A Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction

A Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction (VSF) is an online teaching toolkit for those interested in science fiction. It addresses anyone who wants to know more about the genre and provides introductory information for students, teachers and fans. As a toolkit it is specifically aimed at teachers who want to enhance their classes with, or prepare a course on science fiction. As such, you will not only find introductory essays but also pre-recorded lectures as well as further material for classroom use, all of which is prepared by experts of the field from around the world.

Use the lectures to have a specialist introduce the topic to your students, or read the introductory essays for your own preparation. Design your syllabus using the story recommendations or prepare classes with the help of VSFs further reading recommendations and in-class discussion point suggestions. You can also find recommendations for course books or free of charge online-ressources.

All of this material is free of charge and fully licensed under the creative commons license (more info in the right lower corner). You can use the full toolkit including downloads of all materials. Just remember fair academic use and citation of sources.

A Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction is edited and published by sf scholar and lecturer Lars Schmeink. It has been designed as a (live) video lecture series that took place from April to July 2012 in form of a lecture/seminar at the University of Hamburg, Germany (UHH), generously sponsored by the UHHs “Seminare and Netz”-program and will be enhanced upon with additional lectures and teaching pods.

You can find a “How to use this Website”-page here, an overview of the development of the site here and a list of contributors here. Should you need to go back to the front page from anywhere on this site, just click the header on top of the page and you will be redirected to this introductory page. Please feel free to browse around, or send us a comment or email via the contact button.