A New Esri Academy Experience Is Here

By Esri Digital Experience

For nearly three decades, Esri Academy has helped GIS professionals, students, and organizations build skills, earn certifications, and unlock the full value of ArcGIS. Today, we are excited to introduce a redesigned Esri Academy experience that makes it easier to discover, access, and manage learning resources.

The new experience features a refreshed visual design, streamlined navigation, and a more intuitive learning journey aligned with the broader Esri.com ecosystem. Guided by customer feedback and usability research, the redesign was created to help learners find the training they need more quickly and confidently, whether they are just getting started with ArcGIS or expanding their expertise.

Two screenshots of the Esri Academy home page illustrating how it looked before and after the redesign. — The entire Esri Academy experience was reimagined to improve how learners interact with Esri. The legacy experience is featured on the left and the updated home page is featured on the right.

Designed Around How People Learn

Learning is not a one-size-fits-all journey. Some learners arrive at Esri Academy looking for a specific course. Others are exploring career paths, preparing for certification, or building expertise in a new area of GIS.

The redesigned experience focuses on helping learners navigate these journeys more effectively through improved organization and simplified discovery. Training resources are easier to browse, topics and focus areas have been expanded and reorganized, and the overall experience more closely aligns with conventions used across Esri.com.

The result is a cleaner, more connected experience that helps learners spend less time searching and more time developing new skills.

Gradient decorative divider from blue to orange.

A Better Learning Plans Experience

Learning Plans are one of Esri Academy’s most valuable resources, helping learners follow structured pathways that support certification goals, career development, and skill-building initiatives.

A man in a green unbuttoned shirt and white T-shirt smiles to the right next to bright maps in boxes.

The redesigned site introduces a dedicated experience for curated Learning Plans. Rather than being surfaced alongside individual courses in the catalog, Learning Plans now have their own destination, creating a more guided experience for learners pursuing specific objectives. User-created Learning Plans remain available and continue to be managed through My Learning Plans.

This change makes it easier for learners to identify recommended learning paths and build a plan that’s aligned with their goals.

An Updated My Academy Experience

My Academy has also been redesigned with a cleaner and more personalized experience.

The new dashboard helps learners manage certifications, track training activity, review learning progress, and access the resources most relevant to them. By simplifying how information is presented in My Academy, the experience supports both new and experienced learners as they manage their ongoing professional development.

A screenshot of the new dashboard highlighting cards with relevant training results. — The new My Academy Dashboard highlights each learner's progress and helps people navigate to key areas of the site like courses and certifications. Note: You must log in to access your dashboard.

Enhancements for Certification Candidates

Certification continues to be an important part of many learners’ professional journeys, and several improvements have been made to support that experience.

A smiling woman in glasses and long dark hair is surrounded by floating, colorful maps in boxes and certification badges.

Exam voucher purchasing has been simplified, making it easier for learners to find the resources they need. The Certification Directory has also been enhanced with a new interactive map experience that allows certified individuals who choose to participate to showcase their accomplishments.

These updates help strengthen the certification experience while making related resources easier to discover.

What’s Changing

As part of the redesign, some features have been renamed or retired to create a more streamlined experience.

Changes include:

Wish List is now Bookmarks
Help is now FAQ
Community Learning Plans are retired
Are You Ready Assessments are retired

While some functionality has evolved, the goal remains the same: helping learners quickly find and engage with the resources they need most.

Building a Foundation for the Future

This redesign is more than a visual refresh. Esri Academy has undergone a significant platform modernization as well, creating a stronger foundation for future innovation. The new platform enables closer alignment with Esri.com standards while creating opportunities for improved analytics, ongoing optimization, and future personalization.

The launch also introduces the first implementation of Global Navigation Notifications, allowing learners to receive targeted Academy updates directly within their Esri.com experience when they are logged in.

As learner needs continue to evolve, this new foundation will help Esri continue improving how customers discover and consume learning content.

Thank You

The new Esri Academy reflects the feedback, ideas, and needs of the learners who use Esri Academy every day. We are grateful to everyone who helped shape this new experience and look forward to continuing to improve it over time.

Explore the new Esri Academy experience and continue your learning journey today.

Esri Digital Experience

We’re an extensive team of digital experience enthusiasts who are responsible for managing many Esri websites. If you're browsing product pages, signing up for an event, shopping in the Esri Store or doing anything else on our sites, we're the team behind the scenes enabling your experience. We'll keep you posted with relevant updates here.

ArcGIS Blog