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The introduction
serves three purposes. First, you want to gain attention in order for your learners to
continue reading your web lecture. How many times have you picked up a new book, examining
the back cover, jacket, and first few pages? If it didn't interest you, you probably put
it back on the shelf and kept shopping. The introduction grabs your reader's attention and
interest. This can be accomplished in many ways: by asking a provocative question,
presenting an intriguing scenario, or posing a common problem. A powerful introduction
includes a description about the relevance of the lecture. It explains to readers why the
lecture will be meaningful to them. Second,
when you tell students what to expect, they learn more. Although some instructors might
argue that they feel uncomfortable making it too easy for students, setting expectations
has nothing to do with the difficulty of the lesson. Imagine reading through a series of
journal articles without the advantage of the abstract. The introduction prepares students
for the experience yet to come, and it provides the initial mechanism toward understanding
the material.
Finally, when you begin by calling up
knowledge that students already know, you establish a connection between old learning and
the new. Have you ever tried learning something foreign to anything you knew or
experienced? You were either confused or automatically attempted to construct a
relationship between this new information and something already familiar to you. The
introduction helps bridge the gap between old knowledge and new. |
