IIRS-ISRO NODAL CENTRE- MIETW

Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), a unit under Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India is a premier Training and Educational Institute set-up for developing trained professionals in the field of Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics and GNSS Technology for Natural Resources, Environmental and Disaster Management. Formerly known as Indian Photointerpretation Institute (IPI), founded in 1966, the Institute boasts to be the first of its kind in entire South-East Asia. While nurturing its primary endeavor to build capacity among the user community by training mid-career professionals, the Institute has enhanced its capability and evolved many training and education programmes that are tuned to meet the requirements of various target user groups in the society, ranging from fresh graduates to policy makers including academia. The training and education programmes at IIRS includes the short duration customized courses, PG Diploma, Master’s Degree (M.Tech and M.Sc.) in various disciplines. IIRS also conducts distance learning courses for mass scale capacity building under IIRS Outreach Programme.

IIRS Outreach Programme focusses on strengthening the Academia and User Segments in Space Technology & Its Applications using Online Learning Platforms. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS)/ ISRO has started its Distance Learning Program in the year 2007. The distance learning program was started with the basic objective of creating awareness among students and working professionals in the areas of fundamentals and advanced concepts of Remote Sensing technology and its applications. Later, the programme was also extended to meet the training and capacity building requirements of user departments in central and state government using online learning platforms. Till December 2021, IIRS has successfully conducted 125 online courses in Live & Interactive mode and also launched five online courses under e-learning/MOOC initiatives. Currently IIRS distance learning programme is being conducted through following two modes:

1. Live and Interactive classroom sessions (https://eclass.iirs.gov.in)
2. E-learning/MOOC based online courses (https://elearning.iirs.gov.in)

The use of Remote Sensing, Geographical Information System, Global Navigation Satellite System and associated geospatial technologies is increasing rapidly, creating an urgent demand for trained human resources. The live and interactive mode of distance learning is enabled through indigenously developed online learning platform of IIRS i.e. E-Class portal. The programs are available without any cost to the user. The live and interactive sessions will be conducted by experts from IIRS-ISRO and other knowledge Institutions. IIRS has successfully conducted 125 such courses so far with participation of over 445072+ participants from 3007+ academic institutions, government departments and industry.