UK Higher Education Blog
Information that is relevant to the Higher Education community in the UK and Ireland.
Higher Education
Esri UK & Ireland are committed to supporting teaching and research in Higher Education. Every aspect of higher education – teaching, learning, research and academic administration can benefit from ArcGIS and spatial thinking.
Offerings for higher education
Over 130 higher education institutions access Esri software through the Chest Software license agreement. This agreement provides staff and student with access to Esri’s desktop, web and mobile apps for teaching, research and to manage the university campus.
Resources
Need data? Want to do some eLearning? Need to find a video about how to do something? Explore the vast array of resources that are available to support your use of Esri technology.
ArcGIS
Leading colleges and universities use the latest technologies. ArcGIS provides educators, students, and staff with a comprehensive platform for mapping, analysing, and sharing their data.
ArcGIS Online
Gateway for web mapping
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Easy map authoring and sharing
Extensive collection of reusable content
Spatial analysis in the cloud
ArcGIS Pro
The future of desktop GIS
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Modern, high-performance technology
Familiar and intuitive user interface
Advanced cartography and analytics
ArcGIS Enterprise
Next generation GIS Server
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An enterprise GIS portal
Adding big data and imagery capabilities
Technology graduates need to know
Education Licensing
Low-cost access to ArcGIS
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Includes all major platform components
Mobile learning on personal devices
Grow your GIS community, not your costs
Community
It’s hard to keep up with the advances in GIS, so we try to distil the information into blogs to help you keep on top of things. Check out the following:
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Does my University have access?
Frequently Asked Questions
What does unlimited Users Actually mean?
Unlimited users means unlimited academic users for core products including ArcGIS Online (including Apps such as AGOL, survey123, collector, storymaps), ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap) and for CityEngine.
It does not include Administrative Users or unlimited implementations of applications such as ArcGIS Enterprise.
It says unlimited but my licence allocation says 5000?
We had to assign a nominal number into the allocation field of our licence manage and decided that the following allocations seemed reasonable for each Esri Licence band:
- A – large: 50,000
- B – Medium: 20,000
- C – Small: 5000
What happens if I hit this limit?
If you approach the pre-set limit, we will increase your licence allocation.
Will I still get access to ArcMap?
Yes, the site licence will provide you with access to ArcMap.
When is ArcMap being retired?
Information about the life-cycle of all esri products can be found on the Product Life Cycles page.
What is replacing ArcMap?
ArcGIS Pro is the new desktop software that will replace ArcMap. It has several advantages:
- Faster – its 64bit so can access more memory
- Uses Python 3
- Industry use increasing as ArcMap is phased out
- Better Learning Support
- 3D integration
- Integrates with ArcGIS Online + Web content
- Development path
Do we still get Concurrent Use (CU) Licences?
Yes - the 2020 Esri Chest Agreement will include CU licences for both ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap. This will enable you to provision ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap to open access labs so that users can access the software instantly, without needing to have an Esri identity.
Can I still request 1 year student licences for ArcMap?
Yes, you can still request 1-year student EVA codes that enable students and staff to use ArcMap off campus. Please request these from highered@esriuk.com
How do I enable Home use for ArcGIS Pro?
ArcGIS Pro can be licensed for home use by staff and students through ArcGIS Pro. To do this you need to:
- Give them access to ArcGIS Online
- Provision a licence for Pro and Extensions
- Provide them with the ArcGIS Pro executable (from MyEsri)
More details: Provisioning Pro licence from AGOL
What is an ArcGIS identity and why is it important?
Identity is at the heart of the ArcGIS Platform. In a similar way to a Microsoft Identity in that it gives you access to web services, storage and allows you to connect to this from desktop application through a login.
In addition, the ArcGIS Identity will enable your users to access E-Learning and support material that is only available to Esri licence holders. Users can sign into the Esri E-Learning pages and access hundreds of learning objects.
Where can I find more about Single Sign On?
More information can be found on the Esri Support Pages.
With SSO set up, will the online account process be a self-service type thing?
Yes, with SSO, you set a link between your user registry and ArcGIS Online. Users need to hit the correct domain URL for your ArcGIS Online Organisation and then select "login with enterprise" and their account will be created. You can also set up your default user type to have ArcGIS Pro and Esri Access enabled.
What if I don’t enable single sign on, is there a way to batch load new users?
Yes, you can use a csv file to upload up to 200 users in a batch. More information on how to do this can be found here: Invite and add members
Can we have multiple admins in ArcGIS Online?
Yes you can and it is sensible to do so. You can add and delete admins as you see fit and may allow key teaching staff to have admin rights to help them facilitate teaching - like fixing accounts while on fieldwork with students.
Is there a cap on online storage?
No, but data stored or processed in ArcGIS Online consumes credits and you should think about what is sensible to store and process in a cloud environment. Understand More about Credits.
What do you mean sensible to store or process in the cloud?
ArcGIS Online is a great tool but it is not a replacement for a desktop GIS. If you are processing large datasets or making hundreds of thousands of calculations, a desktop processing environment may make more sense. Similarly, rendering large files (several GBs) over the web may not result in a good user experience.
What happens when a student leaves the university?
If you are using SSO, then when the student loses their university login, it will truncate access to Esri software and services. The students account and data will persist, but they will not be able to edit it, or do any additional processing.
If you are not using SSO – you will need to either:
- Delete the user
- Downgrade the user to a Viewer – this will mean that their content will remain in the ArcGIS Online account, but they will not be able to carry out processing or create any new maps or apps.
Essentially, their privileges have been reduced to "View only"
We get multiple ArcGIS Online Organisations - why would I want more than 1?
There are several reasons why having access to multiple instances of ArcGIS Online makes sense. Having multiple organisations available would enable you to:
- Keep 1 for SSO
- Allow key departments to opt out of SSO and retain greater control of their students
- Spin up an organisation to support a research project and thereby keep their users and data separate from the main university users