A Guide to the UX Design Process
October 29, 2024
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Start your journey in Virtual Reality. Develop your knowledge and create your own VR application.
Instructors: Prof Marco Gillies
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Beginner level
For Introduction to Virtual Reality, no prior knowledge is required. For later courses in the specialization, basic programming knowledge is needed.
(1,035 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
For Introduction to Virtual Reality, no prior knowledge is required. For later courses in the specialization, basic programming knowledge is needed.
Discover the fundamentals of Virtual Reality, the hardware and history, different applications, and the psychology and challenges of the medium.
Learn the basics of 3D graphics, how we create objects and how to lay them out to create an environment.
Explore how you interact with a VR world, including the concepts and technologies of VR interaction.
Utilise the skills you have learnt to create your own VR game or project.
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This specialisation from the University of London will introduce you to virtual reality.
Virtual reality is one of the most highly requested skill sets in the jobs market, and this specialisation will give you an introduction to the subject and key skills in the field. You will hear from world-leading lecturers and industry experts, use Unity to develop your own VR environment, and end the specialisation by creating your first VR game.
Applied Learning Project
By the end of the specialisation you will be able to develop your very own Virtual Reality game. You will take the skills you have developed in each of the preceding courses and, using Unity, you will put these into practice to create your first virtual reality game.
This course will introduce you to Virtual Reality (VR). The course will teach you everything from the basics of VR- the hardware and the history of VR- to different applications of VR, the psychology of Virtual Reality, and the challenges of the medium.
The course is designed for people who are new to VR as a medium. You may have experienced some virtual reality before, and may have some hardware- but this course is suitable to individuals who have never experienced VR and those who do not have much hardware- we will explain Mobile VR as well as devices such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Introduction to Virtual Reality is the first course in the Virtual Reality Specialisation. A learner with no previous experience in Virtual Reality and/or game programming will be able to evaluate existing VR applications, and design, test, and implement their own VR experiences/games using Unity by the end of the specialisation.
This course will begin your journey to creating Virtual Reality experiences. A Virtual Reality experience is a new world that you step into and are entirely immersed in. Creating a VR experience means creating that world and all the objects in it.
In this course you will learn the basics of 3D graphics: how we create objects and how to lay them out to create an environment. You will learn techniques like materials and texturing that make your objects appear realistic. You will also learn about audio techniques to ensure that your experiences sound great as well as looking great. In all of these topics we will pay attention to the particular requirements of Virtual Reality, including pitfalls and performance issues: making sure your environment runs fast enough in VR. You will learn all of this using the professional game and VR engine, Unity3D. Unity is one of the most used game engine and is a relatively easy, but fully featured, introduction to 3D development. The course will culminate in a project in which you will create your own VR scene. VR development is something you can only learn by doing it yourself, so working on your project will be the best way to learn.
This course will teach you about one of the most important aspects of VR, how you interact with a VR world. Virtual Reality is completely different from an on screen app or game. You are completely immersed in a VR world, so it doesn't make sense to interact only through buttons or menus. You will get the most out of VR if you can interact with the world just as you would with the real world: with your natural body movements. You will learn about the basic concepts and technologies of VR Interaction. You will then get hands on, learning about how to move around in VR and how to interact with the objects in your world. The course will finish with some advice from experts on VR interaction design and you will do a project where you will get real experience of developing VR Interaction.
Meeting another person is one of the most amazing experiences you can have in Virtual Reality. It is quite unlike communicating through any other medium except a real life face-to-face conversation. Because the other person is life size and shares a virtual space with you, body language works in a way that cannot be done on a flat screen. This course will enable you to create realistic social interactions in VR.
You will learn about both the psychology of social interaction and the practical skills to implement it in Unity3D. We will take you through the basics of 3D character animation and how to create body language. You will learn about how to make characters that can respond to players’ speech and body language. You will also learn about avatars: the virtual representation of other players, and agents: computer controlled NPC characters and how to implement both of them. As many people have said before us, social is the future of VR. This course will help you become part of the future of Virtual Reality social experiences.
Virtual Reality is one of the most exciting experiences that technology can give us. The immersion and presence you can have in VR is quite unlike any other medium. Like many others, you are excited about the possibilities of this new medium and want to get started developing your own VR experiences. This course will take you through all of the steps you need to create a VR game or other project.
This is the final course in our Specialisation: Virtual Reality. The previous courses teach you the skills you need to make a VR game. This course brings them all together to create a project of your own. We will guide you through all the steps of a VR project: coming up with an idea, storyboarding, prototyping, testing and implementation. By the end of this course you will have a complete VR project that demonstrates your skills and could be the first step in creating a professional game. We hope this course can be your entry into professional VR development. To help you get started, some good advice always helps. That is why we have interviewed VR experts from all over the world, ranging from technology pioneers with over 30 years experience in VR to the latest cutting edge VR creators. We have asked all of them to give you their advice and we hope it inspires you to become part of the future of VR.
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The Specialisation contains five courses, each of which has four modules of content. You should be able to complete each module in approximately five hours of work, meaning that the Specialisation as a whole should take you 100 hours to complete. Each course has an indicative four week structure but you are welcome to complete each course at your own pace.
You will need to have basic programming knowledge before embarking on later courses in the specialisation. For Introduction to Virtual Reality, no prior knowledge is required.
We strongly recommend that you take the courses in the suggested order, but this is not required. As the fifth course, Creating Your First Virtual Reality Game, will draw on aspects of all of the other courses in the Specialisation, you will need to complete these before embarking on this part of the Specialisation.
No, these MOOCs are not credit bearing.
Even if you have no previous experience in Virtual Reality and/or game programming, by the end of the specialisation you will be able to evaluate existing VR applications, and design, test, and implement your own VR experiences/games using Unity.
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free. If you cannot afford the fee, you can apply for financial aid.
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