Using ArcGIS Online to Facilitate Teaching in Higher Education - Reflections

1. Using ArcGIS Online to Facilitate
Teaching in Higher Education
Patrick Rickles

2. Research Associate & PhD Student
Interdisciplinary Research
-Sapelli
-Geokey and Community Maps
-Challenging RISK
-Citizen Cyberlab
-Student Research
www.ucl.ac.uk/excites
Collaborating with and Teaching GIS to Anthropologists,
Archaeologists,Architects,Computer Scientists,Digital Humanities
Students,Disaster Management Planners,Fine Artists,Historians,
Human-Computer Interaction Experts,Political Scientists,
Psychologists and more!

3. GIS
IDR EDU
GIS
+
IDR + EDU
PhD Research
How does Non-Formal
compare to Informal
learning when
Interdisciplinary
Students wish to learn
GIS?

4. “Identifying Important Concepts in GIS in Interdisciplinary Research” (Rickles & Ellul,2014)
Challenges
“Collaborating with
Different Disciplines”
Solutions
“Training” (literature)
“Building Relationships”
(practice)
GIS
IDR EDU
GIS
+
IDR + EDU
www.patrickrickles.com/PhD/Work/Common Challenges and Suggested Solutions in IDR.htm

5. GIS&T BoK
Knowledge Areas
Geospatial Data
Data Quality
Digitisation
Cartography & Visualization
Map Design
Symbology
GIS
IDR EDU
GIS
+
IDR + EDU
“Identifying Important Concepts in GIS in Interdisciplinary Research” (Rickles & Ellul,2014)
www.aag.org/bok

6. Educational Theories
Virtual Situated Learning
Environment (people,
tool,activity,
environment)
Disciplinary
Epistemologies
(contextual relevance)
Challenges of Real Life
and Online Education
Micro-lessons
GIS
IDR EDU
GIS
+
IDR + EDU

7. Can a contextually
relevant,collaborative,
online learning
environment be
effective in teaching
GIS concepts to
Interdisciplinary
Students?
GIS
IDR EDU
GIS
+
IDR + EDU

8. • Lessons structured as Micro-lessons for short,asynchronous learning for concepts
• Text and Images in Lessons change based on the Context
• Ability to comment and reply,facilitating student communication
• Register interest in a new context; quick and easy creation

9. Why?
• Free Accounts with Adequate Storage and Functionality
• Ability to Easily Store and Share Information
• Continually Growing Repository of Layers
• Web App Builder for quick apps and Story Maps
• Extremely User Friendly Interface
• Support and Accessibility across Esri Suite of Products

10. Case Study: Institute of Education

11. Case Study: Development Planning Unit

12. Online vs. Face-to-Face
Online
• Ability to start / stop lesson as
needed
• Difficulties in asynchronous
questions and answers
• Ease of Online tech for learning
and applying to lessons
Face-to-Face
• Students want more practical
time
• Ability to gauge enthusiasm
and adjust
• Real-time mobile data
gathering and online
visualising well received

13. Structure and
Interest
GIS
fostering
Interdisciplinarity
Feedback and
Improvement