Stay Informed with GIS247 News

What's New in ArcGIS Pro 3.3

Our look at the changes in ArcGIS Pro from version 3.2 to version 3.3 is available to view. The course is available under ArcGIS Pro 3.3.x courses for all licenced users.

Weather
We take a look at the new Weather tool available for global scenes. This allows your 3D scene to be augmented with simulated weather effects, including sunshine, rain, snow and fog.

ArcGIS Pro Presentations
We also take a look at the new Presentation function. Anyone familiar with Microsoft Powerpoint will be familiar with the type of presentation that can be generated. But an ArcGIS Pro presentation can include a live link to a map.

Exciting New Video Features Now Available!

We're thrilled to announce some exciting new features that will enhance your learning experience with our video content. These updates make it easier and more flexible for you to navigate through your videos while ensuring you get the most out of your learning.

Jump to Any Point in a Video
With our new seek functionality, you can now click on the progress bar under the video to jump to any point that you have previously watched. For example, if you've watched the first 30 seconds of a video, you can revisit and jump directly to that point at any time. This feature is designed to help you quickly resume where you left off, making your learning experience more seamless and efficient. Once you've watched a video in its entirety, you can skip to any point within the video.

Rewind and Replay Made Easy
We understand that sometimes you might want to rewatch a specific part of a video. With our new rewind button, you can now go back by five seconds at a time, allowing you to catch those important details without having to start over. Additionally, our replay button lets you restart the video from the beginning whenever you like, giving you complete control over your learning pace.

Ensuring Learning Integrity
To ensure the integrity of our assessments, forward-seeking within a video is limited to the furthest point you've watched. This ensures that you are fully engaging with the content in sequence. Once you've watched the entire video, you'll be able to jump to any point in the video at any time during future viewings.

Jump to Previously Watched Points:

• Easily Resume from where you left off in a video.
• Rewind Button: Go back by five seconds to review key information.
• Replay Button: Restart the video from the beginning whenever you want.
• Progress-Based Seeking: Forward-seeking is available up to the furthest point you've watched, ensuring complete engagement with the content.

New Courses for ArcGIS Pro version 3.2

A series of new training courses for version 3.2 are now available - Starting with ArcGIS Pro 3.2 - Intermediate Guide to ArcGIS Pro 3.2 - Mastering ArcGIS Pro 3.2 - Editing with ArcGIS Pro 3.2

All learners who's organisation has an Ultimate ArcGIS licence to GIS247 training can access these courses at no cost. If your organisation does not have an Ultimate licence you can now purchase access to individual courses via our new site at GIS247 SOLO

Tree Planting Success is Part of our Carbon Reduction Plan

The first trees that were planted as part of our carbon reduction plan are now 2 years old. These were planted in Wytham Woods in the UK.

Crataegus monogyna Species particularities Crataegus monogyna is one of the most common species used as the "hawthorn" of traditional herbalism. The plant parts used are usually sprigged with both leaves and flowers, or alternatively the fruit ("berries"). Hawthorn has been investigated by evidence-based medicine for treating cardiac insufficiency. Is a source of antioxidant phytochemicals, especially extracts of hawthorn leaves with flowers.

In line with UK policy, at Sological Solutions & GIS247 we are totally committed to achieving net zero by 2050. Our 2022 Carbon Reduction Report Plan can be viewed here.

Summer Newsletter 2023 is now available

Our latest newsletter for Summer 2023 is now available for all GIS247 account holders. Just log in and it's accessible on your My GIS247 page. Sign up for webinars on getting the most out of your GIS247 account and Using the Skills Framework.

Spring Newsletter 2023 is now available

Our latest newsletter for Spring 2023 is now available for all GIS247 account holders. Just log in and it's accessible on your My GIS247 page.

GIS247 LAUNCHES SKILLS FRAMEWORK

Using the GIS247 GIS & Geospatial Skills Framework is an effective method to assess, maintain, and monitor the knowledge, skills, and attributes of people in your organisation. The framework allows you to measure current competency levels to make sure your GIS users have the expertise needed to utilise the geospatial data and software invested in by your organisation. It also helps managers make informed decisions about talent recruitment, retention, and succession strategies. And, by identifying the specific knowledge and skills needed for each role, it enables you to provide access to the training and development your company really needs.

For your ORGANISATION the GIS247 GIS & Geospatial Skills Framework will • Ensure that your people demonstrate sufficient expertise • Recruit and select new staff more effectively • Evaluate performance more effectively • Identify skill and competency gaps more efficiently • Provide more customized training and professional development • Plan sufficiently for succession • Make change management processes work more efficiently

If you wish to attend a live Webinar for existing users please register HERE

Death of Queen Elizabeth II

It is with great sadness that we mourn the death of Her Majesty The Queen. She has been a constant in the lives of many across the UK and beyond. Queen Elizabeth II and has served us faithfully and we thank her. She will be sorely missed.

We have huge respect for the grace with which His Majesty King Charles III is now carrying on with his mothers service to our great nation. God Save the King.

On Monday 19th September we will close the office to mark our national day of mourning.

Official G Cloud 13 Supplier

GIS247 has been successfult in our application to Crown Commercial Service G Cloud 13 framework. This is for the provision of Training services. This is open from 9th November for any organisation on the framework to purchase GIS training.

Our Commitment to Net Zero

In line with UK policy, at Sological Solutions & GIS247 we are totally committed to achieving net zero by 2050. Our Carbon Reduction Plan can be viewed here.

Upgrade of Certificate Achievement Process

We have upgraded the assessment results process so once an assessment has been submitted, a summary of your achievement is available immediately AND the certificate is as well. To access your certificate simply click on the new Get Certificate option.

This upgraded improves the immediate availability of a certificate that has been earnt through hardwork and investing in developing your new GIS skills and knowledge.

All our eLearning remains fully accredited by a number of professional bodies PLUS you earn CPD points towards your individual Professional Development status. The record of your CPD achievements and earned certificates are also available on the Dashboards on your My GIS247 home page.

Speaker Confirmation at GEOBusiness: The Geospatial Event 2022

GIS247's Business Development & Learning Director Debbie Soloman has been confirmed as a speaker at this year's GEOBusiness event. Her talk is titled There is no wrong way to learn, but how do you learn?

This talk is ideal for managers who wish to support individuals in their team be successful with developing new skills. Learning points from the session include - Understanding the different learning styles - Determining your learning style and those of your team - Knowing useful tips and methods to support your learning style, ensuring that you learn effectively and enjoy it.

Debbie will be presenting her talk on the 18th May in the Future of the Profession Theatre. You can register to attend HERE

Updated Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement

In line with UK policy, at Sological Solutions & GIS247 is committed to preventing any form of slavery and/or human trafficking in its activities and to ensure that its Associated Parties are free from any form of slavery and/or human trafficking. Our updated Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement can be viewed here.

New Catalogs for ArcGIS and ArcGIS Pro released

GIS247 learners now have access to 2 new catalogs each comprising an entire suite of courses that takes learners from beginner level right through to advanced user. The catalog contents equates to over 115+ hours of ADDITIONAL training material that will update all skills to the latest versions of Esri software. The following courses for ArcGIS 10.8 are now fully available:

The following courses for ArcGIS Pro 2.9 are now fully available:

Recognition by RICS

We have received confirmation from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) that members can include any GIS247 course on their CPD record and assign the number of hours they took to complete it. Feedback from RICS:

We're delighted that GIS is recognised as a key skill for RICS members and that they have the mechanism for recording and being recognised for their efforts for professional development with GIS skills.

New Course Accredited by the RGS

We consider how you learn very seriously. That's why we apply for all our courses to be accredited by professional bodies. This is to ensure that we support our GIS learners in the development of their professional careers and to guarantee the quality of our training.

We're delighted that our latest course Editing with ArcGIS Pro has been fully accredited by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and now provides learners with CPD points once they have completed this GIS247 course.

Our courses are also accredited by the GIS Certification Institute and the AGI.

FREE MapInfo Learning Access

As we removed MapInfo training from our maintenance programme a while ago we decided to make available for FREE our historic learning content up to v. 12.5. MapInfo has changed its interface considerably since that version, however the functions and concepts remain the same. If you would like access – just like David - to our historical training for MapInfo do Contact Us to request access. Its free content and you may find it useful!

David Bamford, Performance and Systems Officer London Borough of Islington

New ArcGIS Pro Editing Course Released

Editing functionality in ArcGIS Pro is quite a departure from editing in the desktop software.

Because of this difference we decided to build a course specifically on the editing functionality of ArcGIS Pro. This enables those who need to, to specifically focus on the range of editing functions that are available; ensuring their data is captured and updated in a clean, consistent and logical manner.

The Editing course is comprised of 5 sections with video presentations plus 5 comprehensive hands-on editing exercises, giving over 5 hours of dedicate learning and support on data editing and capture. An essential course for GIS users with a data capture and update focus to their job.

Update on GIS247 GIS & Geospatial Skills Framework

The Autumn newsletter for our GIS247 account holders is now available. In this we have provided an update about the release of our GIS & Geospatial Skills Framework. This skills framework will enable you to see progression of your skills and GIS abilities through 5 different levels.

Level 1 of the framework is Awareness. Achieving the Awareness level means that you can demonstrate awareness of GIS and geospatial technology and issues but may not be required to apply it.

In the newsletter we outlined some of the key content that will be available under key themes of Geospatial Data Sources & Structures, Earth Geometry & Geodesy, GIS Theory & Application, Mapping and Geospatial Analytical Methods.

GIS247 Learning Team Meet In Person!

Now that the UK is getting back to normal, at last we managed to get key members of our Learning Team together in the same office, at the same time!

It seemed like a bit of a treat to hold our scheduled meeting in person, followed by a good catch up and lunch. Virtual Meetings are efficient but it’s really nice to actually be together in person. (left are: Charles, Chrissy, Debbie, Alison, Jude and Kelly)

Summer Newsletter is now available

Our latest newsletter for Summer 2021 is now available for all GIS247 account holders. Just log in and it's accessible on your My GIS247 page.

Our Commitment to Net Zero

In line with UK policy, at Sological Solutions & GIS247 we are totally committed to achieving net zero by 2050. Our Carbon Reduction Plan can be viewed here. As a digital service based business we continue to work to further reduce and balance our carbon footprint over the coming years. While we work towards our targets we will offset our existing carbon emissions.

It takes about 25 years for a tree to fully grow so that it absorbs the optimum amount of carbon. We have therefore made the commitment, starting this year, to support afforestation programmes in the UK and around the globe to achieve 100%+ offset of our carbon emissions; therefore achieving net zero. Each year we will support a different afforestation programme. For 2021 we are supporting a community tree planting scheme in the UK via Tree-Nation.

Supporting the Buses4Homeless Charity

Over a 12 week period from March to May our training director Debbie Soloman took part in a steps challenge with the Get Up, Give Back group of business entrepreneurs. The challenge was, as a group, to walk 100,000,000 million steps and raise £100K for the charity. Debbie’s personal challenge was to walk over 1 million steps which is equivalent to walking from London to Aberdeen. Debbie said

Spring News Has Arrived!

Our latest newsletter – Spring 2021 is now available for all GIS247 account holders. If you don’t have a GIS247 account (yet) and you would like a sneaky peak at one of our newsletters, then click here.

Ordnance Survey Data Education Modules

The Ordnance Survey provides a huge range of OpenData and paid for data products for the UK. Many of these products are very detailed in their structure and take some work to process them into the most usable form.

We’ve created a series of videos about each data product to guide you step by step from download through to understanding each product thoroughly to implementing it effectively in the different leading GIS software.

This growing series of videos are available in our GIS Essentials catalog and available to all GIS247 licence holders for free.

Serious Upgrade to GIS247 ArcGIS Pro Training

We have now released a new, upgraded series of training for ArcGIS Pro. Not only have we included the upgrades for the latest version but we have greatly expanded the content of each of the courses. The series of 4 courses cover a range of functions in a layered learning approach from beginner level through to becoming a Pro Pro!

Accreditation & Continuing Professional Development

We have just completed the annual review of all our training courses and are pleased to announce that all our courses and modules continue to be accredited by the leading professional bodies both at home in the UK and overseas. This means our user continue to benefit from gaining valuable CPD points towards their professional accreditation when they have completed each course.

News & Updates for Each Season

We are changing the frequency of our newsletters to one each quarter. This will strike a better balance for all our GIS247 account holders on keeping them up-to-date with our latest training developments whilst not adding to their volume of emails too much. Each newsletter will be available to view from a link on the My GIS247 home page. The new Winter 2020 newsletter is now available.

Global Pandemic & Lockdown

First global pandemic in our living memory and national lockdown for everyone to deal with. Our eLearning is fully available to all users and they can continue to log into their accounts at any time. eLearning is definitely the new normal.

Recognition in South Africa

We are absolutely delighted that our GIS eLearning courses are now fully accredited by the South African Geomatics Council. This means that our courses are recognised as providing GIS training to a professional standard. Any user completing our courses can claim continuing professional development (CPD) points towards their professional accreditation and renewal of that accreditation.

AGI Wales - Annual Conference

We're absolutely delighted to announce that we are sponsoring the prestigious GeoCymru annual conference this year. Debbie Soloman, our training director will be giving a keynote presentation around this year's theme of Discovering Geospatial. This prestigious event is being held at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. It’s going to be a great day for delegates with an interest in geospatial software and services. Come and visit GIS247 at the event.

QGIS Updates - v3x

We are working hard to update all our QGIS eLearning to the latest 3.x version. This training will be with full InVision video plus hands on exercises with data. Available very soon.

eLearning Access Renewals

Throughout the year many of our customer's annual licence to access our eLearning are due to end. We're delighted that we continue to retain our near 100% renewal rate as well as welcoming many new users and organisations to GIS247.

ArcGIS Pro eLearning Released

We've been working hard for a while now developing our series of ArcGIS Pro eLearning courses. Delighted that these are now available to our GIS247 customers who have access to our ArcGIS focused eLearning. Comprehensive training video's and accompanying hands-on exercises are available together with course assessments for users to gain a certificate for their developed skills.

Train the GIS Trainer

Great way to start the New Year by delivering our face 2 face specialist Train the Trainer GIS course in London. This course has been developed based on our 20+ years of delivering successful training. Its wonderful to be able to pass on our knowledge and experience to others who will support GIS users in their own organisation. The aim delivering the course today is to support this organisations GIS consultants to deliver specific GIS training to their colleagues all over the country. Great day with lots of participation and learning activities.

Learning Management System (LMS) Enhancements

We have enhanced the reporting information that is recorded in our Learning Management System (LMS) about each user's GIS247 account. This helps organisations monitor individual progress more effectively and therefore improves our ability to support them. Information on the detail of these enhancements is being sent out in the latest newsletter today to all GIS247 account administrators.

Training Delivery for National Trust

The whole of this year has kept our Training Manager busy with delivering a series of face to face courses for the National Trust. Debbie has trained over 300 NT employees at different locations throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The course delivered was a bespoke course developed by us based on the National Trust's custom GIS intranet software. The delivery of this training has been so successful that this course is now a key organisational resource and can now be accessed as eLearning via GIS247.