 Greetings, students. This is an intro to popular culture in the US video, and the purpose of this is just to get you familiar with the course and what's going on in it, what the expectations are, all of that information. So this is a video version of the course orientation PDF that is in the course and that has been made available on the North Shore Community College website. So this course examines popular culture in its many forms and media. Really, the purpose of this course is to get a very deep understanding of the ways in which popular culture exists, the ways in which we negotiate identity, meaning, purpose through popular culture, and the ways in which it is tied to other disciplines such as history, economics, cultural studies, literature, all of those different types of things, sociology, certainly psychology, all those things are kind of embedded when we look at popular culture. One thing to really understand is that this course is a academic course. A lot of students see popular culture and they think, oh, this is going to be easy, this is going to be fun, but it is challenging. And we do a lot of things that are not necessarily what students are hoping for or what they're assuming the course is about. So just kind of keep that in mind in that as an online course, there is the college level of expectation for this course, which means you will be expected to do about 9 to 12 hours of work a week. And that would include things from reading to engaging in the discussions, to doing the different assignments, to watching some of the mini lectures and videos. So it's a very vibrant field course and that's something just to keep in the back of your head as you get into this first week. The reading materials for this course are actually provided, they are usually accessed to different chapters and articles through the library's database. But there are three videos or three films that will be required to view. One is Tales from the Crypt, the next is Bimboozled, and the third is But I'm a Cheerleader. All of these will be available in the Danvers Library for in-library use, that means you cannot leave the library with it, you'll have to watch it in the library. You may be able to find these elsewhere, such as on different sites online that you may have access to. I know some of these might be available on Netflix or Amazon or Hulu, you just need to plan to make sure that you see these. They're also some of them are available through in-library loan. Course structure or what you need to do, what are the big assignments? Introductory material that's due in the first week and that's a lot of stuff just to get you situated in the course, get you familiar with the course, and the things you need to do in order to successfully complete the course. Discussions, we have weekly discussions and the discussions are a big part of your grade because the expectations are that you're going to actively engage in the course, in the course materials and bring your thoughts to bear based on those discussions. Article analysis is a short paper that is due early in the semester and that's just kind of to get you up and running to thinking about writing about popular culture in a critical way. And then finally, what is popular culture project? This is a project that's due in parts throughout the semester with the ideas that you're cumulatively building this paper, that you will by the end of the semester have a nice, you know, have a good solid paper with lots of feedback and be quite strong, a good representation of the work that you do in the course. So the course is organized. We have in Blackboard Learn and one of the big areas to pay attention to is the announcements area. This will have any of your updates or any of the things you really need to know in order to move forward in the course or any changes, any things that I feel the students should be hearing about. I'll also post course discussion, wrap ups, things like that. Course materials section, this is where you get all of your information. These are assignment guidelines, the course outline, the syllabus. This is where anything you need to know about moving through the course, you'll probably find here. The learning modules are a course where you're going to do much of the engagement in this course. This is where you'll find the different materials for each module and what you have to do. You already have to do it. A learning guide, all of that information is contained into folders. Each folder is called learning module 1, 2, 3, etc. And each module tells you what is the date that that module ranges from. Discussions, as I said, they're 40% of your grade. You really need to be active in them and engage in them. And then there's also an open discussion. The open discussion is available throughout the semester. And the idea there is just for you to be able to contribute to something, to a course discussion or create your own course discussion around things that grabbed your attention in a given module. So we have the directed discussions, which are where you'll have a prompt and you'll have to respond to it, but then there's the open discussions. And you don't have to participate in the open discussions, but this is an opportunity where if you feel there's something you want to say or something that you're interested from that week in talking about, this is where you would post it. Succeeding in this course, a couple of things that are really, really important to recognize don't underestimate the topic. Our course topic is much more deep than students often realize initially. They think, oh, popular culture online, this course will be a breeze, but we'll be dealing with some very heavy content in material. The five rights. This is to get the right assignment into the right place at the right time in the right format with the right editing. This is just making sure that you as a student are doing what you need to do in order to complete the course. With all assignments, please clearly and articulate your thoughts and ideas to the course material or connect your thoughts to the course material. This is quite important and it's something I will prompt people if it's not there and that is how does this directly connect to what you've read or what you've watched within the course. A lot of people can go off on their own in wax poetic about popular culture but I will be looking for the discussions in your comments to be connected to the course material. That way I know you're looking at and thinking about what are the things we're talking about. Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. When you run into problems, whether it's with the content understanding things or with the materials in the course trying to find something, please ask questions. If you're struggling, the only way that I know you're struggling is if you ask those questions and there's plenty of places you can do that, you can do that via email, you can do it with the discussions forum, so please make sure you take advantage of that. And then finally plan for technological failure. You're taking an online course. This is a course completely embedded in the online digital world. You should have backups just like if you were coming to a face-to-face course you would want to make sure you have backups in terms of transportation. If my car fails, I'll take the bus. If I can't take the bus, I can get a ride with my friend Joe. Make sure you have those technological backup plans. Just the module checklist. This is kind of what you should be doing or looking at each week or be prepared for each week. Just the different things that are part of the rhythm of an online course. So it's typically objectives and topics, instructor thoughts, or the assignment listing, additional readings if they're required or supplemental, the direct discussion, open discussion, and then any assignment in that given week. Getting help. If you need help with technical aspects such as, you know, you can't log into Pipeline or things like that or you can't get into the course, you might start off with helpdesk at northshore.edu. If you're having trouble in Blackboard Learn, you can't really, you know, there's something you can't submit an assignment or things like that, that if that environment is being problematic, you'll want to contact bblearn at northshore.edu. And then finally, if you have questions about the course, I am the person to contact. And my email leaton.edu would be the best place to get a hold of me. In terms of communicating with me, email is the best way to get a hold of me. I would certainly give me a call at the number provided there, but I will most likely respond by email unless necessary to call back. During Monday through Friday, I'll reply within 24 hours. On the weekends, probably be a little bit longer, but I'm usually pretty good and I'm usually, you know, within six hours replying to students' emails. What to do the first day of class. The first day of class is you want to get into the module one, getting started. You want to read the materials there. You want to go over to the course materials link and read all the materials, download all the materials there to really make sure you're caught up on what's going on in the course. You'll want to post your introduction to the introduction discussions board. You'll want to post a comment to the questions forum. And you'll also want to take the syllabus quiz and you need to get 100% in order to get credit for it. You'll also need to activate your library account and there's different information and there's an announcement about how to do that. And then you'll want to upload a document to the academic honesty assignment. So good couple things going on in the first week, a good amount of material to process. It's something you want to kind of really dive into and move forward with. So there is a lot of stuff to go over. So please make sure you take the time to do that. Look at the guidelines, look at the syllabus and please make sure that you are really kind of ready to get into this. And of course if you have questions, by all means email me. When you're done with this video or with the orientation, if you're just reading the orientation, please send me an email to let me know that you've completed it and also to let me know if you have any questions. Alright, thank you very much.