 Welcome! In the following I would like to inform you about our massive open online course Linguistics 103 The Nature of Meaning, a topic that should be self-explanatory. But I will say something more about it later. Prior to that, I would like to tell you how you can register and how you can access this class. First, you have to log in with your personal data. Prior to that, of course, you should have created your free VLC account. Now once you've done that, you can visit the registration office and register for this class. And once this class has been activated and you have logged in, you will see this sort of personalized VLC start site where you will find the class name and with a simple click on the class, you will be led to the interactive class start site. And this is what it looks like. On the class start site, you have access to several class-related links. One of them, for example, is a hyperlink that leads you to the class-related forum where you can discuss questions with your classmates. The core of the class are the e-learning units where the first one, the class preliminaries, informs you about some general aspects of the class, provides some general helpful routines that find out whether your computer is configured correctly and makes some further suggestions about how to study online. For this reason, we recommend to go through the class preliminaries very carefully, especially if you're a first-time user of a class on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. 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 the information symbols. For example, this one here, which is associated with the e-learning unit theories of word meaning, and here in this little pop-up window, you see the details of that 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 discussion of word meaning, the central approaches towards the meaning of sentences, and the discussion of the meaning of larger structures such as utterances. The remaining units discuss additional phenomena including historical aspects. And how do you study all this? Well, studying online simply means you first of all go through each e-learning unit at your own pace. You study the virtual session on your computer screen, including the textual material provided. You watch the associated e-lectures on any device including mobile devices such as your phone, and you can optionally use a forum to discuss problems and questions with your classmates. And if you are successful, you will be given a certificate. In fact, all participants who actively participate in our class will receive the so-called Statement of Participation issued by the Virtual Linguistics Campus, and it is for regular participation. But if you want more, you have to invest more work and a very small amount of money. As a result, you will be given the Qualified Statement of Accomplishment issued by Marburg University in conjunction with our Virtual Linguistics Campus. This certificate will include your precise grade, the class workload in hours, and a complete list of all the tasks you successfully submitted. To be given such a Qualified Certificate, we want you to participate regularly. We want you to do the Worksheets, one for each e-learning unit. And if your overall score is 60% or more, then you will be given the option to receive such a Qualified Statement of Accomplishment. But if you don't want to receive such a thing, we can just confirm your participation with a standard statement of participation. So, be part of our Massive Open Online Class Linguistics 103 and learn more about the nature of meaning. 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 once more, I invite you to be part of our class and I'm sure you will enjoy it. Thanks for your attention.