Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging field and more companies are adopting the technology. According to NewGenApps, the user base for both AR and Virtual Reality (VR) are expected to increase to 216 million users by 2025.
If you want to take this opportunity, you should start learning AR and there are plenty of lessons online. Here are the top 3 AR courses you can find on Udemy.
1. Build 15 Augmented Reality (AR) apps with Unity & Vuforia
Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Clear instructions
- iOS & Android
- Straightforward
- Many projects
Cons
- Repetitive concepts
- Outdated Software (Unity)
- Lacks QnA support
- Resources & materials outdated or not available
- Lacks programming concept
Dinesh Tavasalkar, a freelance Trainer and Developer designed this AR course for beginners. The course is meant to open your mind about the applications of AR. If you’re an intermediate AR developer, then this course is not for you. Advance concepts and projects are covered in this course.
Dinesh also kept his instructions clear throughout the AR course enabling you to follow through easily. As Vuforia was the only SDK used, the course allows you to pick any of the two most popular mobile platform – iOS and Android.
The course guarantees to equip you with 15 projects at the end. This will be beneficial for your portfolio when you look for a job. Besides, the opportunity to implement various of applications will provide you a huge insight to AR.
The instructor was straightforward through out the lesson. In every video, he did not waste too much time explaining and dived straight into the implementation. The time allocated for each segment was perfect.
However, as the AR course progresses, Dinesh kept repeating concepts over and over. Each videos repeats the same Unity setup process and explanations are unnecessary. This repetition will make you fall asleep and forces you to skip through.
It is hard to keep up when your software version doesn’t match the instructor’s. This may not be a problem for new students as you can follow along. But instructors may not be able teach you everything and you may get stuck. When this happens you are forced to look for answers elsewhere. That’s when it gets trickier because most answers would focus to solve problems on latest versions.
Similarly, the resources and materials are outdated or unavailable. Links to download a file like assets are not available or not free anymore.
Dinesh doesn’t keep track of his Question and Answer (QnA) section well. You might find a step that you don’t understand and ask him. However, he would reply very late if not at all.
As a beginner oriented AR course, the lack of programming explanation is not friendly. AR applications does not require a lot of coding for beginners. So it’s fair that the instructor touch on some basic programming concepts.
2. Building Augmented Reality (AR) Apps in RealityKit & ARKit
Prerequisite
- Programming experience (Swift)
- Have access to Mac
- Have access to an iPhone or iPad
Pros
- Helpful materials
- Clear instructions
- Straightforward
- Code explanation
- Library / tools up to date
- Responsive QnA
Cons
- Only for iOS applications
- Lacks projects
- No practical examples
Mohammad Azam is a 10+ years experienced iOS developer. He published this AR course to introduce experienced programmers to the AR world. If you know Swift language and some SwiftUi then this AR course is for you. As an iOS developer, you should know that you would need a physical apple device (not simulator) to develop your application.
Mohammad offers his tutorial codes for you to refer. You would not need to rewind his videos to copy his codes. His clear instructions would make you follow along better. Every video he goes straight to the point and do not beat around the bush.
The instructor also attempts to explain the code briefly to make you understand his implementation. There are some programming concepts that you may lack and Mohammad tries to cover that for you.
Mohammad keeps his lectures updated by using the latest software. He is also is very responsive to his QnA section.
However, Mohammad didn’t mention any practical uses AR. Theoretically, AR may sound cool but it is important to explain AR importance through real life examples.
As Mohammad uses Xcode to develop AR, you would only be able to develop applications for iOS. Unlike Vuforia, you would have to create another project from scratch if you wish to see your application in Android.
3. A Beginner’s Guide to Augmented Reality (AR) with Unity
Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Huge community (youtube, instagram, facebook)
- Helpful resources
- Clear instructions
- Responsive QnA
- Crossplatform
- Straightforward
- Cheap
Cons
- No real life use cases explanation
- Uses Wikitude, a paid platform with free trial
- Outdated libraries / tools ( Unity )
- Outdated materials (assets)
- Lacks programming concepts
Dr. Penny de Byl has been teaching over 25 years in universities in Australia and Europe on ‘computer sciency’ things. The course expects you to be a beginner with little to no knowledge in either AR or programming.
Dr.Penny is part of a group called Holistic3D. The group is present in multiple social media platforms. This is great because it gives you more resources to refer to when you are stuck. Holistic3D also has a website that showcases new projects.
Dr.Penny also gives useful materials during the AR course that is not outdated or unavailable. Her delivery in the course is clear and straight to the point. Dr.Penny’s always respond to the QnA section.
She uses an SDK called Wikitude that works on both iOS and Android. This gives you the option to develop on either Android or iOS or both. Wikitude is a well known platform. Most companies utilises this SDK which gives you an upper hand if you take this AR course
The best part of the course is very cheap at the normal price. Udemy has frequent sale discounts. It is hard to say the price of a specific course. Most AR courses would go up to 100$ but Dr.Penny’s course is at 15$. Given the amount of knowledge you could possibly gain from this course, the course is underpriced (or should I say other AR courses are overpriced).
However, Dr.Penny did not made clear explanation of real life applications. This is important to understand the importance of AR.
Wikitude is a powerful SDK and has great documentation for you to refer to. However, Wikitude is a pay-to-use platform. Although Dr.Penny provides free license during the AR course, this free license will not last long (45 days). This may force you to buy an expensive Wikitude license to continue working on AR because you only have experience in Wikitude.
Dr.Penny also uses an old version of Unity which may confuse those who are new. When you are stuck and want to refer to other tutorials, you may have problem. Most tutorials use the latest version of Unity. Some materials provided in the AR course are outdated as well, especially the assets.
The AR course also lacks programming concepts which are essential when becoming an AR developer.
Which Augmented Reality course is the best?
It depends on your skills and goals. If you are have experience in Swift programming and have an iOS device, go for Mohammad’s Building Augmented Reality Apps in RealityKit & ARKit (2).
As said before, Wikitude is a popular SDK used by well known companies. If you want to learn this SDK and have an upper hand, then take Dr.Penny’s A Beginner’s Guide to Augmented Reality (AR) (3) with Unity.
Finally, if your goal is to have a handful of AR applications to put on your portfolio, then Dinesh’s Build 15 Augmented Reality (AR) apps with Unity & Vuforia (1) should be your AR course. This also will give you exposure a lot of practical implementations and give you more ideas in the future.
Of course, I did mentioned a lot of disadvantages – mainly the outdated libraries and softwares. However, learning is a progress. In an ideal world we want everything to be perfect before we start. That is not always the case and you would waste time if you go for perfection. Making the first step will get you ahead of others who are picky about their AR course.
Pick the best AR course that suits you and start right away. If not 100% of the course is useful, then 60% of the course will give an advantage. Good luck!