[IGSMAIL-7237] Reminder: MOOC on Earth observation starts Feb. 1

[Thomas Hobiger]

Dear colleagues,
(apologies for cross-posting)

MOOCs on Earth observation – “Sensing Planet Earth”
---------------------------------------------------

Chalmers University of Technology is proud to announce the
launch of the first of two massive open online courses
(MOOCs) on the topic of Earth observations next Monday, i.e.
Feb. 1, 2016. Both courses are at _introductory level_ and _f__ree of__
__cost_ (with an option for verified certificates).  We will take you
on a journey through different fields of Earth sciences,
including the solid Earth, the atmosphere and the biosphere.
Our colleagues will give you first-hand insights into why, where
and how measurement techniques are applied, and they will
explain to you how sensors in space, on aircrafts and on the
ground work.
You will be given examples about how to use data from various
sensors in order to improve our understanding of our living
planet. You will see that precision and accuracy don’t have the
same meaning, although both statistical properties are
important when building instruments that observe our
environment or sense the Earth from high above. In addition,
simple experiments will show you how easy it is to measure
properties of our Earth by yourself, and you will see that,
together with other course participants, you can act as one
“sensor” that probes our planet on different places around the
globe.  On top of that, we are going to carry out interviews with
world-renowned experts that explain why Earth observations
are important and how those measurements help us to get a
better understanding of our planet.

As a kind of "spoiler" we are very happy to announce that

*Prof. James Davis*, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University, USA

as well as *I**AG vice-president*

*Prof. Zuheir Altamimi*, IGN, France

will be the experts for the first and second week modules.

If you are interested or want to sign up for the course, all you
need to do is go to
https://www.edx.org
and create an user profile (use the "sign up" link on the top of
the page). You will be mailed a confirmation request and after
accepting this you are ready to sign up for edX courses. Please
go to our course page

https://www.edx.org/course/sensing-planet-earth-core-outer-space-chalmersx-chm003x

and click "Enroll now". You will be asked how you want to take
the course. Select "Audit the course" (lower part of the page) if you
want to take the course for free. The other (paid) option "verified
certificate" is for those who want to have an official certificate that
confirms that one has passed the course.

In the same way, you can also sign up for our other course, Sensing
Planet Earth – Water and Ice, which starts on March 21st and can be
found here

https://www.edx.org/course/sensing-planet-earth-water-ice-chalmersx-chm004x

We would be happy if you decide to sign up for any of these courses
or help us spreading the word about this educational project in the
field of Earth science. If you have questions, comments or can help us
distributing this information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Sincerely,
Thomas Hobiger (on behalf of the course team)

-- 
******************************************************************
Thomas Hobiger, Dr.
Associate Professor
Department of Earth and Space Sciences
Onsala Space Observatory
Chalmers University of Technology
------------------------------------------------------------------
Observatorievägen 90, Råö
SE-439 92 Onsala
Sweden
------------------------------------------------------------------
email:  thomas.hobiger at chalmers.se
phone:  ++46-31-772-5549
fax:    ++46-31-772-5590
******************************************************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igs.org/pipermail/igsmail/attachments/20160127/707d9733/attachment.html>