Welcome Learners to Your Course

• ​​​Remember that students will come into your class with varying needs and preferences—so messaging should be equity-focused from the beginning. 
• Make sure that any media used meets accessibility standards (for example, captions, transcripts, etc.), and that your welcome is inclusive.
• Be sure to write a script (you can use a script template (Ohio State)) and practice reading it before recording
• In addition to/instead of a video, a written letter can work. You can use this example of a welcome letter. Including a photo with the letter is great! 
• You can watch these examples of a welcome videos to get some inspiration:
  • Course Welcome Video by Michael Cawdery
  • Course Welcome Video by Eunice Leung Brekke

• Taking the time to show students the “lay of the land”—the way the content is organized within the Canvas—is really helpful to students. Remember, this could be the first time a student is taking an online course/using Canvas, and every course is different. 
• Conducting an orientation helps students learn the routine, expectations, and organization of your course. It gives you another opportunity to begin to connect to students—to demonstrate your presence (Garrison et al., 2000) and answer their questions (Chen et al., 2015a; O’Keefe et al., 2020). 
• Regardless of mode, be sure to cover key aspects of the course/syllabus, where to find them, and how students can get support (technology, (mental) health, academic, etc.). 
• You can consider holding a ‘live’ tour (which will be recorded for those students that can’t attend), as another way to build connections with your students 

• In addition to introducing yourself and the course, have students post an introduction, too! 
• Give students flexibility to choose how they want to introduce themselves, but encourage multimedia and creativity (e.g. videos, photos, etc.). 
• Seeing other people’s faces helps create community and build social presence in a course (Garrison et al., 2000)

• Take the time to do ice-breakers–they aren’t just for in-person courses  
• Research shows these activities help students feel connected and engaged, and it’s recommended to start that process from the beginning (Chen et al., 2015a; UW Bothell).
• Here’s a good list of some simple but effective icebreakers for online learning (UW Bothell), including activities such as:
  • Eight nouns - students use eight nouns that best describe themselves.
  • Five pictures - students create a collage of five pictures that best describe themselves.
  • Things - students share an image that reflects why they’re taking the course or that represents them.

Chen, B., Thompson, K., Sugar, A., & Vargas, J. (2015a). Implement a course orientation module. In B. Chen & K. Thompson (Eds.), Teaching online pedagogical repository. Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning.

Chen, B., Raible, J., Bauer, S., & Thompson, K. (2015b). Send a welcome message. In B. Chen & K. Thompson (Eds.), Teaching online pedagogical repository. Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning.

Cornelius, K. (2020). 4 Easy Ways to Welcome Students to Your Online Course. Leeward CC Educational Media Center. (n.d.). Self Introduction Videos.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T, & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 87–105.

Jaggars, S. S. & Xu, D. (2016). How do online course design features influence student performance? Computers & Education, (95), 270-284.

O'Keefe, L., Rafferty, J., Gunder, A., & Vignare, K. (2020). Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19: Faculty Playbook. Online Learning Consortium.

Pacansky-Brock, M. (2021). The liquid syllabus: An anti-racist teaching element. Colleague 2 Colleague Magazine, 1(15).

Pacansky-Brock, M., Smedshammer, M., & Vincent-Layton, K. (2020). Humanizing online teaching to equitize higher education. Current Issues in Education, 21(2).

Pacansky-Brock, M. (2017). Best practices for teaching with emerging technologies, (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Pacansky-Brock, M. (2014, August 13). The Liquid Syllabus: Are you ready?, [blog post].  

Stylinski, T. (2020). Planning Your Course Trailer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. 

The Ohio State University College of Public Health (n.d.). Sample Script for a Welcome Video.

University of Washington Bothell, Information Technologies. (n.d.) Icebreaker ideas for students learning remotely. 

University of Wisconsin Madison. (n.d.). Example Welcome Message.

Williams, Laura. 2017, Jan 13. FYE 105 Online Course Overview Orientation. Kentucky Community and Technical College System.