Specialty GIS Training: Free Learning for Remote Sensing and Humanitarian Mapping
Picture someone who works in conservation, emergency management, or a nonprofit and has landed a project that needs satellite imagery or open map data. Broad GIS courses are helpful, but what they need is training shaped around that specific kind of work. Some of the best of it is free and comes from organizations that map for a living.
This is the final part of our series on free GIS training. Part one covered Esri’s free MOOCs and Live Training Seminars, part two covered QGIS and the open-source route, and part three covered university courses and library access. This week we’re looking at specialty training from NASA, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent network.
Three Specialty Options
| Resource | Offered By | What You Learn | Format and Time | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of Remote Sensing | NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) | How satellites and sensors work, what NASA data is available, and basic tools for viewing it | Self-paced online course | Professionals new to remote sensing in fields like land management, water, and air quality |
| Humanitarian Use of OSM Data | Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) | Real-world humanitarian uses of OpenStreetMap data, with browser-based tools and an introduction to QGIS | Self-paced online, about 9 hours across 6 units | Communities, organizations, and individuals who want to use OpenStreetMap in their work |
| IFRC GIS Training Platform | Red Cross and Red Crescent societies with HeiGIT | Creating, using, and analyzing spatial data in QGIS, with exercises built around humanitarian scenarios | Modular tutorials and real-world data exercises | Learners with basic data skills and little or no GIS experience |
NASA ARSET: Remote Sensing From the Source
NASA’s Applied Remote Sensing Training program offers online trainings that are open to all at no cost. The best starting point is Fundamentals of Remote Sensing, a self-paced course that explains how satellites and sensors work, what kinds of NASA data are available, and how to begin visualizing it. NASA notes that it is meant for professionals with no previous remote sensing experience, and that it is often a prerequisite for other ARSET trainings. You will be prompted to create a free account on the ARSET learning platform, and completing the course earns a certificate.
Beyond the fundamentals, ARSET runs application-focused webinars on subjects such as land management and wildfire, water resources, and aquatic environments. The certificate rules differ for these. Certificates of completion go to participants who attend the live sessions and finish the homework, while recordings are posted afterward for anyone who can’t attend live. Recordings are still a good way to learn the material, though they won’t earn the certificate.
HOT: Open Map Data for Humanitarian Work
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team offers a free, self-paced course called Humanitarian Use of OSM Data. It runs about 9 hours across 6 units and is built around real-world examples of how OpenStreetMap data supports humanitarian work. The course begins with browser-based tools like uMap and builds up to intermediate QGIS work, so it pairs well with the QGIS resources from part two of this series. If 9 hours feels like a big first step, HOT also offers a standalone Introduction to OpenStreetMap that takes 45 to 60 minutes, and the same lesson is the first unit of the longer course.
IFRC GIS Training Platform: Built by Practitioners
The IFRC GIS Training Platform was developed by the British, German, and Netherlands Red Cross societies together with the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology. It teaches QGIS through interactive tutorials and real-world data exercises designed around humanitarian use cases, and it is aimed at people with basic information management or data skills but little or no GIS experience. The materials are open, so teams can also use them to run their own workshops. The platform reported 27,800 visits in one year from 160 countries, which says a lot about how widely it is used.
Getting Started
- Start with the work in front of you. If your projects involve imagery or environmental monitoring, begin with ARSET. If they involve community mapping or disaster response, begin with HOT or the IFRC platform.
- Take the short route first. HOT’s one-hour introduction is an easy way to find out whether open mapping fits your work before committing to a longer course.
- Register for ARSET early. Certificates for live webinars depend on attending the sessions, so it helps to sign up for announcements and block the dates when a topic catches your eye.
- Pair these with what you learned earlier in the series. The IFRC platform and HOT’s course both use QGIS, so the free resources from part two make a natural companion.
The Series at a Glance
| Part | Focus | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1: Esri | Free MOOCs and Live Training Seminars, with certificates of completion for MOOCs | Anyone working in or considering ArcGIS |
| Part 2: QGIS | Free manuals, tutorials, and courses for open-source GIS | Learners who prefer open-source software |
| Part 3: Universities and Libraries | Free-to-audit university courses and library access to LinkedIn Learning | Students, career changers, and self-directed learners |
| Part 4: Specialty Training | NASA remote sensing, humanitarian mapping, and Red Cross GIS training | Professionals in environmental, disaster response, and nonprofit work |
Whether you work with ArcGIS, QGIS, or something else entirely, there is a free place to start building skills, and most of these resources let you set your own pace. We love sharing educational resources like these, and we’d love to hear which ones worked for you or what we should cover next.
Know someone who’d get something out of this series? Pass it along.
Sources
Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology. (n.d.). Building a global GIS learning community for the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. HeiGIT. https://heigit.org/?p=42275
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. (n.d.). Humanitarian use of OSM data. HOT Learn. https://hot.learnworlds.com/course/humanitarian-use-osm
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. (n.d.). Introduction to OpenStreetMap. HOT Learn. https://hot.learnworlds.com/course/introduction-openstreetmap
IFRC Network GIS Training Platform. (n.d.). GIS training resource center. https://giscience.github.io/gis-training-resource-center/content/intro.html
NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program. (2026). Fundamentals of remote sensing. NASA Earthdata. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/trainings/fundamentals-remote-sensing
NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program. (n.d.). Contact ARSET. NASA Earthdata. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/projects/arset/contact
NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program. (n.d.). Will I get a certificate for taking ARSET trainings? NASA Applied Sciences. https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/arset-faq
