Advanced educational course at university level for both national and international students
The objective is to develop an advanced course about remote sensing technology and applications in Estonia’s largest University (Tartu University) for the master level international program training for the limited period 2 years.
Strong lack of knowledge about environmental monitoring technologies related to the use of earth observation (EO) has been identified especially in public authorities and in many Member States. It is also observed, that the number of students, who takes during their university studies relevant basic courses, is not sufficient to answer to the increased demand of Copernicus (but also Galileo) related applications. Therefore, the modern active learning course (incorporated to the university study program) will be developed.
The course will be based on problem-based learning methods where the students have to analyse and monitor various environmental effects by the means of earth observations data and combining it with other data sources. The main focus is on getting the knowledge of wide range of Copernicus satellite-derived products, through hand-on exercises obtaining the skills to process and use them and apply the knowledge in multidisciplinary nature of environment research. The course will address students studying environmental technology, physics, Earth Sciences and ICT but the audience could be potentially expanded to attract wider community. The study materials (MOOC) will be available in English as well as training exercises, but the specific materials will be published as part of the course in students’ mother language on Wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.org/). As Estonian has been very high level of Wikipedia articles, we have seen that it makes the topic attractive for the wide audience and for school children. After the first study year the evaluation of the program is made for the necessary changes.
The course and materials will be prepared in Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Estonia and made open for other interested participants from EU MS. For the development of the course high level personnel as supervisors will be engaged from at least two project partners (Finland and Germany).
Outputs and Results
A MOOC course will be prepared that allows easy access for the multi-national reach of the course. At least 10 publically understandable popular science short-articles will be published on Wikipedia. New educated specialist will be available for the spin-off (especially as the ESA BIC is also to start in collaboration of Tartu University) and for work in public sector. Copernicus will be integrated into new academic curricula in Tartu University, so the regional (Baltic-Nordic) network will be strengthened. This could lead to the future mobility of academic staff. This experience will be shared with other project partners as well as EU MS.