Welcome to this first course as part of the XR MOOC. This course is focused on providing an introduction, really covering all the fundamental knowledge that we need to have to understand XR. This is pretty what this course is about, understanding this terminology, learning about the technologies, learning about the applications, and seeing the potential, maybe being a little bit enthusiastic about it, and then learning about strategy and trends and also then really talking about the issues. Let's jump in and try to get a little bit of an overview of what would actually learn about in this first course. Here's an overview of the course. In the first module, we're going to look at the terminology and also learn about the applications of XR, and then we're going to go deeper actually in each of these technologies. We'll learn more about virtual reality and also augmented reality. After providing this fundamental understanding of some of the VR and AR concepts and technologies, we're going to do a little bit of an outlook into where things are going with XR. We're talking about some trends that we can identify. After we've looked into some of the trends, we're also going to talk about a variety of issues. They're actually quite a bit. We're going to switch gears from enthusiastic to critical, and we're going to think about some of these technologies more critically. In the last module, we're going to talk about strategy. We're thinking more about how to learn more about XR. How to grow Knowledge in the team? How to actually grow the team? What should we think about when we acquire new equipment? Should we always go for the latest and greatest, or broad, or deep, do you buy a million times the same device? No, you don't. These are essentially the lectures, some of the main content I will convey through videos and through some panels, bringing in quite a few people, even in this first course, but then also in the other courses. In terms of how we assess learning, well, you'll read the details later, but there will be quizzes. After every module, there's a quiz. This is a mechanism for us to make sure that we are engaging with the content critically. What you will also see is that there's actually an honors track. There's additional content, especially some activities and exercises that I think will require more of your time, but also allow you to engage much more critically with a content. Actually go deeper and develop your knowledge further. I think the honors track is really a great opportunity. As part of this honors track, we actually have a number of activities. Now, I'm going to give you a little bit of an overview of what you can expect to learn throughout this course with a little bit more detail. Really, you'll learn about terminology and applications, you'll learn about concepts and technologies, and you'll learn about the trends and issues. I think of these as three fundamental pillars of knowledge. This is really something where I want you to be familiar with each of these areas and know a little bit about, so that you can actually demonstrate knowledge around XR and also shape where XR is going. I said we'll learn about terms. Here I list out what virtual reality is, augmented reality, mixed reality, and extended reality. We're going to learn about this obviously in a lecture. One is going to be a little bit more traditional and then one is actually using XR technologies. Here you are seeing me, sketching in a tool called Tilt Brush. I'm actually in VR and I'm sketching out the reality virtuality continue. After learning about these key terms and really understanding some of the fundamental concepts, we're going to look at the XR technology landscape. We're going to look at four things really in this landscape; the devices that are out there, the platforms, the applications, and the tools. You're going to learn about some of the applications, like you're going to see me play Beat Saber, and obviously, there was a learning goal behind this. What I really learn here is more about VR. On the AR side of things, one thing that you may have heard about is Pokemon Go. It actually popularized AR a few years ago. These are some applications and they were more in the space of gaming frankly. But this is really where a lot of movement is right now on the XR space, but we're also making it slowly at least into productivity. You'll learn about some of the tools. But you'll learn much more about tools in the courses focused on design and development. On this one, I'll talk a little bit about immersive authoring and I gave a little bit of that overview. Here I'm just editing a 3D scene on an iPad, but then I'm actually jumping into AR and I'm continuing the authoring right in the studio using the iPad here. What I'm using here is actually Apple Reality Composer. That's a tool that's available to you as well if you have an iPad. This was actually just a summary of what happens in the first week. You'll see we will learn actually quite a bit and we will learn through examples. We'll then actually also develop a little bit more knowledge on the concept sides of things and then going deeper into technologies. I have like two modules. They are divided into AR and VR and then each into concepts and technologies, and we are going to ask some of the basic questions around AR and VR. The key concepts, you're going to learn about technologies with lots of examples and also you will see demos throughout. As we learn about some of these concepts and obviously the technologies in AR and the VR, I want us to develop a mental model that we can use to answer some of these questions. When you engage in a new project, you're going to start some kind of new XR project or initiative. Should it be around AR or VR, should it be both, should it be neither of them? What type of AR or VR should you be doing? This is more for projects or what other display and tracking technologies, and these are some of the decisions you can make at this stage because you will have that knowledge. Which types of platforms and devices are out there, and which ones fit the requirements that we have and the needs of our users, and then which tools, actually designed tools and development tools should we be using throughout the process? These are the questions that you ask yourself at the beginning of the project and that I want you to be able to answer at the end of the course. We're going to learn about this XR technology tree, and then we're going to learn about how to turn this technology tree around, because what's important is to know how to ask the right questions. We're going to talk about trends in XR. I said we're going to use human-computer interaction lens. We think about design and we're thinking about these three angles from people or users, from tasks and technology, and then we're going to talk about issues. COVID-19 really has been a major, major disaster in many ways. It actually had quite an impact on the XR landscape, at least from a needs or desires perspective. A lot more interest in XR. We're going to talk about three other classes of issues around social and ethical concerns around accessibility and equity, and around privacy and security. Finally, as I said, we're going to look at the strategy. We're going to look at Knowledge, equipment, team, and users, and how to grow each of these. Really, how to have this mindset of growth and what are some strategies to, for example, increase the knowledge on your team or make your team stronger in the extra space or actually well educating more people and being an evangelist of these technologies so that eventually there will be more users. Basically, at the end of this course, you will have the fundamental knowledge and also have, well, at least some language and insights into strategy and can contribute to discussions around shaping XR. Really, knowing about the trends, the issues, and as I say, strategy. This is an overview of the first course, really packed quite a bit in it and I really want to look at XR from all these different angles and perspectives. This course is really something that I'd like everybody to take, independent of whether you are insistent design or development, or you just want to have a rough understanding of these technologies. You want to be able to participate in discussions. You want to contribute meaningfully to how some of these technologies are shaped, and as you can probably tell, I'm really passionate about these things and I want everybody to know about it so that we can have actually critical discussions around some of these issues. The more people know about this, the better we are prepared for this future where XR I think will be part of our everyday lives.
