Hi everyone. Welcome to our Research Methods in Psychology I class!

My name is Lisa Bauer and I am the professor for this course. I am looking forward to getting to know you and working with you this semester. While our class does not officially begin until January 22, I wanted to welcome you to the course and encourage you to make sure that you are prepared to begin coursework on January 22.

For those of you who are new to online classes, you may wonder where you should begin. I suggest that you peruse the course to gain a sense of what we are going to cover during the semester and how the material is organized. The content of this course is divided into weekly units of instruction called Modules. These modules follow a consistent pattern to communicate what is expected of you during any given week.

Each module begins with a Navigation Document. Navigation documents provide learning objectives, list everything you need to do during the week, and indicate the optimal order in which to complete the module activities (e.g., readings, lectures, videos, discussion board postings, learning activities, assignments, quizzes, and exams). To make navigating the module easier for you, I've ordered everything within the module so you can use the Canvas navigation buttons (i.e., the "Next" button you see in the bottom-right corner of this screen) to advance through the module in the order suggested in the navigation document.

To make sure you are prepared for the our class, I would suggest that you start by reading the "Introduction to Navigation Documents" page and the syllabus. It will be extremely helpful to make sure that you have the required course materials (i.e., textbook and InQuizitive) as soon as possible as your first InQuizitive quiz is due during the first week of classes. For a complete list of the required course materials (and required technology access and technological skills), visit the Required Course Materials page within this Orientation and Introductions module.

Next, I suggest you look over the Syllabus carefully and let me know if you have any questions. If you have any general questions related to the course, you should ask them through the I have a question... discussion board forum in the General Course Questions module. If you have a question about something pertaining to the course, chances are good that at least one other student will have the same or similar question. By posting your question here instead of emailing me directly, everyone can benefit from our exchange. Please do not post personal or confidential matter on this discussion forum. This is a learning community, so if there is a question posted on this forum that you know the answer to, please feel free to respond to your classmates.

Please read through and become familiar with the content within all links in this Orientation and Introductions module. There are resources and tools within these links that will help you succeed in this course. Reading this information now will enable you to be prepared for the semester.

I am looking forward to our class discussions and getting to know each of you. In order for us to get to know each other, I encourage you to introduce yourself in the "Introduce Yourself" discussion board.

If you have questions or begin to feel lost at any point during the semester, please let me know. I am happy to meet with you (virtually or in person).

Have a great day!