NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The GIS / Geotech EDU user community, in particular, higher learning, has been very active with Admin Tools for ArcGIS Online since the launch in 2015. In fact, the Geo EDU community is likely the most passionate and appreciative user base. To date, hundreds of High Schools, Colleges and Universities around the World have adopted Admin Tools to assist in managing GIS students and their ArcGIS Online accounts.
This comes as no surprise to us as there really are some good user workflows that are very handy with the administration of so many user [student] accounts. Admin Tools users in EDU are avid users of the tools, in particular, the top uses by the GIS EDU community include: backup and restore, viewing item dependencies, delete users, email users, manage user credits, and cloning accounts. With Admin Tools Pro (www.geo-jobe.com/admin-tools/), GIS educators and institutions responsible for managing many student user accounts can do so much more efficiently, with fewer headaches and enjoy many benefits. An example is the GIS program at COGS in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Challenge
The Center of Geographic Science (COGS) is Canada’s largest geomatics-focussed learning institution, now in their 70th year and sends many of their graduates on to work at Esri and in positions in industry and Government. The institution currently has six programs dealing with land survey, cartography, environmental and community planning, remote sensing, IT, near-offshore survey, and GIS. COGS, part of the Nova Scotia Community College, has about 200 students in programs that last nine months or two years. One avid user of Admin Tools for ArcGIS Online that we’ve heard from is David MacLean, GIS Faculty at the Centre for Geographic Sciences. MacLean is responsible for managing and administering the ArcGIS Online user accounts at COGS for the 200 students – indeed a large responsibility.
The Solution
MacLean shares the following Examples & Benefits of using Admin tools which are particularly needed at the start and end of school terms: “At year-end, various GEO Jobe Admin Tools are really handy in managing our users. In particular, Move Items, Update Items Owner, Delete Items, & Delete Users are particularly useful, however, we depend heavily on the Update Items Delete Protection Tools. As part of account clean-out, these tools make it very straightforward to manage whole programs of students in just a few actions. Throughout the year, Email Users is helpful to bulk e-mail only our AGOL users and to the accounts they use most often. Also, as roles need to change as the year progresses, the Update User Roles is very convenient.” There’s no doubt that Admin Tools is a huge time saver to MacLean as he manages his 200 ArcGIS Online users.
“GEO Jobe always tries our best to support educators in any way we can. Universities in particular were pivotal early adopters of Admin Tools with their need for managing a high turnover rate of organization members ( students in this case ) and the need to rapidly control access to groups and software licences for these members of the organization. The feedback and guidance of our user-base is a big part of the success of our products.” – David Hansen, GEO Jobe Vice President.
Admin Tools is available to planners, GIS administrators and other GIS professionals in local government,K-12 and Higher education, utilities, and facilities management and can be found in the ArcGIS marketplace (free, pro, and Portal versions). See http://www.geo-jobe.com/admin-tools/
Note, GEO Jobe, along with the Esri Education group, presented a webinar late in 2016. The focus of the educational session was to introduce users from the GIS Education community to Admin Tools, a powerful suite of apps and tools that help ArcGIS Administrators be more efficient. You can view the webinar recording at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/466083356943682308
About The Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS)
The Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) in Lawrencetown is Canada’s largest geomatics-focused learning environment. In addition, the high-quality programs offered in the fields of surveying, mapping, land-use planning and related computer programming have earned COGS its reputation as a world leader. In addition to its suite of diploma programs, COGS also offers advanced diplomas in in marine geomatics, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and business geographics. See http://nscc.ca/COGS
About GEO Jobe
GEO Jobe (@geojobegis) is a geospatial industry leader providing software, services, and cutting edge geospatial solutions. While many geospatial firms focus on a specific industry, GEO Jobe has a focus on industry independent solutions and offerings such as providing software development and data hosting expertise and services. GEO Jobe was an early adopter of the ArcGIS Online platform and always strives to extend and push the limits of what is possible using the platform. Connect with the GEO Jobe team or reach out with a question or comment on Twitter @geojobegis
