About the course
Welcome to the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Intro to Immersive Journalism: Virtual Reality & 360 video,” offered by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin. This is a free course open to anyone from anywhere in the world interested in virtual reality as it applies to non-fiction storytelling and journalism, ranging from content creation to content consumption. Instructor Robert Hernandez will will explore the quickly changing landscape of this emerging technology, reviewing current VR Journalism experiences available. Learn more details below about this program and if you have any questions, please contact us at knightcenter@austin.utexas.edu.
How to Register
Registering in the platform is easy. Please follow these steps:
- 1. Create an account in the Journalism Courses system. Even if you’ve taken a course with us before, you may need to create a new account. Check to see if your previous username and password work before creating a new account.
- 2. Wait for a confirmation in your email indicating that your account has been created. If you do not receive this, please check your spam folder.
- 3. Log into the platform, scroll down until you see the course listings, and click on the “Intro to Immersive Journalism: Virtual Reality & 360 video” course.
- 4. A button will appear, click “Enroll” to enroll yourself into the course. You will be able to access the course from the “My Courses” menu at the top of the page.
- 5. You will receive an email confirming your enrollment.
Please add the email addresses knightcenter@austin.utexas.edu and filipa.rodrigues@utexas.edu to your address book to ensure you receive emails about the course.
Goals
This course aims to provide journalists, media practitioners and the general public with knowledge about virtual reality as it applies to non-fiction storytelling and journalism, ranging from content creation to content consumption. The course will explore the quickly changing landscape of this emerging technology, reviewing current VR Journalism experiences available; looking at the diverse hardware/software to produce experiences; and the new ethical questions this new medium raises.
Objectives
At the end of the course, you will come away with knowledge about:
- How VR is being used in non-fiction, journalistic storytelling.
- The differences between “live-action,” 360 videos compared with CG/3D, interactive “gaming” experiences.
- How the different hardware and software can be used to produce these VR experiences.
- How this new medium changes production, distribution and consumption.
- How VR raises new ethical questions non-fiction storytellers need to keep in mind.
Who Can Enroll?
This course was planned as a training program for journalists, but it is open to anyone who has an interest in learning about the basics of VR journalism. You don’t need any previous experience with the concepts, tools or resources of VR journalism. Just bring your enthusiasm to learn from some of the best trainers in this field of immersive journalism in the United States!
Class Dynamics
This online course covers specific topics each week. The course is divided into five weekly modules.
Each week features video lectures, readings, a quiz and discussion areas in the MOOC course site. This course is asynchronous – which means you can login to the course site and complete these class activities throughout the week at your own pace, anytime. You don’t need to login in at a specific time, you can login at your own convenience throughout the week. There are no planned meeting times for this course.
Recommended Deadlines
This course is very flexible, but there are weekly deadlines that we recommend all students to respect. We recommend the following for each week:
- Videos should be reviewed between Sunday and Friday
- Readings should be reviewed between Sunday and Friday
- Discussion Forums – posts should be made throughout the week, preferably before Friday
- Quizzes – should be taken no later than Saturday (Note: weekly quizzes will remain open throughout the duration of the course for those who need more time.) We highly recommended that you do your best to not fall behind by meeting the weekly deadlines.
Please know that these are recommended deadlines. You can still return to a previous module and participate in the forums and submit or retake quizzes at any time prior to the end of the class.
For more information click "Further official information" below.