 Welcome! Are you interested in human speech? Would you like to understand how humans produce and perceive sounds? Well, here is the perfect open online course for you. The VLC Massive Open Online Course, Linguistics 102 Speech Science. And this is how to register. First, you have to create your free account on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. Then you should log in with your personal data. And you should visit the registration office where you can register for the Linguistics 102 class with a few mouse clicks. And once you have registered, you can log in. And then you will find on your personalised start site the name of the MOOC you have registered for. The simple click on this name leads you to the class start site. On the class start site, you have access to several class-related links. And one of these links is, for example, the hyperlink to the class-related forum where you can discuss problems with your classmates. The core of the class are the e-learning units. The first one, the so-called class preliminaries, provides some helpful routines that find out whether your computer is configured correctly and make some further suggestions about how to study online. So, especially if you are a first-time user of a VLC class, please go through the class preliminaries very carefully. The remaining units exhibit the content of this class. And if you wish, you can retrieve an overview of each unit by means of a click on one of these information symbols. Well, for example, on vowels, click on the information symbol opens this small pop-up window and you can find details about that particular unit. Let us now look at the content of the class traditionally referred to as syllabus. The class is subdivided into three central parts. The first of them deals with the production of speech, also known as articulatory phonetics. Then we will look at the physics of speech, alternatively labeled acoustic phonetics. And finally, we will deal with the perception of speech, also known as auditory phonetics. These three central parts are surrounded by an introductory unit and a unit that leads from phonetics to phonology. Now, studying online simply means go through the content of each e-learning unit at your own pace, from wherever you are and at whatever time you want. Study the virtual session, that is the content of each unit using your equipment and use the textual material provided. Also, watch the corresponding e-lectures on your, well, let's say on your mobile devices or on your computer and optionally use the class-related forum where you can discuss questions, where you can solve problems together with your classmates. And if you're successful, you will be given a certificate. Now, this is the standard certificate, the so-called statement of participation issued by the Virtual Linguistics Campus for regular and active participation. If you want more, you have to invest more work and a very small amount of money. Well, if this is the option of your choice, you will receive a qualified statement of accomplishment issued by Marburg University in conjunction with the Virtual Linguistics Campus. And this certificate will include your precise grade, the class workload in hours and a complete list of all the tasks you successfully submitted. In order to be given such a certificate, we want you to participate regularly and we want you to do the worksheets, one for each e-learning unit. And if your overall score is 60% or higher, you have the choice. The statement of accomplishment which involves this very small fee or the standard statement of participation which is free. Well, it's all up to you. So, be part of our Linguistics 102 Massive Open Online course and learn more about human speech, learn to produce and identify human speech sounds, work with sound analysers and discover the secrets of the human hearing and phonation system. As soon as the class has been activated, you will be contacted by the Virtual Linguistics Campus team. The rest is up to you. So, become part of our class and I'm sure you will enjoy it. Thank you for your patience.