What are the required materials?

Most of the course content will be on this website for the class. You will need standard Web technology to see the content on the class Web site and the copies of relevant news articles and reports on Blackboard, plus take the quizzes and final exam. You will also need an e-mail address to receive class listserver messages and to interact with the instructor, allowing you to increase your understanding of the geography of Virginia.

Course materials you should buy include:

Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer

• Don't expect to find the atlas at the GMU Bookstore.
• You can buy the atlas directly from the publisher, DeLorme Mapping.
• The Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer is also available from many Wal*Mart stores, stores that serve hunters and campers, and even some large gas stations and 7-11's.

Virginia Journey videos

• The video segments produced for the class will be broadcast weekly by GMU-TV. That broadcast may be streamed on the Internet. (Based on feedback from previous classes, the streaming video will not be an acceptable substitute for watching the regular cable broadcasts or getting the tapes.)
• You can check out copies of videotapes on 2-hour reserve and view them on the VCR's at the GMU Johnson Center or Prince William libraries.
• You can buy a copy of the videotapes from the Student Technology Assistance and Resource (STAR) center at GMU for about $25.
• You've watched commercials that cost $1 million/minute to produce, and evening sit-coms with skilled actors and beautiful people. Well, the Virginia Journey videos for this class ain't that good. There's no laugh track, the Virginia Journeys narrator has a face made for radio, and the delivery is not as fast-paced as on the late-night talk shows. For entertainment, YouTube shows are far better.
• However, the class videos are not awful, either. They're especially good with a late-night snack... and where else would you find the stories of Virginia geography at a time convenient for you? The GMU-TV staff have earned several Communicator and Telly awards, honoring the production crew's skills. As for the instructor - well, don't blame the studio personnel for his failings.

The Virginia Journey series is not complete, and it's time for me to update them. If you want to watch additional material, check out the weekly broadcast of Virginia Currents and other productions from Community Idea Stations. There are other video resources available from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. None of these additional sources are required material for this GEOG380 course.

The class schedule identifies the Virginia Journey video and other content for each week. There will be various e-mails each week, and the Delorme Atlas and Gazetteer is the "textbook" for the class. (It's been 50 years since a suitable college-level geography textbook was written for Virginia.) Students registered for the class will also be able to access Blackboard to see the online readings (primarily newspaper articles and government reports).

Mabry Mill on Blue Ridge Parkway
(the most-photographed place on the Blue Ridge Parkway... so perhaps the #1 picture location in Virginia)