ESRI Virtual Campus is an online resource for learning about a variety of tasks that can be done on the ArcGIS suite of programs. Anyone can register online for free and for a small fee per learning tutorial, (or free for a university class in my case), you can learn how to use information systems and the ArcGIS software. At the end of each tutorial you gain a certificate indicating that you have successfully learned a specific skill in this program that is held as a standard in its field of use.
The Mag Lab Assignments and Tutorials are taken from our course textbook "Mastering ArcGIS". This book is a thorough guide of almost everything in the program as well as background history and information to fully understand all things involved. A chapter generally starts with some reading on background and important information for a subject, then moves on to a tutorial and ends with Tutorial questions about what was learned.
The two methods of learning the program both have their benefits and draw backs, of course, and I think they both have their place. In general I prefer the ESRI online Virtual Campus, but maybe not for the right reasons.
The Virtual Campus is something that I think is great for professionals and students alike. Its a resource where you can learn a variety of necessary skills in the field of GIS and for the ArcGIS software, and you don't have to go to a university or pay tuition fees just to use it. It's just a relatively small fee ($30 per tutorial if I remember correctly), and I'm willing to bet that many workplaces in the field would consider covering the cost. The tutorials are straightforward, easy to follow, and I don't have to look down at a book constantly when I do them. There are no pages to flip and there's no searching for something I read earlier in the chapter. The downside to virtual Campus however, is that it doesn't provide a lot of background or context to what we are doing or entirely why were doing it or what we may also need to know.
The book is a wealth of information. The only problem is that you have to trudge through a lot of reading to get to a point where you can do a tutorial. Surprise, it's a college textbook! But the struggle is real. As a full time student taking 18 credits and a part time worker at 26 hours per week I have to prioritize the amount and quality of the reading I do for classes. After the time for work, homework, and lectures are taken out of the day, I literally do not have enough time left in each day to read everything assigned; at least not thoroughly. Using online tutorials and videos speeds up the intake of information.
So the dilemma is a complicated one of balancing quality and cost tradeoffs. For me the best solution would probably be to use the darn disk in the back of the book for once. For people who aren't at a university but are already in the field, ESRI virtual campus is a fantastic and affordable tool for continuing and progressing the skills necessary in the field of GIS.
Source Materials
Esri Training. http://www.esri.com/training/main
Price, Maribeth Hughett. Mastering ArcGIS. 6th ed. Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill, 2014.
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