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COVID-19 training resources for Canadians

Published Date
Author Carole Arseneau

Maps are playing an integral role in our understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic response. There is a plethora of location-based data coming out of most countries around the world right now and this data is helping create maps that highlight areas which are more affected or at higher risk of infection. Read on to find out how GIS professionals and others can take advantage of a unique combination of training-related resources from Esri Canada and Esri being offered to Canadians.

During these unprecedented times, we understand that you need to be able to quickly stand up COVID-19 response solutions for your organization and adapt to this new reality. To support you in this, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to help GIS professionals and others find their way through the many training resources available. Our goal is to help you understand, prepare for and respond to COVID-19.

The following includes self-paced items, available either for free or at no extra cost to users with qualifying maintenance on their licenses, and instructor-led courses, available for a fee on our open enrollment schedule or as private sessions for groups.

New GIS users

If you’re new to GIS, this category will help you understand what GIS is and how GIS can be used to support your organization’s response to COVID-19. It also introduces Esri’s cloud solution, ArcGIS Online, which allows you to quickly configure information products like interactive maps, web applications and more using templates, all directly in a web browser.

Mapping COVID-19 cases

No matter if you are using your own authoritative data or getting data from other trusted resources, you will need to add data to a map to efficiently keep track of the evolving situation. To create maps of cases, modify their visual aspect and bring to light the information you want to present, you will need new skills if you don’t have prior experience. This category focuses on an introduction to ArcGIS Pro that will teach you how to manipulate your data and make it visually say what you want to say.

Performing risk, location and capacity analysis

Monitoring the spread of COVID-19 in your area, identifying where the most vulnerable populations live and finding where the demand is most likely to surpass capacity are some of the questions that can be answered using spatial analysis. This category will provide step-by-step workflows that will allow you to answer these and similar questions and explore scenarios with your data.

Communicating COVID-19 information with maps

Communicating trends to help others understand COVID-19’s impact on people and infrastructure requires an interactive summary of the situation. With ArcGIS StoryMaps and ArcGIS Dashboard, it’s possible to create dynamic communication tools. ArcGIS Hub then enables you to gather those tools on your own COVID-19 response site. Learning resources in this category provide details about deploying one or all of these solutions for communicating with the public or with other internal staff and trusted partners.

To help you easily use and share these training resources, we’ve created a Learning Plan that includes all the self-paced items listed above. You can copy the plan to your own Esri Academy account to track progress. It’s also possible to assign the plan to others within your organization.

For the instructor-led courses, you can use the links in the categories above to see when they are offered and register using our self-serve registration system. You can also look for other ArcGIS training in our course catalogue.

Other interesting resources

Esri Disaster Response Program COVID-19 Learning Resources

If you require assistance in accessing these resources, or with registration in one of our instructor-led courses, contact us.

About the Author

Carole Arseneau is a Market Research Specialist at Esri Canada. Over the years, she has advised customers from all industries on how to leverage GIS in their organizations. More recently, she’s been conducting market research to uncover details about the various jobs our customers do each day in various industries. This will help inform Esri Canada’s corporate strategy and better support our customers. Carole holds a Market Research certificate from the University of California, Davis, a GIS certificate from Florida State College in Jacksonville and a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Laval University in Québec City. Being by the water has always made her feel at home and has given her inspiration to keep a positive outlook in life.

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