BA (Hons) Virtual & Augmented Reality

Launch Week
All launch weeks feature a range of activities, which will comprise an interdisciplinary Industry Guest Speakers’ Series offered to all students across the School of Games and Creative Technology.

There will also be other activities, such as study trips and/or studio visits, Design Sprints, could also take place.

Augmented Reality Technologies
You’ll examine the advanced specialist tools, methods, concepts and processes relevant to Augmented Reality through a series of projects, workshops and advanced technical sessions. This is a practical workshop-based unit where you’ll learn how to design and develop in augmented reality and all the technical and creative differences AR and VR.

This unit offers you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of working with software, and coding for mobile AR applications, to design and prepare assets and graphics for AR, and how to develop exciting AR experiences using a number of tools, such as Vuforia, Wikitude, ARKit, ARCore and ARToolKit.

The Conscious Practitioner
You’ll explore global perspectives and influences on creative practice, drawing upon interactions with varied identities, cultures, politics, and histories. The unit will explore how beliefs, values and attitudes drive behaviour and practices.

Opportunity Week
Opportunity Week gives you the chance to try something a little different, broaden your engagement and your subject knowledge, such as Games Jams and Design Sprints. There may also be study trips and/or studio visits locally, in major hubs like London and even internationally for festivals, or trips museums, galleries and festivals.

Spatial Interaction Design
You’ll explore the human element of designing XR. Without getting the human element correct, no amount of technology fixes will make XR experiences interesting. Using case studies and XR principles developed by experts, you can map out a framework of user experience and interaction design guidelines.

This unit will also explore haptics and touch interfaces, controllers and inputs for interaction design and 360 sound design to direct attention and guide users in XR storytelling and spatial interaction.

Industry Brief
You’ll use your skills and workflows to produce work for an industry brief, who will set specific parameters and conditions to be met by a deadline. This could include style guides, historic markers, format conditions, audience, and genre.

You’ll work as individuals or in a team (depending on the brief) and develop new skills in engaging and communicating effectively with your fellow students, including your ability to respond to an industry focused brief. In addition, you will focus on refining your presentation skills to ensure that you successfully share the outcomes, reflecting on your output.

ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome
These units are an extension of the Year 1 ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome.

Elective units
You’ll also be able to choose from two of the following elective units through the course of the year:

• Conceptual Interdisciplinary
• Immersive Media
• Digital Storytelling
• Hardware Projects using Arduino
• Virtual Production Studio
• Pervasive Game Studio
• Creature Animation
• Motion Capture Technologies
• Environmental Storytelling

Launch Week
All launch weeks feature a range of activities, which will comprise an interdisciplinary Industry Guest Speakers’ Series offered to all students across the School of Games and Creative Technology.

There will also be other activities, such as study trips and/or studio visits, Design Sprints, could also take place.

Audience Engagement and Experiences
This unit relies on and build all the previous units in the course and offers you the opportunity to develop unique experiences for specific audiences in varied industries, using the tools and approaches available through XR.

You will evaluate contemporary interactive and immersive experiences, and study specific audiences, their needs and interests.

Through a series of projects and supported by workshops you will design experiences for specific audiences.

Immersion and Storytelling
You’ll broaden your understanding of interactive experiences to influence your future direction by utilising theory from seminars and research and developing your narrative skills. You’ll be encouraged to cooperate, test and rehearse your project ideas with your classmates. Several XR experiences, books, video games, and films will be discussed in class, from different perspectives

Final Major Project – self-directed or team
The Final Major Project is a culmination of your skills, passion and creativity. The final major project and your role in it if a team member, should be ambitious but achievable and framed within how you want to promote yourself as a XR Experience Designer.

Through projects, workshops, and lectures you will undertake a rigorous investigation into an aspect and topic of personal interest within XR. You are encouraged to critically engage with the discipline and its key debates to initiate and locate your body of work.

You will produce a creative, challenging, detailed and logical proposal for a body of work that you’ll complete in the final semester. You will plan the production of this work using a common industry methodology, the approach of which will be covered during this unit.

Alongside the project, you will be compiling a showreel of work to showcase your mini-projects and prototypes thus far. The unit and year will finish with an exhibition which celebrates the prototypes and projects completed for this unit and throughout the course.

BSc (Hons) course - Year 2*

The standard entry requirements* for this course are:

• 120 credits from a relevant degree (at level 4)
• Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE)
• Higher National Certificate in a relevant subject

And/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

BSc (Hons) course - Year 3*

The standard entry requirements* for this course are:

• 240 credits from a relevant degree (120 credits at level 4 and 120 credits at level 5), with a minimum of 55% overall
• Foundation Degree in a relevant subject
• Higher National Diploma in a relevant subject

And/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

In recognition that you may already have a relevant professional qualification, or appropriate working experience in the relevant industries, APEL may be accepted for entry on to the course. This will be based on the partnership articulations and will be assessed on a case by case basis.

Portfolio requirements

For these courses, we’ll need to see your portfolio for review. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your portfolio review in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied. View more portfolio advice

*We occasionally make offers which are lower than the standard entry criteria, to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results. We consider the strength of our applicants’ portfolios, as well as their grades -  in these cases, a strong portfolio is especially important.

BSc (Hons) course Year 2 / Year 3 entry

The entry requirements for these courses will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please contact our International Admissions team to discuss your application: [email protected]

Portfolio requirements

You will be required to submit a portfolio for review. Further information on specific portfolio requirements and how to submit your portfolio will be sent to you after we have reviewed your application.

English language requirements

To study at UCA, you'll need to have a certain level of English language skill. And so, to make sure you meet the requirements of your course, we ask for evidence of your English language ability, please check the level of English language required:

• English language requirements