PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
April 2016
241
degree video and other interactive web technologies, as well
as tools to create interactive elements such as Articulate
Storyline and Adobe Captivate. As is true for the entire
online geospatial education portfolio, remote sensing faculty
partner with learning designers during every phase of the
design and development process to ensure that courses use
the most current technology and teaching methods, Rocco
said.
Penn State’s remote sensing faculty are experienced,
professional practitioners who have engaged in real-life
remote sensing applications, from the disaster on 9/11 to
the devastating floods caused by hurricanes Floyd, Katrina,
and Sandy. They have worked directly with agencies such
as FEMA, NGA, USGS and NOAA as well as state and
local governments, and continue to be leaders in the remote
sensing community through their work with ASPRS, ISPRS,
USGIF (United States Geospatial Information Foundation)
and other geospatial organizations.
Required courses for the remote sensing certificate
(Table 1) include: Exploring Imagery and Elevation Data
in GIS Applications, Topographic Mapping with Lidar,
and Remote Sensing Analysis and Applications. Electives
include: Emerging Trends in Remote Sensing and Geospatial
Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems; upon successful
completion, each course provides the student with 3 college
credits.
Table 1 Curriculum of the remote sensing graduate certificate program.
Required Courses* (9 credits)
Title
Course Description
Exploring Imagery and Elevation Data in
GIS Applications
Using imagery and terrain data in typical application scenarios faced by geospatial
professionals.
Topographic Mapping with Lidar
Using airborne topographic lidar to create elevation models for GIS applications.
Remote Sensing Analysis and
Applications
Understanding remote sensing systems’ operation, data products, and processing
techniques to address typical problem scenarios faced by geospatial professionals.
Electives* – Select one course (3 credits)
Title
Course Description
Emerging Trends in Remote Sensing
or
Geospatial Applications of Unmanned Aerial
Systems
Highlighting emerging theoretical and methodological trends in high-performance remote sensing for
geospatial analysis through discussion and laboratory experiences.
or
Introducing theory and methods for operating an unmanned aerial system for geospatial data
acquisition and analysis.
*Prerequisites may apply, and Penn State works with each student to develop an individual plan of study. Please see
worldcampus.
psu.edu/remotesensing/courses
for details.
Classes are limited in size to ensure that each student gets
individual attention from the instructor and has the chance
to engage in productive collaboration with classmates.
Learning is designed to take place fully online, and does
not require students to login at a specific time each week.
Students can read course materials, watch instructional
videos, interact with software examples, and perform hands-
on lab exercises at their convenience during each weekly
lesson over a 10-week compressed semester. Students also
have an opportunity to reflect on their experiences through
peer discussions, relating what they are learning in the
course to their day-to-day jobs and current events.
Penn State provides each student with fully functional
licenses for state-of-the-art remote sensing software tools
such as ArcGIS for spatial analysis, eCognition for image
analysis and automated feature extraction, QCoherent
LP360 and Applied Imagery Quick Terrain Modeler for lidar
and point cloud visualization, DAT/EM Summit for softcopy
photogrammetry, TopoFlight and APM for simulated
acquisition mission planning, and Pix4D for UAS data
processing. Instructors are available seven days a week to
provide individual assistance through email, chat, or video
conference.
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