The Visual aid units were a project of the U.S. Dept. of Education's Division of Visual Aids for War Training to help rapidly train millions of war industry workers from 1941 to 1946. During the first period of production, 48 films were made and distributed without any accompanying materials. Experience soon showed however, that a filmstrip and instructor's manual would greatly increase the effective use of the units. Accordingly, manuals were written for all films, and filmstrips were produced for all but the supervisory training series. In all, 457 units were produced, consisting of 457 16 mm sound motion pictures and instructor's manuals, and 432 35 mm silent filmstrips. Thirty-six producers turned out the films in record time and included many of the established non-theatrical film companies such as: Caravel, Loucks & Norling, Mode-Art, Willard, Yorke, Jam, Handy, Atlas, Calvin, Ray-Bell and Rockett. Floyde E. Brooker was director of the Division.
The guiding principles for production of the manuals were that they should promote the educational concept of the visual aids units, give instruction in the techniques of effective utilization, and serve as a reference in working out instructional plans for specific situations. Manuals included the following information; how to use the visual aids unit, how to use the motion picture, how to use the filmstrip, what the film says, trade terms used in the film, other related visual aids units, acknowledgments and credits. Manuals were typically around 15 pages long. Inez Lyle Griswold was in charge of supervision of production of the instructor's manuals.
From the description of Visual aids unit. Instructor's manuals, 1941-1946. (Iowa State University). WorldCat record id: 20639272
