WELCOME TO VIEWING AMERICA!

The Viewing America webite is designed to function as both a content delivery system for students and as a course management and communications tool for instructors. For students, the site permits remote on-demand web access to, among other things, assignments, reading materials, video clips, musical selections, and digitized primary source documents and magazine articles. The site facilitates increased interactive learning and presents students with multiple opportunities to understand and master the course material in a variety of complementary formats.

GETTING STARTED
User Resources and Course Units

Preparing for Day One:

CLASS WILL MEET JAN. 16 -- Wilson 402.
SECTIONS WILL MEET THE FIRST WEEK. Bring to this introductory section one good, penetrating question about the Viewing America site. During this introductory section meeting, you will meet your TA, meet each other, go through the site, and learn about the Create Your Own Unit (CYOU) project. If you have a network card, please bring your laptop to section.
Sections will be held in the following locations:

Navigating the Viewing America Website:

The Viewing America homepage includes two main content areas: "User Resources" and "Course Units." Each of these content areas is important to the course. This page has been designed to help you "get started" with exploring the site.

"User Resources" Content Area:

Getting Started -- Where you are now.

Course Description & Requirements -- Learn more about the class. Read about assignments, projects, papers, and exams. Click here.

Syllabus -- What you need to read, view, and listen to each week. Includes links to our Toolkit site and many Unit reading assignments. Click here.

Course Updates -- Check here regularly for class announcements. Click here.

Time Lines: 1940-2000 -- The newest addition to the Viewing America product line! Here is a complete time line from 1940-2000. Your computer will need Flash to use this site. All ITC computer lab facilities are prepared to facilitate the time line. Click here.

Toolkit Website -- The Viewing America website interfaces with the University's Toolkit website. Course materials, class information, anonymous feedback, and class e-mail functions are all maintained here. The main website for the course is the Viewing America homepage. But you will also find important materials at the Toolkit site too. Click here.

CYOU Library -- Our ever growing collection of Create Your Own Unit (CYOU) student projects. Each of you will work in a team to create a CYOU unit of your own. To visit the CYOU Library, Click here. To learn more about the CYOU Project, Click here.

Community College Connection -- In addition to improving and energizing the study of history at the University of Virginia, the Viewing America website is also used by Virginia Community College System instructors across the commonwealth of Virginia. Click here.

Search -- The Viewing America site is fully searchable. Click here.

"Course Unit" Content Area:

The course is divided into fourteen discrete week-long Course Units. Each Unit contains certain permanent components that you should become accustomed to during the first week of the class. Your TA will take you through these features during your first section meeting on January 15. In case you're interested in getting started, the user guide below is intended to help you do so.

The Viewing America website will be used to facilitate both classroom lectures and TA section meetings, and therefore should be used by each student in preparation for attending class and section. The four icons below appear in the left sidebar frame of every Viewing America Unit. And by clicking on each of these icons, you will be introduced to the key components of each Unit.

The icons and their functions are:

	Context -- This is the starting-off point for every Unit. Clicking on the context icon will take you to the following additional links: Secondary Sources Syllabus -- Find out what you should read, view, and listen to. Lecture Outline -- A brief outline of the Unit's lecture. Media Resources Includes primary source film footage that pertains to this Unit. Film Review Each Unit includes a film that explores the themes of the classroom lecture and section meeting. Read a contemporary review of the week's film here. Maps, Charts, and Graphs Additional information on the some aspect of the Unit is located here.
	"Document of the Week" -- A seminal document from each period that will be used to start each week's discussion.
	Archives -- Dig in!
	Related Web Sites -- For more information on the weekly unit, visit one of these selected sites.

Hopefully, this overview has helped you get comfortable with the Viewing America website. If you still have some navigational questions, don't worry, you're going to have plenty of opportunities to learn about all that the site has to offer very soon!

Welcome to the class!

Professor Brian Balogh