REACH THE UNREACHED – IIRS OUTREACH PROGRAM FOR ENHANCED LEARNING TO ALL

With the advent of Information and Communication Technology and improved broadband internet connectivity has enhanced the scope of learning any time anywhere, going beyond the traditional classroom approach. To support distance learning, Indian Space Research Organisation, Government of India has launched dedicated communication satellite called EDUSAT in 2004. The satellite is widely used for variety of applications like Tele-education, Tele-medicine, Village Resource Centres, mobile satellite services, disaster management support and television broadcasting educating farmers for agriculture and other purposes. One of the prime applications of EDUSAT satellite is tele-education at various levels (i.e. school level/UG /PG level) by different ministries / autonomous organizations / departments/institutions/universities in India effectively utilized the EDUSAT for Tele-education. The initial focus of IIRS was to use EDUSAT/INSAT 4CR satellite for distance learning but extended the scope to use broadband internet so that access to large number of institutions/universities /individuals with little cost the User. IIRS distance learning program initiated in 2007 and successfully conducted 12 programs in the last eight years. The first course was attended from twelve universities and the number of institutions /universities increased manifold. The thirteenth course is progress with more than 210 institutions /universities /departments /individuals with more than 3200 number of participants attending the program live and interactive. IIRS program is unique and interactive and demand is increasing not only universities but among research institutions, user departments and individuals. * Corresponding author.


INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) as a constituent Unit of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India.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 endeavour to build capacity among the user community by training mid-career professionals, the Institute has enhanced its capability and evolved many training & education programmes in the field of Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics and GPS Technology for Natural Resources, Environmental and Disaster Management that are tuned to meet the requirements of various target groups, ranging from fresh graduates to policy makers including academia (www.iirs.gov.in).Till 2006 IIRS focus was on contact basis training and education programs (Dadhwal et.al, 2007& Raju et. al, 2007).With the advent of EDUSAT (dedicated satellite launched in September 2004 from ISRO with a purpose of providing quality education, vocational training for skill development and to reach the unreached places like remote and inaccessible locations in India.IIRS launched pilot project and started EDUSAT satellite based distance learning outreach program on Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics to address the needs of Users who can receive IIRS outreach programs directly from their place of working / place of study without coming to IIRS.
Since the launch of EDUSAT communication satellite many networks have been established at national and state level started using it for various programs for variety of purposes as listed below:  School level education  Higher education at university  Technical education through engineering colleges  Vocational training programs  Skill development for career opportunities  Distance learning programs through Open universities Table 1 shows the list of institutions /organisations extensively using the EDUSAT satellite for distance learning programs.

S. N Institute / Organisation
Purpose

Developmental Phase
The demand for the IIRS outreach program increased many fold over the years by joining universities and institutions and benefiting from the program.Total thirteen programs were conducted in a span of eight years during 2007 to 2014.Started with one program per year initially and expanded the program to two courses in a year.One common course i.e. basic course on RS, GIS & GPS is conducted every year and one special course on different topics based on demands and technological trends.Success story of IIRS outreach programs are show cased at various national and international forums (Raju et. al, 2010, 2011, 2012, Gupta et.al, 2011).There is continuous increase in number of universities / institutions participation and increase in participation.

Current Phase
With sustained growth and demand for the outreach program IIRS is in the process of establishing start of art studio cum classroom which will serve for the following purposes:  Addressing students of IIRS as well as outreach program participants simultaneously  Interact with participants at IIRS and distance location participants simultaneously  Establish one to one connectivity with specific institute in video conference mode and conduct specific tailor made programs  Broadcasting popular talks from eminent persons and received across many centres.The established studio will enable IIRS to expand its program of two hours in a day to full day programs of 4 to 8 hours depending as per the demand. .

Satellite based Outreach program
The classrooms spread across India are connected through VSAT with IIRS for receiving IIRS outreach program and interact after the lecture.There are around 45 classroom setups of CEC-UGE, CIET-NCERT, IGNOU, AICTE and VigyanPrasar established at Universities / Schools / study Centres/Engineering Colleges and receives our programs through Train net based Learning Management System (Figure 1).It is better approach than the earlier used open source free VLC streaming system (Figure 2) where the quality of presentation material are very poor.

Feedback of IIRS Outreach Programs
To the assimilation and general views, feedback is taken from participants and coordinators separately.The feedback of coordinators on qualitative aspects of the program is shown in Figure 4.

CONCLUSIONS
IIRS outreach program is made all for free learning so as to reach all like satellite based connected users and others who can connect through Internet.The outreach program is successful in terms its accessibility and learning.Future plan are to further expand with many tailor programs to User Departments, programs to South-east Asia and developing countries and provide capacity building to ISRO /other project initiatives through IIRS outreach program so as to benefit maximum number.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Train net based Learning Management System

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. VLC streaming system3.2Internet based Distance Learning Outreach ProgramIIRS outreach programs are also delivered through internet by using A-VIEW system developed by Amrita University funded by Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).It is better than VLC as well as Trainnet based approach as far as quality of content, delivery mechanism and interactivity with the connected users (Figure3).Only limitation is internet bandwidth at the user location.The user should have a minimum of 2 mbps connectivity for good reception and interaction.

Figure
Figure 3. Internet based Distance Learning Outreach Program 3.3 IIRS E-Learning Program To learn any time anywhere, IIRS has launched exclusive internet based e-learning program from 2014 (www.elearning.iirs.gov.in).It is made free for all who are tenth class pass if one wanted to learn Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Science.One has to pay the tuition fees for different certificate programs one /four months etc. Full details of e-learning program under separate paper presented at ISPRS TC VIII mid symposium 2014.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Feedback of 10 th and 11 th IIRS Outreach ProgramsThe feedback from participants on technical aspects such as delivery and curriculum is shown in Figure5.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Feedback by participants on technical aspects

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Year wise list of Universities participation

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Type of Participating Institutions

Table 1 :
Institutions/ Organisations using EDUSAT based distance learning programs.

2. EVOLUTION OF IIRS OUTREACH PROGRAM 2.1 Initial Phase National
Natural Resource Management System (NNRMS) standing committee on Training and Technology (SC-T) has funded IIRS outreach program in a pilot mode for three years initially during 2006-09 to conduct EDUSAT based distance learning program.The first batch consists of 12 Universities and participants of 349 in the first course conducted in 2007.The table-2 show the list of universities and number of participants attended the course on Basics of Remote Sensing (RS),

Table 3 .
Table-3 is showing list of universities and number of participants, showing upward trends.List of universities and number of participants