****Please note that this example course has had some content removed and replaced with placeholder text to address issues of privacy, accessibility, and copyright. Many thanks to the instructors for sharing their course design with us and the UW community.****

Welcome to BIS 261A:

Introduction to Film Studies

Please carefully read this page and watch both videos before 8:00 p.m. on the first day of class (Monday, Jun. 22).

As noted on the syllabus, all of your work in this course will help you achieve the following learning goals:

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. 1. Define and use basic terminology of film language and theory;
  2. Explain how cinematic technology has evolved;
  3. Independently and collaboratively analyze formal elements of films and the meaning they help create;
  4. Identify the key themes and techniques of films and articulate them in writing.

To accomplish these learning goals, we will proceed through weekly modules.

But first, let me introduce myself!

If you have never taken a fully-online course before, I recommend watching this twelve-minute video that explains helpful aspects of online learning. If you want to continue with the training materials on that site, go to this web site.

Note: I recommend using a computer (desktop or laptop), rather than a mobile device, to do work for this course. The Canvas app does not present Canvas courses in the correct order. If you do access this Canvas course on a mobile device, though, always click on the "Home" button and then scroll down to the module you need. Do not use the links below that button ("Syllabus," "Modules," etc.).

Here is a brief (sixteen-minute) tour of this course in Canvas. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode (click the small square in the lower-right corner) to make it easier to see the screen captures. If you would find captions helpful, you can click on the 'cc' at the bottom of the screen after going into full-screen mode. Note: I recorded this video before completing the syllabus. The current, correct syllabus here in Canvas indicates that students pursuing a course grade of 4.0 need to read an extra chapter in the Ebook (Ch. 9: Sound [link removed]), and post one additional discussion board [link removed] comment and one additional response to a classmate's post.

PRO TIP: You should always view Panopto recordings in the Panopto viewer, in this course and in every course! It works much better than viewing it embedded in a Canvas page. To do that, do NOT click on the big "play" button in the middle. Instead, click on the arrow at the bottom. In the Panopto viewer, you can turn on captions (click on the small box labeled 'cc') and/or change the speed of playback and/or use a table of contents to skip to the part you need and/or insert bookmarks and notes for yourself. It's way better! More info in UW IT's Panopto viewing instructions.

For this course, please start with the Introduction: How to Succeed module, and complete each module week-to-week. This is not a go-at-your-own-pace course. You need to keep up with weekly work.

To complete each weekly module, you will proceed one Canvas page at a time. To move to the next module component, click the "Next" button at the bottom of the page you are on. Note that some pages are long, and you will need to scroll all the way down to get to the "Next" button. You can use the "Previous" button to go back a page if you need to.