{"id":470632,"date":"2021-11-02T19:59:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T02:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=470632"},"modified":"2021-11-02T13:12:20","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:12:20","slug":"giving-students-a-dynamic-shareable-work-space-with-arcgis-notebooks","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/giving-students-a-dynamic-shareable-work-space-with-arcgis-notebooks","title":{"rendered":"Giving Students a Dynamic, Shareable Work Space with ArcGIS Notebooks"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[457161,1041,171],"tags":[178702,430851,280172,201052,138062],"arcnews_issues":[476352],"class_list":["post-470632","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-notebooks","category-collaboration","category-education","tag-analysis","tag-covid-19","tag-geospatial","tag-python","tag-science","arcnews_issues-fall-2021","arcnews_sections-your-work"],"acf":{"short_description":"Days before the summer 2020 term began, a university lecturer adopted an asynchronous remote learning approach. Notebooks made it work.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"With so many changes having happened right before the summer 2020 semester at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, lecturer Dr. Tyler Davis decided to lean into his calling as a solver of complex problems. Just days before teaching was to begin, he completely redesigned the structure of his Advanced GIS Analysis and Programming class."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":468622,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Davis\u2019s class is part of the Center for Geospatial Analysis (CGA) at William & Mary and functions as a campus resource, rather than a major or a department, for all things related to geospatial analysis. The center plays an educational role at the undergraduate and graduate levels and offers technology and GIS support to faculty, staff, and the greater community.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat drew me to the CGA was that we help solve other people\u2019s problems,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThat resonated with me because that\u2019s essentially who I am. As an engineer by training, I like to solve problems.\u201d\r\n\r\nStudents with different skill levels, career paths, and intentions enroll in Davis\u2019s class to increase their understanding of programmatic approaches to spatial data and analysis. Consequently, Davis needed to structure his class to accommodate every student\u2019s unique needs. What\u2019s more, he had to overcome these hurdles amid uncertain times, equitably and in a completely digital setting.\r\n\r\nWhen Davis learned about ArcGIS Notebooks, he realized he had found a key piece of the framework for showing GIS as a workflow.\r\n\r\n\u201cA lot of problems can\u2019t be solved just by clicking a button,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to put different pieces together.\u201d\r\n\r\nHis overarching goal was to help his students understand that solving complex problems\u2014like those they will eventually confront in their workplaces\u2014requires a lot of data, analysis, collaboration, and hard work."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":468632,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Notebooks is designed to help users better collaborate with other analysts and data scientists, a concept that Davis wanted to carry into the foundation of his class. ArcGIS Notebooks is built on top of the Jupyter Notebook, an open-source web application that allows users to create and share documents that contain live Python code, visualizations, and text. As a result, students can share their work and build on work that has already been created by others."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Adapting to Asynchronous Remote Learning<\/h2>\r\nOne of the biggest problems Davis had planned to overcome was the students\u2019 diverse schedules and the potential need to quarantine due to COVID-19 at unpredictable times. With not much time to prepare, the class adopted an asynchronous remote learning approach. The schedule proved to be a challenge to navigate, given the complex nature of the class subject matter.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe tried to fix that with a virtual desktop, where they would log in to computers remotely, [but there was] internet lag, and just the software itself was really slow,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re teaching something that\u2019s already frustrating, adding another layer of frustration is not really what you want because students [may] give up.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen Davis\u2019s class moved completely online, he wanted to provide students with equitable computing resources to run GIS software.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe ability to put everything in the cloud meant that there was more equity in terms of students having access to all the tools that I felt we needed,\u201d Davis said. \u201cOpening up both ArcGIS and ArcPy in one platform in the cloud, I think, really rang a lot of bells for me.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":"","text":"There\u2019s a lot more stress and emphasis on how we communicate science to the general public. The philosophy I\u2019m trying to show students is to become better communicators of their process and to become a part of the reproducible-science movement.","author_name":"Dr. Tyler Davis","author_profession_organization":"Lecturer, College of William & Mary"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

The Value of Teaching Reproducibility<\/h2>\r\nGiven increased public skepticism of science as of late, Davis realized that his students should focus on careful processes that could easily be reproduced for testing and verification. By combining Python scripting with interactive visuals and descriptions, Notebooks allows students, researchers, and educators to explain their analyses in a dynamic, shareable work space.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more stress and emphasis on how we communicate science to the general public,\u201d Davis noted. \u201cThe philosophy I\u2019m trying to show students is to become better communicators of their process and to become a part of the reproducible-science movement.\u201d\r\n\r\nPart of the class requires students to choose a published paper and grade it on the project\u2019s reproducibility. In doing so, they see how others have put together projects and gain an understanding of advanced geospatial techniques. Students are encouraged to work together so they can evaluate how others approach problem-solving with varying levels of knowledge and experience."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Creating a Workflow Conducive to Problem-Solving<\/h2>\r\nNotebooks is designed to ensure that users can better collaborate with other analysts and data scientists. With this software implemented in Davis\u2019s classroom, students gained relevant experience with sharing their work and building on work that others have already created."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":468642,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cNotebooks can be a part of the production line for communicating science through Esri\u2019s ecosystem of applications,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAll of these apps work well together.\u201d\r\n\r\nOf all the benefits that Notebooks brought to Davis\u2019s class, perhaps the most useful is that the software enables students to show their transferable skills to a potential employer. Davis provides students with nine different Notebooks tutorials on foundational topics, including programming basics. Students finish the class with an understanding of how and why programming is used, as well as the ability to visually show their work, which can help them acquire an internship or a job.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you\u2019re solving problems where you have scale and time considerations\u2026you can start to show students how to take advantage of programming to meet those challenges,\u201d Davis said.\r\n\r\nFor the future of the Center for Geospatial Analysis, Davis envisions a community where mapping and spatial analysis are essentially ubiquitous in teaching and learning, research, and campus support. His multifaceted class, backed by supportive tools, has proved to be a significant step forward in this."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nGiving Students a Dynamic, Shareable Work Space with ArcGIS Notebooks | ArcNews | Fall 2021<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Days before the summer 2020 term began, a university lecturer adopted an asynchronous remote learning approach. 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