Prior to commencement of this programme, I had knowledge of VR development as I had participated in (and won) a VR Hackathon just a month before I started the nanodegree. Also as a game developer, I was versed in the use of Unity3D, a game engine that is commonly used to create virtual reality experiences. So personally, I assumed the main thing I would be gaining from the nanodegree programme would be the certificate that says “Hey employers, Tade is a badass VR Developer. Give him all your money.” But to my pleasant surprise, it was significantly more than that.
From the interesting and productive discussions with fellow students on the Slack channel, I learnt a lot about the VR market and products. For each topic in the course, you’re required to apply it in projects relating to the topic. This really helped bridge the gap between theory and actually creating something. And, these little projects were good enough to be added to my portfolio. After each project submission, a detailed review of the project was given by the reviewer and this helped to spot mistakes and areas where progress can be made.
Asides from the core curriculum, extra curricular content and projects were available. This ranged from High Immersion courses using Unity or Unreal to teachings about 360 Media and storyboarding. The extra curricular section also contained a very important part. The career section. Here, all forms of lectures were given pertaining to actually having a career in VR development. This contained topics like how to create your website and portfolio, networking, job search strategies and even VR interview best practices. These are very useful classes that would help boost job finding and beginning a career in VR Development.
The only setback about the programme was the initial unavailability of course content. Being one of the first group of students to take the course, there was a period of time (about 3 months) were the high immersion courses were being worked on. During this moment of inactivity, a VR Jam was organised where we teamed up and developed experiences to compete against each other. It was loads of fun and I learnt a lot.
Basically, I would advise anyone who has any bit of interest in Virtual Reality and wants to polish their already existing skills or wants to learn from scratch to enroll in this nanodegree. It was fun, exciting, productive and is bound to be super fruitful. Also, if you complete the programme in less than a year, you get a refund of half your tuition!
If you’d like to learn about my experience more detailed and humorous way, click here
Disclaimer: I have no ties with Udacity asides from being an alumni so no, they didn’t send me secret money to write this article about the nanodegree. It was truthfully a great experience.
by Ajiboye Tade,
VR Developer at Imisi3D.
