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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Esri Announces Significant Upgrade to Educational Site License

On Jan 23, Esri sent an e-mail to its Educational Site License administrators which included details of "the most significant upgrade to the Esri Educational Site License Program in 20 years, at no additional cost." Why did Esri add in the new tools? "...because Esri president Jack Dangermond is committed to the success of educators at all levels who seek to cultivate the next generation of GIS users as well as a spatially literate citizenry."

What's new?

1. Addition of Esri® Community Analyst and the Business Analyst OnlineSM API to the Business Analyst Site License Add‐on, which is available at no cost upon request. (Available Jan 1)

2. Addition of ArcGIS Extensions (Available Jan 1)

ArcGIS Desktop Extensions
o ArcGIS Data Interoperability (teaching and research only)
o ArcGIS Data Reviewer

ArcGIS Mapping and Charting Solutions
o Esri Defense Mapping
o Esri Aeronautical Solution
o Esri Nautical Solution

ArcGIS Server Extensions
o ArcGIS Data Interoperability (teaching and research only)

3. Addition of Esri Data products, delivered on DVD (Anticipated availability March 1, 2012)

Esri demographic and lifestyle data (entire United States, all geographies)
o Esri Updated Demographics
o Esri Consumer Spending
o Esri TapestryTM Segmentation
o American Community Survey (ACS)
o Census 2010

4. Addition of New Products/Services ("Early 2012" - no date given)

o ArcGIS Online subscriptions
o Esri CityEngine®—Advanced

ArcGIS Online is positioned this way:
ArcGIS Online enables your faculty members to incorporate meaningful GIS use in large‐enrollment classes with minimal impact on their workload or your institution’s IT staff or infrastructure. In addition, your subscription to ArcGIS Online will allow faculty and students to publish intelligent web maps and make them widely available without requiring in‐house server infrastructure and technical expertise.
5. Revamp of web‐based Virtual Campus courseware breaking courses into 2-4 hour modules accessible via a new learning management system (LMS). (Release concurrent with ArcGIS 10.1 release)

I think that's a great idea - both for students and staff use. It may encourage instructors to seriously consider a flipped classroom model, where a module is assigned as "homework" and the "lab" is done in class. I hope Esri is thinking about how educators will be uploading their own "modules" to the LMS, to share with other educators, in the future.