 Welcome. Are you interested in human speech? Would you like to know how humans produce and perceive sounds? Well, then this is the perfect open online course for you. The Virtual Linguistics Campus Pimook Linguistics 102 Speech Science. If you have a VLC 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 personalised VLC start site under your current classes on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. A click on the class name leads you to the class start site, where you have access to several class-related links. For example, the bibliography, the link 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 Pimook. But how does a permanent MOOC work? Here are the central principles of using a VLC Pimook. Central to our Pimooks 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 7 days rhythm. If this is too short for you, go for the 10 days rhythm. If it's too long, select, say, a 4 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 102. The first part looks at the production of speech, also known as articulatory phonetics. Then we will deal with the physics of speech alternatively labeled acoustic phonetics. And the third part focuses on the perception of speech, also referred to as auditory phonetics. These central parts are surrounded by an introductory unit, the speech chain, and a unit that leads from phonetics to phonology. And our teaching and learning concept? Well, studying on the virtual linguistics campus 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's start site. And if you want to contact your peers, either use the class-related forum or the Facebook group, MOOC Linguistics 102. And if you want a certificate, well, here are your options. The simplest option is the statement of participation issued by the virtual linguistics campus. 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 campus. 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 campus, 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 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. Thanks for your attention and see you soon.