Remote sensing in higher education. Practical aspects from Geomatics and Surveying department at Technological Education Institute(TEI) of Serres, Greece

Remote sensing plays an increasingly important role in the rapidly evolving spatial technology as it can be integrated with different disciplines such as GIS, GPS and photogrammetry in order to provide spatial data in an efficient and economic way. Remote Sensing Education helps with its widespread adoption as it provides an understanding of its concepts and potential applications and providing at the same time opportunities for research and training activities. Remote Sensing education is one of the main disciplines at Geomatics & Surveying Department giving students the scientific background needed to support spatial applications and to get involved in postgraduate research in the same scientific field. Teaching is realised both as lectures and as extensive laboratory based exercises and is supported by an e-learning platform. Software used includes both commercial and open source products. Experience gained from the past six years, shows that using open source remote sensing software covers most of the discipline’s teaching aspects although it is mostly used in undergraduate research. On the other hand, practice in using commercial products helps students to get involved with Remote Sensing in the professional field. Despite the extensive student training through Laboratory exercises, field work can help improve significantly their understanding of the discipline’s concepts and applications.