School districts, colleges, and universities are similar to small cities: they have large and varied GIS needs. From mapping physical assets to protecting the safety of students and staff to planning the location of new buildings, all require the use of GIS and the targeted assistance of ESRI business partners.
Which GIS solutions best fit your needs? Click the topics below that best match the GIS tasks your educational organization seeks to accomplish.
Success with GIS and other geospatial technologies requires curricular materials that respond to education user needs. These partners have tailored curricular and training materials and/or are involved with GIS lesson and content design.
CITYgreen is an ArcGIS extension designed to explore the local ecological and economic value of trees. It comes with companion curricular materials. Instructor-led training is available.
Center for Image Processing in Education (CIPE) and its sister entities design curricular packages and training programs. Recent projects have focused on studying marine environments with GIS.
Land Change Modeler is an ArcGIS extension for analyzing and predicting land-cover change and implications for biodiversity. Tutorial resources are available.
Geospatial workforce education/training is the focus at Digital Quest, Inc. (DQI). Using ArcGIS and standard extensions, DQI creates course packages to build job/industry skills and competencies.
Digital Worlds' GIS is custom-built for education including curricular support. Designed with ArcGIS technology, it offers a limited but tailored set of GIS tools and functions.
Curricular development, training, and GIS data services are primary focal points for Entrada/San Juan, with a spotlight on geosciences, natural resources, and hazards.
GISetc is devoted to advancing GIS and other technologies in a variety of educational settings. The company designs curriculum and training scenarios to match user needs.
ENVI 4.5, premier remote-sensing software from ITT-VIS, provides seamless integration with ArcGIS. A rich set of instructor-led courses and online tutorials is available.
Besides self-study, success with GIS and other geospatial technologies can be greatly enhanced via face-to-face instruction. These partners offer various kinds of training activities and venues for the education community.
CITYgreen is an ArcGIS extension designed to explore the local ecological and economic value of trees. It comes with companion curricular materials. Instructor-led training is available.
Geospatial workforce education/training is the focus at DQI. Using ArcGIS and standard extensions, DQI creates course packages to build job/industry skills and competencies.
Digital Worlds' GIS is custom-built for education including curricular support. Designed with ArcGIS technology, it offers a limited but tailored set of GIS tools and functions.
Curricular development, training, and GIS data services are primary focal points for Entrada/San Juan, with a spotlight on geosciences, natural resources, and hazards.
GIS 2 GPS has a primary focus on two key geospatial technologies and ways they can be incorporated in the classroom and in field-based research. Face-to-face training is a key.
GISetc is devoted to advancing GIS and other technologies in a variety of educational settings. The company designs curriculum and training scenarios to match user needs.
ENVI 4.5, premier remote-sensing software from ITT-VIS, provides seamless integration with ArcGIS. A rich set of instructor-led courses and online tutorials is available.
ESRI GIS software products form a solid core of geospatial tools; however, partners (including parts of ESRI) are constantly creating tailored plug-ins and bridging applications. These partners have tools that can take GIS instruction to new levels in focused areas.
The Capturx extension for ArcGIS allows users to digitize field data from paper maps and integrate updates into ArcMap. It ranges from environmental to facilities management.
CITYgreen is an ArcGIS extension designed to explore the local ecological and economic value of trees. It comes with companion curricular materials. Instructor-led training is available.
Land Change Modeler is an ArcGIS extension for analyzing and predicting land-cover change and implications for biodiversity. Tutorial resources are available.
Digital Worlds' GIS is custom-built for education including curricular support. Designed with ArcGIS technology, it offers a limited but tailored set of GIS tools and functions.
Business Analyst Online provides detailed demographic, social, and economic data, maps, and reports for a range of geographic areas and uses (e.g., enrollment research).
IBM offers a range of information technology solutions for education, from database management tools and training to system virtualization for instruction and administration.
ENVI 4.5, premier remote-sensing software from ITT-VIS, provides seamless integration with ArcGIS. A rich set of instructor-led courses and online tutorials is available.
FME 2008 is an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool for spatial data, with support for more than 200 different data formats. Safe Software also has a grant program for education.
GeoRover for ArcGIS is an extension that includes field data collection; geospatial feature data creation, editing, and management; and data fusion tools.
TreeWorks is an extension for use with ArcGIS and ArcPad. Tree inventories are the core function, but once mapped, updates are easy, as are planning and tracking maintenance, etc.
Visual Learning Systems
HE
Feature Analyst for ArcGIS extracts geospatial features from remote-sensing data and imagery. Tutorials, videos, project summaries, and workflows are available for education.
Where do we place a new building? From where will our future students come? How do we best configure our boundaries to balance student and staff loads? What demographic approaches would help us plan a market research campaign? The following solution providers are focused on answering these and other GIS questions.
Cropper GIS is a consulting firm specializing in redistricting, demographic analysis, site suitability studies, and data development for educational institutions.
SchoolSite is the Davis Demographics & Planning, Inc. (DDP), premier ArcGIS extension. Its functions include geocoding, enrollment studies, boundary planning, and site scenarios. SchoolSite Online is now available.
DeJONG provides a range of GIS services to school districts—geocoding and mapping of students and facilities, demographic analysis, enrollment studies, and boundary planning.
Business Analyst Online provides detailed demographic, social, and economic data, maps, and reports for a range of geographic areas and uses (e.g., enrollment research).
School Planner is an ArcGIS extension for boundary and school facilities planning, demographic analysis, enrollment studies, and other key geographic analyses.
How do we most efficiently get our students to and from school? What tailored approaches should we investigate for special needs students? How do we best route the delivery of supplies across campus? Where do we place bus stops and walk zones? The following solution providers are focused on answering these and related questions using GIS.
ACTIbus is a student transportation information system designed as an ArcGIS 9.2 extension. Features include automated routing, time and distance calculations, and more.
ArcLogistics is a complete routing and scheduling solution. In the education market, it is proving effective for special needs bussing and district/campus logistics.
Smartr for ArcGIS is an automated scheduling and routing application. It offers an array of data management, geocoding, tracking, assignment, walk zone analysis, and other features.
Compass School Bus Routing System provides GIS-based route creation, editing, and management. Other standard district automated transportation features are included.
Making the best decisions requires data, and lots of it. This requires new ways of managing, collapsing, and sharing data and the tools needed for analysis. These partners offer tools and approaches in performing these and other tasks including tying data to place for deeper analysis.
Partner Name
Focus
Solution Description
ARCHIBUS
K–12, HE
ARCHIBUS Geospatial Extensions for ESRI brings together interior/exterior data for sites, space, infrastructure, and physical assets with GIS. Education institutions are major users.
IBM offers a range of information technology solutions for education, from database management tools and training to system virtualization for instruction and administration.
ImageNow Interact for ESRI is the marriage of business document management and GIS. Use ArcGIS desktop or server technology to retrieve any location-linked documents.
FME 2008 is an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool for spatial data with support for more than 200 different data formats. Safe Software also has a grant program for education.
The SAS Bridge for ESRI provides an easy linkage between tabular SAS data and analytic results with spatial data in the ArcGIS environment, improving decision making.
Visual Learning Systems
K–12, HE
Feature Analyst for ArcGIS extracts geospatial features from remote-sensing data and imagery. Tutorial, videos, project summaries, and workflows are available for education.
Educational organizations are physical entities—buildings, infrastructure, and land are only the beginning. Inventorying, managing, and operating this physical setting and all exterior and interior assets requires GIS. These partners provide software and/or services that address facilities management (FM) activities—some task focused, others broadly inclusive.
CITYgreen is an ArcGIS extension designed to explore the local ecological and economic value of trees. It comes with companion curricular materials. Training is available.
ARCHIBUS
K–12, HE
ARCHIBUS Geospatial Extensions for ESRI brings together interior/exterior data for sites, space, infrastructure, and physical assets with GIS. Education institutions are major users.
Boyle Consulting provides a range of GIS project/database design and implementation, engineering analysis, aerial photography, and a new ArcGIS Server application, InSiteful Imagery.
Jacobs Engineering (Carter Burgess) has a full-service GIS consulting arm with specialization in campuswide geospatial project design and implementation including CAD-GIS integration.
ArborVue is an urban tree inventory and management suite. It combines GPS and ArcPad for fieldwork and ArcGIS and Microsoft SQL Server for visualization, analysis, and data management.
PenBay Media provides geospatial services tied to interior/exterior visualization and analysis, ArcGIS Server implementation, and overall project planning and consulting.
Psomas brings its land development engineering skills together with GIS to provide clients with asset management, infrastructure modeling, planning, and related FM solutions.
GeoRover for ArcGIS is an extension that includes field data collection; geospatial feature data creation, editing, and management; and data fusion tools.
TreeWorks is an extension for use with ArcGIS and ArcPad. Tree inventories are the core function, but once mapped, updates are easy, as are planning and tracking maintenance, etc.
Visual Learning Systems
K–12, HE
Feature Analyst for ArcGIS extracts geospatial features from remote-sensing data/imagery. Tutorial, videos, project summaries, and workflows are available for education.
Wade Trim provides surveying, engineering, and consulting services. As long-time ESRI GIS users, they apply these tools/skills to areas including FM for educational institutions.
WennSoft provides asset inventory, management, tracking, and financial data services with GIS for better planning and decision making including for educational institutions.
Places of learning and the students, faculty, and staff within them should be safe. This is not always the case. Natural and human-spawned hazards are present. GIS can be helpful in planning against such events and in responding to them, which includes saving property and lives. These partners offer software, data, and alert systems that recognize the importance of geography in tackling these issues.
CrimeView and FireView are ArcGIS extensions. While they are designed with general public safety agencies in mind, school districts and universities are using them for their safety issues.
WeatherBug Professional
K–12, HE
WeatherBug Professional offers a range of GIS-ready live weather and forecasting data services. WeatherBug also offers location-based mobile weather threat notification services.
Request for access to geographic data by various educational stakeholders (external and internal) is climbing. Internet and intranet expansion is driving it. Publicly available school and bus stop locators, campus and facilities maps, and boundary planning sites are examples of some of the access points being built. The following partners have Web tools and/or services that make these possible.
Avencia specializes in Web-based geographic application development, analysis, and modeling for government, nonprofit, and academic clients such as the U.S. Department of Education, University of Pennsylvania, and the School District of Philadelphia.
Blue Raster provides customized Web mapping solutions using ESRI technology (ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS) as well as Adobe Flex. It offers broader GIS consulting services, too.
GIS Solutions is a full-service GIS consulting firm and offers support to educational institutions including intranet/Internet data access such as Web school locator applications.
OneGIS is a full-service GIS consulting firm and offers support to educational institutions including intranet/Internet data access such as Web school/bus stop locator applications.
The OnPoint suite is Web GIS (with ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS) combining an organization's (including education) spatial data and nonspatial data with map visualization and analysis.
PenBay Media provides geospatial services tied to interior/exterior visualization and analysis, ArcGIS Server implementation, and overall project planning and consulting.
Making most effective use of GIS and expanding its presence across an educational organization in administrative, IT, and related areas can require broad-spectrum outside help. Needs assessments, software installation/implementation, systems integration, and database development are but a few of the tasks this group of partners is prepared to tackle.
Working with GIS means working with other tools for tasks ranging from data collection to data dissemination. These hardware providers include organizations that market and support the use of GPS, field computers, geotagged digital photography, and other data collection/integration tools. The list also includes vendors focused on data display (Touch Table) and usability for the visually impaired (ViewPlus).
