Storymap Tutorial

Karst Geomorphology

Email leah.fulton@uvic.ca with any questions about Storymaps and ArcGIS Online!

Assignment Instructions

Each interest group will give a ~10-15- minute presentation on their topic to the rest of the class via Zoom, June 20 from 5-7pm. Your attendance is required. Not attending will result in a serious mark penalty from your group mark. We will invite our community partners to attend (Our UVCC friends and Canyoneer partners, Horne Lake Caves guides, etc.)

You should prepare your presentation as a Storymap, with ArcGIS being the preferred type of Storymap (since there will be geospatial components to your projects). Consider your presentation here preparation for final presentations to your client about the questions you analyzed and information you collected and assessed (you won’t be giving these presentations to a client, but you could be in the real world!) Consider adding these final products to your portfolio to show future employers.

Assessment

  • Presentation style and effectiveness of delivery
    • Equal group participation, well-thought out summary, concisely and professionally presented (5 marks)
  • Visual content: accurate with clearly addressed research topic
    • A beautiful Storymap product overall that can stand on its own and can be shared with community partners (8 marks)
  • Storymap Formatting: Organization of Storymap is clear and concise
    • Figures used effectively, text is clear and to the point, references cited correctly in-text and at end, professional language, clear sentence structure and correct spelling, etc. You should include standard scientific sections like intro, methods, results, discussions, and conclusions (but you can call them different things). (6 marks)
  • Handling of presentation questions. (3 marks)
  • Inclusion of acknowledgements to appropriate team helpers (UVCC, Map Shop, etc.) (1 mark).

Intro to Storymaps

Storymaps are a great way to display geographic information along with a narrative or any kind of text. They are more visually appealing and digestible than individual maps or other kinds of documents. Complex topics can be presented in an easily digestible manner, which allows technical information to be understood by more people. The mapping functions in the program provide a sense of place and can illustrate spatial relationships much more than static articles containing text and images. The narrative functions provide context to raw geographic data that may be difficult to present through maps alone. They bring maps to life by immersing readers in place-based knowledge.

Storymaps are also valuable for educating people with different learning styles because of the wide range of possible media like maps, images, and audio, as well as the interactive features that engage the reader. They can be used in place of software like Powerpoint for more engaging presentations, or as standalone documents to be shared and published.

Some examples of storymaps that show the range of possiblities:

Creating a new Storymap

Go to  https://storymaps.arcgis.com/  and log into your account. Click "New story" and choose "Start from scratch".

Header features

The "Design" button in the header allows you to change the title layout and choose a theme. I would recommend leaving this until you have content on the page.

The "Preview" button allows you to see what the Storymap will look like when it is published. Its easier to see formatting issues in this display, so i would check it throughout the creation process.

The "Publish" button is for when you are ready to share your Storymap. You have the option to keep it private, share it with the organization (UVic), or share it publically. You will get more guidance on necessary permissions and consent later on.

Adding content

Click the (+) to add content blocks. Using a variety can make your Storymap more visually engaging. This section of the tutorial is made in a "Sidecar", one of the immersive content options., where text blocks scroll next to media like images, videos, and maps.

Writing text

When creating basic text blocks, you can highlight the text to change the formatting. You can also insert a link.

When writing large blocks of text, it is safer to do it in an external document rather than directly in Storymaps, because if the site crashes you could lose all your work.

Sidecar tips

Sidecars can be comprised of images, maps, or both

You can use sidecars to zoom in on the relevant parts of the map.

Creating a map

Express maps

There are a few different ways to create a map that can be added to your Storymap. The easiest way is through an express map, which allows you to create a map without leaving the Storymap page. You can add points, lines, polygons, and some other simple design elements. If you are just mapping a few points or routes, this is likely all you need. There is no expectation of doing more complex mapping for this course, but if you have GIS experience you may want to try the other options.


ArcGIS Online maps

Sketch layers

For more complex maps, or maps that you want to be able to share outside of your Storymap, use  ArcGIS Online . This is also where you can organize your files, including the Storymap, into folders. Clicking on the "Map" tab will open a blank map. If you just want to create simple elements, you can create a Sketch layer in the blank map, which has similar features to an express map. The editing window should pop up on the right-hand side, giving you the drawing and symbology options. Save your map frequently to prevent lost work, and give it a recognizable name so you can easily identify it when inserting it into your Storymap. To learn more about sketch layers, check out Esri's tutorial "Create sketch layers".

The map below, showing the route of the Europe field school, was created with a sketch layer.

"EuropeFieldSchoolMap"

Creating and uploading layers

To create or upload a more complex layer that has an attribute table attached, navigate to the "Content" tab and click the "New item" button. You can upload an existing file (e.g. a shapefile) or create a new feature layer. To define new fields in the attribute table, click on the layer in your content, navigate to the "Data" tab and then the "Fields" tab. Click the "Add" button to define new fields. Once your layer is created, you can open it in a new map and add features. Be sure to save your map. Add it to your Storymap by clicking (+), clicking "Map", and selecting it from the content pane. If you make edits to the map in ArcGIS Online after, it will automatically be updated in your Storymap.

Jill has provided some geographic data that might be useful to you:

These types of layers are not needed for your projects, but if you have previous GIS experience you may want to explore it.

Guide to Referencing

You can reference source material either by including it in the body text in brackets (e.g., [Source: Esri - Digital Storytelling with Storymaps], or you can save space by inserting footnotes or endnotes using superscripts. To insert superscripts, write the number of the citation, highlight it, click the triple-dot menu, and click "Superscript". Then write the number in the "Content" section below with the corresponding citation. For this class, you will be expected to use APA style.  Here is a link to APA guidelines from UVic Libraries. 

Example:

(Jackson, 2005)

Jackson, J. (2005). Reconciling resource development and protection of endangered species. New Canadian Journal of Political Science, 38(2), 116–124.

or

1

Jackson, J. (2005). Reconciling resource development and protection of endangered species. New Canadian Journal of Political Science, 38(2), 116–124.