Welcome.

Your instructor has chosen to use the innovative Thomson Custom Courseware platform to deliver your course materials online. Thomson Custom Courseware course materials are a fusion of textbook content, topical articles, assessment and rich multimedia all customized and sequenced to meet your instructor's learning objectives.

The Thomson Custom Courseware platform has been designed to be easy to use, but read on to get the most all of the features in Thomson Custom Courseware.

• The Basics:

  • Viewing Material

    There are two main panes of information: the main navigation bar at the top and the main content window just below the navigation bar. In order to avoid disrupting the reading, additional information and navigation will load in pop-up windows as needed.

    • Next/Back

      To move through the sections in a linear fashion, click the back or next buttons at the top and bottom of every page.

    • Table of Contents

      Clicking "Contents" in the navigation bar launches a pop-up window with an expanded view that includes sections of the current module with your location highlighted. Clicking on the title of any section will take your main browser window to that page.

    • Glossary

      All glossary terms are linked in context. Clicking on any of the terms will display their definition in a pop-up window. You can also view the entire glossary by either clicking View Full Glossary in this pop-up window or by clicking Glossary in the navigation bar. Each letter of the alphabet at the top can be clicked to take you to that respective portion of the glossary.

    • Search

      To search the content, click in the Search box in the navigation bar, type and click the Go button. A pop-up window will appear with your search results and links to the associated sections. Clicking on any of the section titles within the search results pane will load that section in the main content window.

  • Assessment

    Built into your course are three types of assessments. The system uses the results of these in order to build a Personal Learning Plan for each individual student. You can also review the results in the Study Guide located at the end of each module.

    • Pre Test

      Whenever you navigate to a new section, you will have the option to take a Pre Test. The Pre Test will ask you a series of questions from the section you are about to read.

    • QuickCheck

      QuickChecks are brief, interactive quizzes located at different points within a section that assess and will reinforce your understanding of a concept or learning objective.

    • Post Test

      Post tests are located at the end of each section and assess your understanding of all the key concepts and learning objectives from that entire section.

    • Personal Learning Plan

      As you progress through the material and submit pre, quickcheck and post tests, the system automatically builds a Personal Learning Plan (PLP). The purpose of the PLP is to identify learning objectives and related sections that you need most to review. Objectives you need to review are listed at the top. Objectives that you are doing well on are further down on the list. Sections of the material that deal with each objective are listed below each objective. Clicking on the section title will load that section in the main content window. As you review the material and take assessments, the Personal Learning Plan automatically updates accordingly.

      To access the Personal Learning Plan, click “Learning Plan” in the main navigation bar or in the Study Guide for a given section.

• Advanced:

  • Notes

    You have two ways to make personal notes within the material. There are two buttons in the margin next to each paragraph: “Add Note” and “Add Highlight”.

    Clicking the “Add Note” button will launch a pop-up that allows students to type in personal notes and a related hyperlink. If a note has been made, the icon next to that paragraph will change.

    Clicking on the “Add Highlight” button in the margin next to a paragraph applies a yellow highlight to that paragraph. Adding a highlight changes the icon as well. Clicking the button again removes the highlight.

    All notes and highlights for a section are collectively displayed in the My Notes area in that section’s the Study Guide. This makes it easy for you to review your notes and highlights.

  • Instructor Annotation

    Instructors may also annotate the text by publishing their notes to their students. A special Instructor Note icon will appear next to any paragraph that contains one of these published notes. You can click on this icon to view this note. A similar icon also appears in the Table of Contents next to each section that contains an instructor note. Instructor notes are also displayed in the Study Guide in the Instructor Notes area.

  • Study Guide

    Each major section of your course is summarized with a Study Guide. The Study Guide contains aids that supplement, test, and/or help you understand the material. It contains key term review tools, end of section material, assessment results, your Personal Learning Plan, My Notes, My Highlights and Instructor Notes. You can click Study Guide in the navigation bar to skip to the Study Guide of that section.

    • Key Terms

      You can review glossary terms in a flash-card-like format by clicking Key Terms in the Study Guide.

    • Key Term Matching

      By clicking Key Term Matching in the Study Guide, you can test their comprehension of key terms by attempting to match key terms and their definitions.

  • Multimedia

    Videos, clips from movies, games and interactive learning modules are mapped to individual paragraphs throughout the course. All of this multimedia is inserted directly into the page or as a pop-up and will either reinforce or expand upon the text material.