map, data, and guided workflows, for example. Esri Press books, available at no cost to students and instructors until May 25th via the VitalSource Helps program. FAQ for students/educators is here. Developer Labs – for students in programming-related courses Esri Video channel Explore ArcGIS Blog and pose questions such as How can local governments respond to COVIT-19. Specific examples: Have students explore and utilize collections of StoryMaps to present their work, publish Surveys to gather information about a topic, use ArcGIS Online to explore, create, analyze information. We would like to express particular appreciation and support to the many colleagues whose role is to support educators across campuses leverage geospatial technology. Folks sitting in libraries, instructional resource centers and technology support offices, may be faced with increased demand to provide support for moving courses to remote instruction.    Further, we have a close community of GIS educators – a community who has inspired and supported one another. If you have advice to offer, or need advice on approaches to transition courses, please feel free to post here. If a virtual meeting space is a desired mode to share practices, we can help facilitate that.  ... View more

Sharing a wonderful resource - a webinar recording and slides on “Teaching Practical Spatial Data Science and Deep Learning”. Huge thanks to Dr. Ilya Zaslavsky, UCSD and Dmitry Kudinov, Esri, for their wonderful presentation. “Teaching Practical Spatial Data Science and Deep Learning” recording “DSC 170 Spatial Data Science and Applications” slides (Dr. Zaslavsky) “Teaching Practical Spatial Data Science and Deep Learning” slides (Mr. Kudinov)   Thanks to all attended for the wonderful questions/discussion. ... View more

With the updated Education Institutional Agreement (former site license), we have simplified Single Use licensing by including the core product and all extensions in one authorization code.  One authorization code now unlocks both the core app and all extensions* for the following products:   ArcGIS Pro Advanced (though we encourage a named user license model in most cases) ArcGIS Desktop – ArcMap Advanced ArcGIS Enterprise – ArcGIS GIS Server Advanced   *Note:  The Locate XT and Business Analyst extensions are an exception and have separate authorization codes.   In addition, the Education Institution Agreement now includes 2 sets of licenses for all products:  Academic Use and Administrative Use.  Separating Administrative Use from Academic Use keeps operational maps and data safe and secure without limiting experimentation and innovation by students and researchers.    You will see different quantities for Academic and Administrative use under "View Authorizations".   The authorization codes for Administrative Use licenses are explicitly labeled as Administrative Use, e.g.,: Education Site ArcGIS Pro – Education License; Administrative Use License Education Site ArcGIS Desktop – Education License; Administrative Use License Education Site ArcGIS Server Enterprise – Education License; Administrative Use License   The authorization codes for Academic Use licenses are labeled as follows: Education Site ArcGIS Pro – Site License Education Site ArcGIS Desktop – Site License Education Site ArcGIS Server Enterprise – Site License   License files are created on My Esri under the Licensing tab, using the License Esri Products link. Please ensure that you are leveraging this option for any ArcGIS Enterprise GIS Server and ArcGIS Desktop licensing.   To generate Portal instances for ArcGIS Enterprise for versions 10.7 and above, use the License Esri Products link. For versions 10.4 - 10.6.1, the licenses are created using the Generate Portal for ArcGIS Licenses link.     If you require earlier versions of ArcGIS Enterprise for v10.3-10.8.1, these can be created upon request. Please contact your Customer Service representative for assistance.  ... View more

*Updated 2023 The Education Institution Agreement enables students, faculty and staff to leverage ArcGIS technology, such that any ArcGIS product can be accessed on any device and in any location. ArcGIS has grown beyond the confines of a single desktop GIS application, and ought to be managed as an institution-wide system available to everyone, similar to a learning management system (LMS) or cloud storage. More importantly, it must be managed at scale to take full advantage of the Institution Agreement benefits - maximizing access to the technology and minimizing administration time.    To successfully deploy and manage ArcGIS in a sustainable and secure manner, please follow the below recommendations. These recommendations are designed to help you take full advantage of the Institution Agreement benefits.   Single ArcGIS Online organization – use a single ArcGIS Online organization for the entire institution to avoid impeding collaboration and minimize management workload.   Enable SAML logins – leverage your institution’s identity provider to eliminate manual management of users and to prevent unauthorized access when student graduates or faculty/staff leave. Make sure to enable “Automatically” join for new users. Check the Why Single Sign On for academia (SAML logins) blog and the Enable Enterprise Logins video.   Configure New Member Defaults – enable new users with everything they will need, which eliminates manual administration. When combined with SAML logins and its "Automatically" join option, the result is a fully automated process, often referred to as auto-provisioning, for providing access to ArcGIS to your entire campus community. User Type (GIS Professional Advanced). Role (Publisher or Custom Role to give users all the privileges they need) – have one role for everyone (no need to create digital divides). Add-on licenses – such as ArcGIS Urban Suite, ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Business Analyst Web, ArcGIS Insights, ArcGIS Drone2Map Standard, ArcGIS Pro Extensions, etc.  Groups - empower users to create their own groups (including Shared Update privileges). Integrate groups with other institutional, authoritative systems for managing groups of users (SAML groups) Credits – set the credit allocation high enough that most users can get their work done, there is ample amount of credits available with your Institution Agreement Enable Esri Access – enable users to help themselves by providing access to Esri Training (e-Learning) and Esri Community. Check the Setting New Member Defaults video.   Software distribution – provide executables and any applicable license files (if needed) via your institutional file share system (Box, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, etc.). Check the Best way to share ArcGIS license files and executables blog.       ArcGIS Pro licensing - with the move to Modern GIS, and 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, as well as license ArcGIS Pro in lab environments via a named user model.   Check How do I license ArcGIS Pro in lab environments blog.       Maintain ArcGIS access website for your institution - it is important to provide a clear explanation of how users across the institution will obtain access to the technology itself, as well as be aware of any support and learning resources available to them. Check the ArcGIS access website for your institution blog.     Monitor Usage - demonstrate to stakeholders the breadth and depth of GIS on campus. The ArcGIS Online Usage Reports (Organization>Status) are a start and provide easy access to total usage data. Further analysis and efforts are needed to provide information for ongoing, repeat usage, as well as daily reporting. Check the GIS for Everyone (...and how to build your own ArcGIS Dashboard to show it!) blog.     Communicate when offboarding users - ensure that proper messaging is in place when off-boarding users leaving the institutions – students graduating, faculty retiring, etc. Proactively remind users – before they leave – about their options for transferring content, and what happens to their content after they leave. Ensure that you take the approach of empowering users to take care of themselves as much as possible. Check the Messaging for ArcGIS Online users leaving the university (students, faculty, staff) blog.   Manage inactive users and stale content – if you are in the early stages of deploying ArcGIS to your entire institution, the recommendation is that you do not delete content and users, as deleting content and users takes time and effort, it breaks the audit trail of ownership, and may break dependencies that others may have on that content. Deleting content cannot be recovered! Over time, you can work on best practices and data governance standards for your institution on how to manage old content and inactive users, which should be comparable to policies your institution has for similar business systems. Check the Storage and Data Governance Recommendations in Education blog.   ... View more

Fellow Educators: ArcGIS Online User Types have been in use for some time now as a way of providing apps and privileges to ArcGIS users. The Creator User Type has been available for Education program licenses.   With recent updates to the Education Institution Agreements, the GIS Professional Advanced Use Type was added as the default option, versus Creator. GIS Professional Advanced User type differs from the Creator User type in the fact that it provides ArcGIS Pro Advanced licensing. Everyone who has migrated to the new Institution Agreement (and has the GIS Professional Advanced user type as an option):        Please switch all ArcGIS Online users to GIS Professional Advanced User Type. Instructions are listed here and this video demonstrates the process. Further info is below.        If you do not assign GIS Professional Advanced User Type licenses, you will likely get a message “The number of user types and licenses assigned exceeds the number available”. The reason for this message is that users are now all GIS professional User Type licenses instead of Creator, while you may have Creator User Type licenses assigned.   Please ensure that you utilize the New Member Defaults to auto-provision licensing for new users, preferably with Enterprise Logins (SSO). Note that the GIS Professional User type does NOT include all ArcGIS Pro extensions. When you set your add-on licensing on New Member Defaults, please note that you will have to add the extensions (and not ArcGIS Pro, since it is now part of the user type). Extensions count as one of the 5 add-on apps. Note: If you have any ArcGIS Pro licenses who have been taken for "offline use", they will have to be recovered prior to making the switch from Creator to GIS Professional User type (for those specific users with offline licenses). All other users can be converted. We generally encourage administrators to "disable" taking ArcGIS Pro offline: Organization>Licenses>"Prevent Members from Taking ArcGIS Pro Offline". How to Change User types – documentation here:       Login as an Administrator – Organization>Members tab.       On the left, filter by User Type – Creator.       Ensure that you are showing 100 members per page (maximum default currently), bottom right.       Check the box to in the upper Left to select all Members.       In the Upper Right, Manage User Types.       Select GIS Professional Advanced and Save.       Maintain the selection and click Manage add-on licenses in the Upper Right and enable ArcGIS Pro extensions, then click Save. Changing User Types also can be done in an efficient manner via an ArcGIS API for Python script. Further feedback is welcome! ... View more

Educators,   Some of you have asked - there are two components/access points for QuickCapture – it is very similar to how Survey123 is accessed/licensed.   Mobile app – download from Apple or Google Play (Note, as of today, June 27 th , 2019, the QuickCapture mobile app has not been indexed yet by Apple or Google play, and it will be in 24-48 hours).  You can download  it directly on iOS from: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1451433781 QuickCapture designer (web tool) - https://quickcapture.arcgis.com . You can go directly to this URL. It will be part of the AppLauncher in September (for the time being, as an Administrator, you can manually add it to AppLauncher).   Educational institutions currently get Creator user type, which includes the Field Apps bundle that QuickCapture is part of, along with Collector, Survey123 and Workforce. No additional license assignment is needed. For more info and tutorials: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-quickcapture/overview https://community.esri.com/community/arcgis-quickcapture/  AppLauncher (QuickCapture Designer web tool will be part of it in September) Field Apps Bundle (bottom), available with Creator user type (no additional license assignment needed)   ... View more

Fellow Educators:   We are excited to share an update about the upcoming release of ArcGIS Online, which was heavily influenced by the Education community (you) – new functionality is added to make it easier to assign licenses and ease access to ArcGIS technology across campus. In addition, we will see improved member search and filter options – two other big asks from Education users. In the June release of ArcGIS Online we will introduce a new Organizational setting: New Member Defaults. This setting grants Administrators the long-sought ability to configure default Add-on License options, alongside the previous options for default User Type, Role, Credit quota, Groups, and Esri Access.  The New Member Defaults are applied when creating accounts for any new user who is added/invited to the organization. When combined with enterprise logins and its "Automatically" join option, the result is a fully automated process -- often referred to as auto-provisioning -- for providing access to ArcGIS to your entire campus community. (Some campuses achieved this in the past by implementing automated scripts that granted licensing entitlements when new users were detected in the system. This update eliminates the need for such scripts.) To easily geo-enable your campus community, please consider taking the following steps: Enable enterprise logins, commonly known as SSO – integrate with existing business systems and do not create arcgis-only accounts (unless when working with outside affiliates). Enable "Automatically" join for enterprise logins (also known as auto-provisioning), so that new users are automatically granted access to ArcGIS. Configure the "New Member Defaults" so that people have access to everything in ArcGIS they might need to do their job: Set the default user type set to "GIS Professional Advanced". (FYI, most Education Program licenses have the GIS Professional Advanced user type as the primary user type.  If your organization does not, use the Creator user type.) Set the role to "Publisher" – empower everyone with the abilities to do the work they need to do Configure default Add-on Licenses (ArcGIS Pro, Insights, Business Analyst, Community Analyst, GeoPlanner, etc.) Set a Credit Quota (1000, 2000, 5000, etc.) whatever fits your institution -- enable your community to do their work, yet protect them from accidental mistakes Enable Esri Access for everyone – allow them to utilize Esri Academy (E-Learning/Esri Training), GeoNet, etc. Encourage students, faculty, staff to leverage all free options for self-learning, such as Learn ArcGIS, Esri Academy, documentation, etc.   In addition, you will also see improved filter and member search options – enhancements influenced by education community as well - which will make administration easier.   For those of you joining us at Education Summit @ Esri UC, we’ll have this, and more, in some of our workshop offerings.   New Member Defaults: New Filters: Improved Search (consolidated) – Full name is no longer the default (no dropdown): ... View more