Integrating ArcGIS Online StoryMaps in Systematic Geography Courses

Paul McDaniel, PhD
1 min readOct 16, 2023
Photo by NASA on Unsplash

“Amid the shift to virtual teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, educators across disciplines were faced with developing new teaching strategies for active learning and significant learning experiences,” begins the abstract to our recent open access article, “Integrating ArcGIS Online and Digital Story Mapping for Active Learning in Systematic Geography Courses,” co-authored with Uli Ingram and published October 11, 2023, online in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

As the abstract continues, “This paper discusses findings from a case study of integrating ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps for assignments and semester projects in systematic geography courses — health, population, and urban geography. The study assesses the process of incorporating the use of this technology into these upper-division undergraduate courses, with a mix of both geography and non-geography majors, and student perspectives on their learning of and engagement with this technology. With broader applications to different course, discipline, and education contexts, findings suggest increased student engagement, enhanced understanding of course topics and their practical applications, and an appreciation for the opportunity to learn within and work with geospatial technology.”

The article is available here from the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

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Paul McDaniel, PhD

Associate Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Kennesaw State University in metro Atlanta, Georgia.