CHARLES HUGHES: Hello and welcome to ABA Course One. I'm Charlie Hughes, Professor of Special Education at Penn State.

In this first lesson, I will be introducing the field of Applied Behavior Analysis as a science, what makes it a science, and the key components and assumptions of this approach to explaining behavior. Then I will focus on defining and describing behavior. And then introduce some basic principles of behavior and behavior analysis, such as conditioning and reinforcement.

As we progress through my lesson, you will notice that it is divided into segments. And these segments are labeled according to the eight titles on this slide. At the end of each segment, you will stop and complete an activity designed to check your understanding of the content I just covered. After completing the activity, you can continue with the next segment or take a break. And I definitely do not recommend that you try to go through the presentation and activities in one sitting.

This next slide outlines a sequence of activities that you should follow as you complete my lesson, beginning with which chapters, or parts of chapters, you should read in the course textbook. Before watching this video, it will be very helpful to print out the PowerPoint handout and use it to follow along as you view my presentation. And this will help you keep track of where you are in the presentation, as well as minimize the amount of notes that you'll have to take.

Also later in the lesson, I will be using something called guided notes when I present new vocabulary related to Principles of ABA. Having the printed handout in front of you will help you use these guided notes as they are intended.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, you will watch a segment of my lesson and then stop to complete an activity. And along with reading the text and watching the video, I strongly recommend that you read the posts on the lesson forum daily to see what kinds of questions other students have had, as well as my responses to these questions. And please feel free to post any questions you might have also.

Now I also strongly recommend that you read the archives for this session. These archives include frequently asked questions by students over the years and my responses to those questions. Many of them are likely to be questions that you will have as you learn the content in my lesson.

Finally, you will complete and submit assignment one by the stated due date.