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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.

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