Resources

Teacher Training

If you do not have any existing experience with programming or teaching programming, not to worry! All teacher training, course content, and supplemental resources for teachers are available at no cost through Unity’s Educator Hub. Unity also maintains several support networks that can connect your teachers to other educators around the world for help, ideas, and collaboration.

Unity for Educators: A Beginner’s Guide

If this is your first experience with Unity, 4POP recommends you to take the Unity for Educators: A Beginner’s Guide course. Unity for Educators is an entryway to the Unity technology platform and the Unity educator community. This free course is created by teachers for teachers. It’s inspired by the experiences of passionate and innovative Unity educators around the globe.

This course is for any teacher, in any educational setting, who wants to equip their students with the skills and experience that will enable them to be the creators of tomorrow and prepare them for high-demand technology careers. The Unity for Educators course provides training, support, community, and resources for all educators so that they may successfully teach Unity, the industry-leading tool for interactive design and development that spans across disciplines, like game development, AR, VR, media & entertainment, architecture, engineering, construction, design, training simulations, and more.

Course Preparation

Unity also offers training to prepare teachers or individual courses.

Create with Code - Teacher Training

In this short teacher training unit, Create with Code – Teacher Training, you will learn everything you need to know in order to bring the Create with Code curriculum into your classroom. You will follow along with a worksheet that will help make sure you have thought through all the details and are ready to go when the students walk into the classroom on Day 1. First, you will be oriented to the course, then you will be guided through customizing the course to fit the needs of your classroom, and review a final checklist to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.

In the Create with Code course itself, students will use Unity to learn the fundamentals of programming in the context of creating their own projects. During the course, they will create several prototypes along with the instructor, manage a larger personal project more independently, and complete challenges and quizzes along the way to solidify and expand their new knowledge. The skills that they learn will align with the learning objectives from the Unity Certified User exam, providing them with a foundational understanding of Unity and C# programming. In addition to these core technical competencies, students will learn how to manage a project from start to finish: coming up with a concept, creating a project plan, prioritizing tasks, and hitting milestones. By the end of the course, students will have the confidence that, given enough time and resources, they can create anything they want with Unity and C#.

Create with VR for Educators

The course, Create with VR for Educators, is for educators who want to equip their students with the skills and experience that will enable them to be the creators of tomorrow. The course provides training, support, community, and resources for educators to successfully teach VR development with Unity.

In the self-paced part of this course, you will learn to design and develop your own Virtual Reality (VR) applications. You will create prototypes, attempt challenges, and complete quizzes to build and solidify your skillset. Whether you want to create an interactive walkthrough of an ancient ruin, a product configurator for a car manufacturer, a simulator for operating dangerous machinery, or any other experience, this course will help you and your students bring those ideas to life in VR.

Student Courses

Create with Code

In this introductory course, students will use Unity to learn the fundamentals of programming in the context of creating their own projects. During the course, they will create several prototypes along with the instructor, manage a larger personal project more independently, and complete challenges and quizzes along the way to solidify and expand their new knowledge. The skills that they learn will align with the learning objectives from the Unity Certified User exam, providing them with a foundational understanding of Unity and C# programming, preparing them for certification. In addition to these core technical competencies, students will learn how to manage a project from start to finish: coming up with a concept, creating a project plan, prioritizing tasks, and hitting milestones. By the end of the course, students will have the confidence that, given enough time and resources, they can create anything they want with Unity and C#.

Pathways

Unity Pathways build on each other from skill to skill, making the journey to your learning goals a matter of following the path. As you design your curriculum, you can decide to follow Unity’s pathways as-is or integrate them with your own approach.

These pathways do prepare students for the Unity Certified User certification, however, not as directly as Create with Code.

Unity Essentials

This pathway is designed for anyone new to Unity, this guided learning journey is your first step toward gaining the background, context, and skills you need to confidently create in the Unity Editor and bring your vision to life. Experience hands-on learning as you discover what’s possible with Unity and unlock free assets to support you in creating your best projects. Completing this Pathway will equip you with the foundation you need to further your learning and specialize in your area of interest.

Learn more about this pathway by visiting https://learn.unity.com/pathway/unity-essentials.

Junior Programmer

This pathway is designed for anyone interested in learning to code or obtaining an entry-level Unity role, this pathway assumes a basic knowledge of Unity and has no math prerequisites. Junior Programmer prepares you to get Unity Certified so that you can demonstrate your job-readiness to employers.

Learn more about this pathway by visiting https://learn.unity.com/pathway/junior-programmer.

Creative Core

This pathway is the next step towards becoming a Unity creator. This free learning path will teach you all the core elements you need to bring your imagination to life with Unity. Once you’ve completed Unity Essentials as an introduction to the fundamentals of Unity Editor, take this pathway to learn VFX, Lighting, Animation, Audio, UI and other creative skills, no programming required.

Learn more about this pathway by visiting https://learn.unity.com/pathway/creative-core.

VR Development

This pathway is designed for anyone interested in learning to create experiences for VR. This pathway assumes a basic knowledge of Unity and basic knowledge of programming.

Learn more about this pathway by visiting https://learn.unity.com/pathway/vr-development. 

Mobile AR Development

In this pathway, you’ll create Augmented Reality (AR) applications that are compatible with iOS and Android devices. You’ll use Visual Scripting and Unity’s AR tools to develop a wide variety of engaging AR experiences. This pathway assumes a basic knowledge of Unity.

Learn more about this pathway by visiting https://learn.unity.com/pathway/mobile-ar-development. 

Unity EdLab

If your and/or your students do not have access to a PC that satisfies the hardware requirements, Unity offers a cloud-based development platform, called EdLab, that provides them access to Unity from any laptop or computer to work (even on low-performance computers), without the need for installing software on the device.

EdLab is an annual subscription with seats that can be managed through a central administrator portal. This allows for student access management and assignment at the beginning of the year for a year-long course, or assigned and reassigned for semester-long courses or bootcamps.

Technology Requirements

Hardware

The main hardware item required for 4POP and its courses is a PC that satisfies the following requirements:

  • Access to a stable internet connection.
  • Runs Windows, macOS, or Linux.
  • Can install and run Unity Hub.
  • Can install and run the Unity Editor (used to develop) and Unity Player (used to test and play projects) programs. These programs’ system requirements can be found in Unity’s documentation (requirements may differ between versions).

While not necessary (but very beneficial), a VR headset can be used to test VR projects. The following VR headset platforms are supported (via OpenXR) in Unity’s documentation for version 2021 LTS:

  • Oculus Rift/Rift S (PC must be running Windows 10+)
  • Oculus Quest
  • Meta Quest 2

Software

The following software items are required for 4POP and its courses:

  • Unity Hub
  • Unity Editor and Unity Player
  • Web browser

EdLab

EdLab requires an internet connection with bandwidth of 5-10Mbps and a device (such as a Chromebook) with a keyboard that runs a browser.