For my final post, I will provide a brief reflection on my project work this semester along with some examples/ideas for the StoryMaps tutorial (building on what I discussed in the last reflection post).

Project Work Reflection

I’m happy with how my work on the Mapping Black Churches project ended up. This semester we focused on creating a tour via StoryMaps, which I think was a much better platform than Google Maps, given what we wanted to accomplish. Now, there is a completed tour of the church locations in Des Moines and it will be easy for future fellows, Professor Purcell, or people from the Iowa Black History Research Collective to add information about the churches as that knowledge is collected. Overall, I think this project also provided me with good experience in how these types of projects can take time, especially when you are working with an outside organization that someone runs on top of their normal job. Timelines when coordinating with multiple people look different than in the classroom where you often have tight deadlines. Being thorough and intentional about each step in the process worked better for this type of project. 

StoryMaps Tutorial

In my last reflection post, I talked about how the StoryMaps tutorial does not give students the opportunity to practice adding maps. The current StoryMaps template that the tutorial walks you through includes a map (here is the final result from that template). However, the files that students are supposed to download for that template include only the images and text. I made an ArcGIS map that could be included in the file that students download for the tutorial. It is public at the Grinnell Organization level and can be found through the title “ArcGIS Tutorial Map.”

Additionally, I talked about how it could be helpful to highlight more of the features that are available in StoryMaps by listing the names and providing information on where to find those tools.

For instance:

Guided Map Tours: here is a helpful walkthrough

Briefings (essentially a presentation-style version of StoryMaps): Here is a tutorial on how to create briefings

Another note for future updates to trainings — I’ve worked with a couple of students on ArcGIS and they have all been using the New Map Viewer instead of Map Viewer Classic. I think it might be helpful to have a section of the training in the New Map Viewer format. I understand that we are trained in Map Viewer Classic because the new version is missing some features. However, it would be helpful to be exposed to some of the new features/page set-up in New Map Viewer before working with students. I learned about the features in New Map Viewer while working with the students and then I was able to lean on My Map Viewer Classic training to offer suggestions and help troubleshoot. So, being trained on both can help you understand which format is better for certain tasks and how to troubleshoot common issues (particularly with layer and file uploads).

For my professional development project, I am still working on reviewing the StoryMaps tutorial. At this point, I have identified a couple of concrete suggestions for edits or additions to the StoryMaps tutorial.

First: I think it would be helpful to include more information about how to add maps to your StoryMaps. The current StoryMaps template that the tutorial walks you through includes a map (final result from that template). However, the files that students are supposed to download for that template include only the images and text. Therefore, I think that by following this template, people are not actually getting practice with adding maps to their StoryMaps. I tested this out by downloading the files, and I could not find the map included in the example final result.

Esri has a tutorial on how to add maps to StoryMaps, so maybe it would be helpful to include some of those steps or at least link to the tutorial.

Second: I think it would be helpful to highlight more of the features that are available in StoryMaps. This doesn’t necessarily mean including new tutorials or in-depth explanations for how to use those tools. I think just listing the names and providing information on where to find those tools would be helpful. The purpose of this would be to help expand people’s perspectives on what StoryMaps can be used for and help students brainstorm ideas.

Specifically, I think that type of section should list tools like the map tour option and briefings (the slides format that also lets you embed maps).

Third: This is kind of similar to the second suggestion, but it could be useful to have another section that is updated with links/summaries on the new features/tools that Esri has released for StoryMaps. This could include features like Briefings (which allows users to make presentations on StoryMaps). The section could include links to Esri tutorials on the new features. The purpose of including this information would be to ensure that the training stays up-to-date without having to redo it every couple of years. Also, it could help students brainstorm ideas for how to use StoryMaps (like the purpose of my second suggestion).

For my professional development project this semester, I will be working on reviewing and editing Vivero training, beginning with the StoryMaps tutorial.

My next steps will be to do a more in depth analysis of the tutorial, along with the training video to identify the strengths and gaps in the training.

I think there are aspects that would be helpful for the training to include, such as the tour feature. I discovered this tool by searching whether people had used StoryMaps to create virtual tours in the past. Therefore, part of my review of the training will include researching whether there are other tools that would be helpful to include (or may have been released since the training was created).

Additionally, I think the current StoryMap tutorial is broadly helpful, however, one limitation is that the example you use to follow along is a very structured story with a beginning, middle, and end. I think StoryMaps can be useful even if you don’t have a linear story or project – so I want to make sure that students / Vivero fellows don’t view StoryMaps as a narrowly applicable tool. However, I will also have to balance this with not letting the training get too long or overly detailed. So this is a consideration I will have to remember for the future. In order to address that limitation, I may also look for new sources/examples that students could use as content when going through the training.

Finally, after identifying all of the gaps, I will make a plan for how to bet edit the training to address the gaps while keeping the training clear and accessible. By the end of the month, I hope to have identified clear suggestions for edits / created a new draft of the training.

One important thing I learned this semester is that you can do a lot of work and still not see it reflected in a visible product. However, that work is still valuable, particularly in how it brings up questions about the data, the method, the digital platform, etc. Those questions/issues will eventually come up when working on the project, so it is actually helpful to have them come up earlier in the process rather than later. Unfortunately, this sometimes made it feel like I was not progressing as much as I should have been. However, my project lead was very appreciative of the work that I had done and I think I am set up in a good position to make some progress next semester that results in a usable product that can be published on the Black History Research Collective Website. So ultimately, I think my advice to my past self would be a reminder that progress is not always linear, and your work doesn’t have to show up in the form of a visible product or outcome for it still to be useful. 

The training model worked for the most part, although it sometimes felt repetitive because I was completing the same trainings that I did last year. The trainings were useful for refreshing my knowledge, but I found it hard to push myself to learn new, “next-level” skills because the trainings were not new and I had project work I wanted to complete.

For my faculty project, I spent most of my time working with Google Maps and thinking about how best to display the data that we had about Black churches in Iowa, give that there were a lot of limitations to the data. This brought up a lot of questions about how do you deal with different dates, addresses, etc. for locations / sites that may be historical but are not super well known. Within the last week, I realized that Google Maps is not actual the platform that will be the most helpful for the type of driving tour we are trying to create.  One of the first tasks for next semester will be to find the right platform for the driving tour. Other goals for the semester are to create a Story Map with information about some of the churches and to conduct more research on the history of some of the churches.

I created documentation for the project through a Google Drive folder. I found Google Drive to be the easiest method for documentation because the data on the churches came in the form of a Google Sheet and for most of the semester I used Google Maps. Therefore, with the google drive folder, all of those documents, spreadsheets, and maps can be in the same place. At some point next semester, my project lead and I will have to figure out a way to maintain the project information and documentation after I graduate, which may mean creating a new Drive folder through my project lead’s email and creating copies of the documents. Also, next semester I will make sure to add in a document that summarizes the work that has been done as well as challenges/considerations for the next fellow who is working on this project to consider. I have to clean up a couple of the documents in the folder, but then it will be ready to share with Tierney and Libby.

Building off of my experiences with Google Drive, spreadsheets, and Google Maps, I am interested in exploring more about those types of tools. I will focus on how to help students use them more effectively, particularly when for students working on digital projects.

As I mentioned in my last check-in email, my plan for a next-level project for the spring semester is to learn more about and teach others how to get the most out of the platforms that we use regularly in school/work. My first step is to identify the platforms that I think are most relevant for students. I need some more time to reflect on this and I’d like to chat about this in my check-in. But I think one area I definitely want to cover would be spreadsheets. I want to focus on platforms/features that would make student work more efficient but aren’t necessarily taught depending on your major/classes. Then, next semester, I could find and complete existing tutorials for those platforms. After I have built up my skills, I will identify the skills or features most helpful for students to know. Finally, I could develop my own tutorials or handouts to show students how to use those features. Conducting a workshop would be cool, but I think given the limited time in the semester, it would be better to focus on something like a handout or video that can be used after I graduate.