Creating a Virtual Field Course

It is uncertain if field trips for undergraduate students will run in the next academic year. That shouldn't mean that students need to miss out completely. It will never replace the full field experience, but ArcGIS can provide a virtual window into the field.  

What do you need: 

•  ArcGIS Identity  - your login details
• Content – your photos and data from previous trips 
• Field knowledge – you’ve got that covered 
• A sprinkle of ArcGIS Online skills 

Ultimately the output will blend data collection, secondary datasets, photos, videos, maps and 3D visualisations in an interactive package for students to engage with.

We are going to start with a simple photo tour driven by a map and build your skills to be able to deliver an interactive field experience. Running a virtual field course should feel supplementary to your current approach to field courses.

The example below is from the University of East Anglia taking advantage of previous site knowledge and trips into the field.

If this has peaked your interested then there are a wealth of resources available to help you get started:

1.  Anatomy of a StoryMap 
2.  Create your first guided tour in ArcGIS StoryMaps 
3.  Add immersive photos to your StoryMap 

We have created a demonstration Virtual Field Course around Cyprus for you to see what you will be able to create with the above guides.

Working within the ArcGIS Platform means that you will be able to provide interactive materials to enhance student engagement with learning resources.

You may wish to create your own experiences to enable users to turn on and off individual layers. Applications can be tailored to support user's needs and requirements.

We expect it is likely that module staff have resources from previous trips which they will want to integrate into their virtual field course. This might include photographs, data collection results or field notebooks with sketches.

If you want to learn how to create an interactive map and application from scratch you can follow the learning path here:

Module staff can then embed these applications directly into StoryMaps to create the immersive experience for students. The GIF below shows you it really is as simple as providing a website URL.

There are a number of different applications you may wish to explore below, all are included within the ArcGIS site licence:

•  Web AppBuilder  - GIS apps that run on any device. No coding required.
•  Dashboards  - interactive visualisations to present data.
•  Survey123  - smarter forms for collecting data.

We created an example application showcasing the geological landscapes in Cyprus which can be accessed below, this was made with Web AppBuilder:

One of the benefits of visiting a study site is for students to walk around and inspect the notable features. Adding this 3rd dimension helps to bring your virtual field course to life. In this GIF, we can see the BGS 50k Geology layer draped over the Isle of Arran.

Within ArcGIS Online module staff can create 3D Scenes offering a similar dynamic to students. The link below demonstrates an example of representing geology in 3D:

For institutions with access to Edina Digimaps Premium Data, it is possible to access WMS layers through ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro. Edina have produced the following StoryMap which you can view to find out how to bring these into the ArcGIS Platform:

Access is provided through ArcGIS Online with each student having an identity to access resources.  Single Sign-On  can be enabled to allow students to login with their University Enterprise accounts.

Working within the ArcGIS Platform means that module staff or students can share data, maps or documents through  Groups in ArcGIS Online.  

Maintaining a resource for use over multiple years should be less of a burden on individual workload.

We hope that exploring the resources shared above will excite you when thinking about how you might want to implement a virtual field course to supplement student's learning.

The Higher Education team have also created  a resource for module staff in different departments beyond geography  and earth science degrees.