Udacity Now Offers VR Courses, Learn The Ropes Of The Fast-Emerging Market

The virtual reality market is relatively new in terms of mainstream popularity, but online education provider Udacity is already offering a “nano degree” in the field. The courses are meant to prepare students who want to enter the industry of VR technology, whether it’s gaming or movies.

Udacity is a company that was founded by a former executive at Google, Sebastian Thrun. Thrun worked on the Google X initiative before he left, which fans of autonomous driving will know is the Google Car project. Now, his institute will be providing even inexperienced students with the skills they need to make it in the mobile and desktop industries dabbling in VR, Tech Crunch reports.

Bolstering the capabilities of Udacity to host students and train them in VR technology is Christian Plagemann who is now a director at the online institute. Plagemann is actually the co-founder of Google VR and even worked on Google Cardboard, which gave him enough clout to draw in partners including Google VR and HTC Vive. No word yet on whether or not Oculus is onboard, but the positive PR would do them wonders right now, what with the whole Trump debacle going on.

As for the program itself, VentureBeat reports that it will cost students $199 a month. If that sound expensive, don’t worry as 50 percent would actually be reimbursed if the student completes the course. So aside from the rewards in skills that they’ll get, they are also getting a financial incentive of sorts.

Students will be learning from coaches provided by Udacity and the platform partners, and they’ll be working with Google Cardboard for the most part. This makes sense since it’s what Plagemann would likely be most familiar with, thus making the teaching curriculum more uniform. Then again, Cardboard isn’t technically VR, so this can be an issue.