This orientation serves as your guide to the structure of your online course and our online learning environment. This orientation is common to all of the courses in the Remote Sensing curriculum portion of the Penn State Online Geospatial Education Certificate and Degree programs. Read the course Syllabus (linked from the Syllabus menu above) for specifics related to your instructor and course content.
At the successful completion of the Course Orientation, you should be able to:
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Our 3-credit online courses normally require a minimum of 12-15 hours of independent student activity per week. Lessons typically include:
The first few days of each lesson should be devoted to reading the online and textbook material, using self-assessment tools provided with each lesson to help master technical vocabulary and key concepts. At the beginning of each lesson week, you should also download and preview the written instructions for the lab exercise. Many of the labs require downloading large data files that take considerable time to transfer depending on the speed of your internet connection. You should plan to do the data downloads ahead of the time you have planned to work on the lab exercise. The final days of each lesson should be devoted to completing the lab exercise, submitting the lab deliverable for grading, asking questions or commenting on your lab experiences in the online discussion forum, and completing the graded reading quiz.
You are not required to attend any lectures or meetings; however, your instructor may choose to host optional webinar discussions or help sessions using a Zoom virtual classroom. Attendance in these sessions is not mandatory and does not explicitly count toward your grade; however, most students find these interactive opportunities are a valuable part of their learning experience. Scheduling of these sessions is at the discretion of the instructor and will be announced by course email or forum post a few days in advance. Recordings will be posted for those who are not able to attend live. Screen sharing in Zoom may also be used to provide individual assistance for a lab or project problem. Access to and use of Zoom is covered later in this Orientation.
You should get in the habit of checking course e-mail and discussion forums in Canvas on a daily basis, where students and instructors share comments, pose questions, and often suggest answers. Instructors generally check e-mail and forums six days per week and will try to respond to your questions and concerns within 24 hours. Instructors will notify students whenever they might be traveling or have short periods of limited internet access; students are encouraged to inform instructors of similar situations, particularly if timely participation in course activities may be affected. Instructors may also, at their discretion, also provide a telephone or text messaging contact number.
The course culminating project will challenge students to apply knowledge and skills acquired in the earlier lessons in a realistic problem scenario that may require independent discovery and analysis of remote sensing data. Your instructor will describe your final project requirements on the course website.
Most of the work on the final project will span the final few weeks of the course. Students will work individually to scope the problem, determine the appropriate combination of data and application software needed to support analysis, propose the appropriate processing and analysis workflow, and use knowledge of software packages gained in lesson exercises to move to a solution. Each student is required to produce a final report that discusses their understanding of the problem, documents the process of data discovery and analysis, and summarizes their results.
Please carefully review the course syllabus, which can be accessed using the Syllabus link in the online text, or from the Syllabus link in Canvas. The syllabus contains detailed information on the content of each lesson, purchase of textbooks, and access to other required materials for this course.
Students are required to purchase textbooks for these courses. Arrangements have been made with the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing to provide substantial discounts to students who are ASPRS members or student members. Contact the instructor for either individual or student member sponsorship information.
There are many reading assignments in these courses, taken from the required textbook and other materials provided by the instructor. Some of these readings go into considerable technical depth that may be beyond the scope of the course. However, there is also valuable high-level information in the readings that is difficult to separate out paragraph by paragraph when creating reading assignments. You should employ all reading techniques described below:
Use the online text, objective quizzes, and self-assessment tools as a guide for your reading; they will indicate the level of comprehension expected. Carefully read the introductory, overview, and summary material; skim the rest of the assigned section so that you are at least familiar with the content; scan through the technical details looking for specific topics that are included in the online text or on a quiz. Approaching the reading in this way will help you develop a relationship with the textbook as an ongoing resource to help with a specific problem or delve deeper into an area of interest, during this course and in the future.
Students who are taking this course as part of a Certificate or Master's Degree program should already have a student version of Esri software. New students are eligible to receive a copy of this software; instructions for installing and licensing are provided during the first week of class.
As stated in the Syllabus, other software packages may be used in each of the remote sensing courses. These will be provided at no cost to registered students. Complete instructions for acquiring and installing this software will also be provided during the first week of class.
At various times throughout the course, you will be required to provide references and citations in your postings or reports. Please refer to the syllabus for academic integrity guidelines and citation format requirements.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this lesson, please feel free to post them to the General Course Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
While we have tried not to specify too many formal prerequisites for our remote sensing courses, there is an assumption that you already have some knowledge of GIS fundamentals and that you can work with ArcGIS at a basic level. In the labs for these courses, it will be expected that you understand or know how to do the following without detailed, step-by-step instructions:
You are not expected to be the world's greatest expert in any of these topics, but do be honest in your self-assessment. If you truly know what each of these bullets refer to and could demonstrate that task, you are probably prepared to take this course. If you have no idea what one or more of these bullets are referring to, then one of the prerequisite courses may be a better choice.
Your instructor will be providing guidance for accessing Esri tutorials that cover prerequisite topics and more! You are invited to make use of these supplemental learning materials as needed throughout the semester. You may also want to refer to the online textbook for Geog 482: Making Maps That Matter, which is a formal prerequisite for any of the remote sensing courses.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Minimum technical requirements for the MGIS program apply to this course. They can be found on the Online Geospatial Education Technical Requirements web page.
The following additional requirements apply to all courses in the remote sensing curriculum:
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the Software Installation and Technical Questions Discussion Forum in Canvas.
In this course, you are going to be downloading files ranging in size from several hundred megabytes to several gigabytes. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, this may take somewhere between 10-15 minutes to a few hours. Download speeds are normally faster than upload speeds, regardless of the internet technology. In this course, download speed is most important; you will not have to upload any large files.
Test your internet connection speed at this Speedtest website. Most important for this course is that you have a reliable, constant internet connection, even if the speeds are on the slow end. If you have a slow connection, you can download all the lab data files in advance, perhaps while you are at work during the day or during the night when you are sleeping.
Here are a couple of guidelines for planning:
If you are overseas or traveling during the course, you are definitely going to have to plan ahead. Download all the tutorials and weekly lab data from all lesson folders as soon as possible. Skim through lab instructions and discussion assignments to note any other data downloads - occasionally we will ask you to find data on public websites, such as USGS or a state GIS data clearinghouse, as part of the learning experience in your course.
Internet problems can be minimized if you plan ahead. If you are traveling, do not expect to make do with sketchy or occasional service. Sometimes travel comes up due to an emergency or unexpected event. If you have downloaded all the course data in advance, it will be a lot easier to stay on track, or at least not fall terribly behind.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the Software Installation and Technical Questions Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Much of the data used in this course will be in a compressed format. These datasets have been packaged for download in ZIP format. We will ask you to download and install the free utility, 7Zip, to extract files provided in ZIP format.
The lab assignments in this course will require you to submit images of your computer screen or an application window. In Windows, you can use the Snipping Tool; consult the Windows Help for more information. There are also a number of free or inexpensive screen capture tools available on the Internet, such as CaptureWiz. Regardless of the tool used, here are some basic guidelines to follow:
Esir software is historically picky when it comes to file and folder names. Set up a location on your hard drive for all of your lab data for this course. Make sure there are NO SPACES anywhere in the path to that location.
DO create a location for your data, similar to the following example:
C:\GISDATA\PSU\Geog999\Lesson1
DO NOT put your GIS data under "My Documents" or any other folder on your computer that contains spaces in the path. This is an example of what not to do:
C:\Users\Karen Schuckman\My Documents\Penn State\My GIS Data
By default, Windows File Explorer does not show you the extension in a list of files. Instead it creates a separate column for File Type, assuming that certain file extensions correspond to certain file types. Windows default assumptions are often not correct for the file types encountered in remote sensing.
In the File Explorer menu > View tab > Show/Hide group, enable the option to show File Name Extensions. After enabling this option, your Windows Explorer view should look like this:
Not like this:
If you have any questions now or at any point during this lesson, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Each lesson consists of one or more of the following:
There are quite a few reading assignments throughout this course. Some of these readings may go into considerable technical depth that may occasionally go beyond the scope of an introductory course. Individual students may be interested in more or less depth, based on their experience and backgrounds. Realizing that it is impossible for the instructor to design "one-size-fits-all" reading assignments, you should employ all reading techniques described below:
Carefully read the introductory, overview, and summary material in each assignment, skim the rest of the assigned section so that you are at least familiar with an outline of the content, scan through the technical details noting specific topics that are included in the online text or on a quiz. Use the online text, crossword puzzles, and objective quizzes as a guide for your reading; they will give an indication of the level of comprehension expected. Approaching the reading in this way will help you develop a relationship with the textbook as an ongoing resource to help with a specific problem or delve deeper into an area of interest, during this course and in the future.
The course website contains online reading material authored by the instructor. It can be printed page-by-page or lesson-by-lesson according to the instructions provided on the Course website page of this Orientation. The course website contains specific instructions for weekly activities.
Each student is expected to purchase the correct edition of the textbook(s) shown on the course syllabus. Specific chapters or pages from the course textbook are assigned on the Reading Assignments page of each online lesson.
Visually impaired students, who have difficulty reading a printed textbook, can contact the instructor or the publisher for alternative forms of textbook delivery. This will require approval from the Penn State Office for Disability Services.
The instructor may supplement the course textbook with other published material. These assignments will also be given on the Readings page of each online lesson. The reading will be provided in PDF format (to be read online or printed) in the corresponding lesson folder in Canvas.
Each lesson includes a graded reading quiz intended to measure comprehension of the reading material. The quizzes can be used as a guide while reading; the questions often focus on concepts that will be further explored in the hands-on activities. If a question seems vague or unclear, it is fine to ask for clarification in the Discussion Forum, where all students can benefit from additional explanation.
The quizzes are open-book; they are not timed. The quizzes must be submitted only once and should be completed by the end of the lesson week for full credit. All of the quiz questions are objective (multiple choice, multiple select, etc.). The quizzes are automatically graded by the Canvas learning management system and scores are entered immediately in the Canvas grades. Automated feedback is provided for all incorrect responses.
Online and textbook reading is useful for introducing the fundamental concepts of remote sensing, but working with real data and experimenting with software tools is an important way to learn. The lab exercises that accompany each lesson in this course are meant to provide further demonstration of key concepts, as well as give the student valuable hands-on experience with state-of-the-art software. The lab exercises may be somewhat tutorial in nature because there is no requirement that the student have prior expertise with the remote sensing software used in the course. However, while performing these exercises, the student should be thinking about how each step relates to concepts introduced in the reading. The student will also be expected to refer to the software vendor's documentation (online tutorials and Help) for in-depth instruction in the use of specific tools and operations that may not be completely explained by the lab instructions.
Instructions for the hands-on exercises are provided in each Canvas lesson folder. Interspersed with the step-by-step instructions are a series of questions that are to be answered in the associated lab deliverable. Some of these questions will be objective; some will require short written responses or screenshots. Some of the questions (particularly the more simple, objective questions or the screenshots) are intended as "checkpoints" to ensure that you are on the right track. Other subjective questions will ask you to explain or relate what is happening in the lab to a concept you were expected to learn about in the reading.
It is highly recommenced that you save the PDF locally to your computer before beginning the lab exercise. Many of the PDFs contain embedded hyperlinks, which do not always behave correctly from within Canvas. It is also highly recommended that you print a copy of the PDF to refer to as you perform the exercise. You can make notes and answer questions on the hard copy as you proceed through the lab, and you will not have to use valuable space on your computer screen for the lab instructions.
Data will be provided for each hands-on exercise. Links to a data package (a ZIP file) are provided in each Canvas lesson folder. These files can sometimes be quite large (up to ~500 MB) and may take some time to download over slower Internet connections. If you are going to be traveling or have limited bandwidth, try to download the files ahead of time or contact the instructor to discuss alternative methods of delivery.
Your lab work will be submitted in the form of a Canvas Quiz, similar to the reading quiz. Like the reading quiz, the lab deliverable can be viewed and saved multiple times, but it can only be submitted once. All of the questions are mirrored in the lab instructions, so it should not be necessary to open or use the lab deliverable link until you have completed the entire hands-on activity.
Some of the answers to the short essay questions require uploading a screen capture to your personal file space. The process for uploading screen captures will be explained in the hands-on activity for this orientation.
A suggested method for completing the lab deliverable is outlined below. Feel free to come up with a process that suits you, but read through these steps first to find a few helpful hints.
In some lessons, students will be asked to post to a graded discussion forum. The details for the graded discussion assignments will be found on the Activities page of each lesson on the course website. The assignments will usually require the student to do a bit of external Internet research to comment on a topical issue or to find remote sensing data in the public domain.
The instructor may conduct live sessions in Zoom to supplement course content and address questions about lab activities. Attendance at these sessions is NOT required; however, students find them to be an extremely valuable part of their learning experience. To establish the most convenient day and time for these live sessions, the instructor may conduct a poll during the first week of class. Recordings of these sessions will be available for students who cannot attend the live sessions; recordings will be posted in the Canvas Media Gallery.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Registered students earn academic credit at Penn State by completing the following assignments. Student achievement of objectives will be evaluated as follows:
Please see the course syllabus for a more detailed outline of assignments and grading on a lesson-by-lesson basis.
Students can monitor their progress throughout the course in Canvas grades. See the Canvas page in this orientation for information about grade reports.
If you are prevented from completing this course within the prescribed amount of time for reasons that are beyond your control, it is possible to have the grade deferred with the concurrence of the instructor, following Penn State Deferred Grade Policy 48-40. To seek a deferred grade, you must submit a written request (by e-mail or U.S. post) to the instructor describing the reason(s) for the request. Non-emergency permission for filing a deferred grade must be requested before the beginning of the final examination period. It is up to the instructor to determine whether or not you will be permitted to receive a deferred grade. If permission is granted, you will work with the instructor to establish a communication plan and a clear schedule for completion within policy. If, for any reason, the coursework for the deferred grade is not complete by the assigned time, a grade of "F" will be automatically entered on your transcript.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
If you have technical problems with any of the learning environments or course elements, there is help available:
Regardless of the type of problem, it is in your own best interest to be as specific as you possibly can. Vague descriptions of a problem delay assistance. Try to include information such as:
This page is for sharing remote sensing resources. Feel free to e-mail the instructor or post your favorite URLs with a short description to the General Questions and Comments Forum in Canvas to have them added to this page.
NDVI land cover information for the State of Idaho produced from Landsat imagery. The site contains a number of white papers and demos explaining the source data and processing steps used to create the final land cover product. Produced by Idaho State University for IdahoView, a member of the AmericaView Consortium.
A video tutorial produced for AmericaView by Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, University of Vermont. The video demonstrates how to search for and download Landsat data from the USGS GloVis site, as well as how to load and display this multiband imagery in ArcGIS.
AVIRIS (Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) from NASA provides imagery and hyperspectral radiance data in 224 contiguous spectral channels with wavelengths from 400 to 2500 nanometers at ~15 meter spectral resolution. They have a lot of holdings for downloading and an easy map to see what they have available.
Earth Explorer is a map-based web interface to a large number of data sets distributed by the USGS, including aerial photography, Digital Line Graph (DLG) and Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) products, SRTM digital elevation data, numerous land observation satellite data products (government and commercial), and landcover data products.
The eCognition Community contains tutorials, sample rule sets and user questions.
The most comprehensive collection of lidar data for the United States.
This map-based interface allows you to search for and download Level 1 Landsat Data products. Unlike EarthExplorer, the LandsatLook Viewer only provides access to LandsatLook (.jpg) files and corresponding Level 1 products. However, the image search and download interface displays full resolution seamless images. The search interface also allows you to specify the satellite/sensor, date, and percent cloud cover, and browse results before downloading.
A searchable online geospatial database for the state of Louisiana, containing imagery, elevation data, and numerous GIS layers.
A searchable online geospatial database for the state of New York, containing imagery, elevation data, and numerous GIS layers.
A searchable online geospatial database for the state of Pennsylvania, containing imagery, elevation data, and numerous GIS layers.
Instructional videos produced by GeoCue on the processing of lidar data in LP360.
A video tutorial by Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, University of Vermont
A video tutorial by Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, University of Vermont
Free hyperspectral data collected with the AISA airborne sensor are available on this site, including samples from the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, agriculture and vegetation data from Beltsville, MD, geologic data from Cuprite, NV, and coral reef data from the Red Sea.
A searchable online geospatial database for the state of Texas, containing imagery, elevation data, and numerous GIS layers.
The Geospatial Data Gateway (GDG) is the online source for environmental and natural resources data maintained by the USDA Service Center Agencies (SCA); Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Rural Development (RD). Layers of particular interest are NAIP aerial photography, soils, and public land survey system data.
GloVis is a map-based web interface to aerial photography and satellite imagery archived at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS).
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Emergency Operations, in support of the Department of Homeland Security, provides remotely sensed imagery for use in disaster preparations, rescue and relief operations, damage assessments, and reconstruction efforts. Satellite and aerial images for analysis of disaster areas before, during, and after a disaster are included in this database. There is a link on the Emergency Operations Portal homepage to HDDS, the Hazards Data Distribution System, where data can be accessed with both map and text-based search tools.
The Virginia Geospatial Extension Program, hosted by Virginia Tech, has many useful resources for remote sensing and GIS professionals. They have created a series of helpful tutorial videos, posted on YouTube, that demonstrate basic tasks in ArcGIS.
This video provides a comprehensive overview of working with Landsat data in ArcGIS.
Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, you'll have a chance to submit a few deliverables that are representative of those you will encounter throughout the course.
Your instructor will designate the format for introductions, either using a Canvas Discussion Forum or VoiceThread. Regardless of the format, please answer the following questions.
If a Canvas Discussion Forum is assigned, please insert (embed within the post, not attach a file) a relevant photo in the text of your introduction post using the HTML editor. Disregard the remaining instructions that relate to VoiceThread.
If VoiceThread is assigned, you can click on the assignment in Canvas to post a short presentation using PowerPoint. The VoiceThread should simulate a presentation you would give live in front of an audience. Format your slides appropriately and add voice over narration using the VoiceThread commenting tools.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.
If you understand what you've read in this orientation, and make every effort to follow these guidelines, then you'll be well on your way to having a successful experience in this course. We look forward to interacting with you throughout the session and hope you'll take every opportunity possible to get the most out of the learning experiences you encounter.
Due on the last day of the Lesson 0 week:
You must complete all of the Lesson 0 activities to make Lesson 1 accessible in Canvas.
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the General Questions and Comments Discussion Forum in Canvas.