 Welcome! Are you interested in the meaning of words, sentences and utterances? Would you like to know how humans convey meaning to one another? Do you want to understand the principles that underlie conversation? Well, then this is the perfect open online course for you. The VLCP MOOC, Linguistics 103, The Nature of Meaning. If you have a virtual linguistics compass account, which is of course free, accessing the class is quite simple. Just log in with your personal data and you will find the class on your personalized VLC start side under your current classes on the virtual linguistics compass. A click on the class name leads you to the class start side where you have access to several class related links, for example to the bibliography, the links section, of course the class description which is this video and links to the social media, for example to the Facebook group associated with this class. Furthermore, and this is a novelty in the world of online courses, your class is a permanent MOOC, a PMOOC. But how does such a PMOOC work? Here are the central principles of using a VLC PMOOC. Central to our PMOOCs is the idea that you have access to all units of a class at any time. However, if you wish you can also define your own fixed rhythm using the class timer. Let's say you want to go through the class on a weekly basis, then select the seven days rhythm. If this is too short for you, go for the ten days rhythm. If it's too long, select say a four days rhythm. Please note that the rhythm is just a guideline for you. It marks the unit you should work with in red and makes available the practical solutions in time. Whenever the red marker moves on, you will see these clickable symbols on the practical sheet. But note that of course you are free to change your rhythm whenever you like and you can always override it at any time and access any unit of your choice and the components within it. Let us now look at the content of Linguistics 103. The class consists of 13 units where the first one, the class preliminaries, informs you about some general aspects of the class and discusses what it means to study online on the virtual linguistics compass. Well, the last one is your option to evaluate the class. The remaining units exhibit the content of this class, which is subdivided into four main parts. The first part looks at word meaning from several angles. In part two, we will deal with the meaning of sentences, which involves an X-course into logic. The third part focuses on the meaning of utterances and discusses the principles underlying conversation. Beyond these three central parts, we will look at additional phenomena such as ambiguity and vagueness or meaning from a historical perspective. And our teaching and learning concept? Well, studying on the virtual linguistics compass simply means go through each unit at your own pace. Make use of as many VLC options as possible and if you don't know what to do, use the advice options on each unit start site. And if you want to contact your peers, either use the class-related forum or the Facebook group MOOC Linguistics 103. And if you want a certificate, well, here are our options. The simplest option is the statement of participation issued by the virtual linguistics compass. You will receive such a certificate for regular and active participation, including the submission of at least one worksheet and for free. Once you have successfully submitted a worksheet, you will be eligible for such a certificate and can open it by hitting the open statement button. The second option is the statement of accomplishment, also for free and issued by the virtual linguistics compass. To be given such a certificate, we not only want your regular participation, but we also want you to do the mastery worksheets, our electronic tests, one for each unit. And we want you to achieve an overall score of all the worksheets of at least 60%. A simple click on the open statement button and the certificate is yours. If you want to obtain a graded statement of accomplishment, select yes down here. This most advanced option of certification includes your precise grade, the workload in hours, and a complete list of all the tasks you successfully submitted. This graded statement of accomplishment is issued by Marburg University in conjunction with the virtual linguistics compass, and it involves a fee of currently 45 euros. Once you have satisfied the conditions and have decided to obtain such a certificate, you first have to open the invoice and transfer the money to Marburg University. And once your payment has been accepted, you can download your personal graded statement of accomplishment via a mouse click. Well, that's it. In case you have more questions, do not hesitate to ask us, for example in our Facebook group. The rest is up to you. So, thanks for your attention and see you soon.