Strategies for the Start of the Semester

If you have not already done so, start by ensuring that you have created an inclusive syllabus. 

Pre-Course Communications

Before the first day of class, you can begin building community with and among your students by capitalizing on their excitement and fresh outlook on the semester. 

  • Send a welcome message via email to your students and post it as an Announcement in Canvas. Remember though that Canvas courses do not open for students until the first day of the semester, although you can publish your course and open it early for student access (up to a week ahead of time). So if you want to email your students earlier than that you can use the email functionality in SPIRE.
  • If you feel comfortable with online survey tools (such as Google Forms* or Qualtrics*) you could prepare a few “getting to know you” questions to allow students to tell you a bit about themselves and include the link to that survey in your welcome email.  (But make sure it is a voluntary activity and only for the purpose of learning about students thoughts, questions, concerns and hopes for the course.)  Research has shown that having students write a brief few sentences about what matters to them improves the performance of students by validating who they are and where they are starting from. 

First Day/Week of Class

The first day(s) of the course are important for setting the tone and creating a good dynamic for the course.  Try to approach your first day with the goal of understanding who your students are and guiding them through the structure of your course. 

  • Create a sense of community in the classroom by learning your students' names.
    • One way to do this is to ask students to write their names on name tents.  You can also ask this information in your pre-class survey and create name tents for them to hand out on the first day of class.
    • Provide an online discussion forum in Canvas, to allow students to meet each other, ask questions, and see responses that you give to them as a group. Model the type of content you want your students to post by including your own virtual introduction.
    • The Tea for Teaching podcast has a wonderful episode and show notes on Learning Student Names.
  • Clarify the instructional and learning goals.
    • Ensure that students understand your goals for their learning.  This is different than a list of topics that the course will include.  This is about what you intend for your students to take with them and how the activities in the course will help to lead them there.
    • Ask students about their goals for the class. This can be done through an in-class writing assignment, share-pair activity, or by using classroom response technologies such as TopHat or iClicker.
  • Introduce the tools and teaching techniques that you will use throughout the semester so that students can understand what to expect.
    • If you are using Canvas it is helpful to take time in the first class to provide an overview of how the course site is structured, use of any external tools, and where to find important course information.
    • You can also create a screencast video to include in your Canvas site that provides an overview of how the course is structured.
  • Create an opportunity for students to learn actively and to engage with each other, even in the first class.
    • Bring index cards to the first day of class and let students write any thoughts or questions that they have about the course at the end of the first day.
    • Use a external tool such as TopHat or iClicker to obtain immediate student feedback. These tools include a wide array of question types including Word Clouds, "hot spot" images, and standard multiple choice questions.
    • Have students work in small groups on a syllabus “scavenger hunt” to answer questions about the course and what it will involve.
    • You can also have students use a collaborative editing tool like Perusall to review the syllabus, ask questions, and make observations.
    • Or if you are feeling confident with AI tools you could have students upload the syllabus into the AI tool of their choice and review the output. Do the students agree that the AI tool captured the most important data in the syllabus? If not, what should it have highlighted? How accurate was the output and what concerns might the students have if/when using an AI tool for the course?

Responding and acting on real-time feedback from students is a way to demonstrate that you will be responsive to them and that the learning experience is shared journey between you and them.

References :

Hogan, Kelly A. and Sathy, Viji. (2022). Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom. West Virginia University Press: Morgantown, WV.

Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. (2005). Understanding by Design 2e. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, VA.