6.5: Preparing a Welcome Letter
What's in a Welcome?
The welcome letter is a delicate dance. The content of a welcome letter should, at a minimum, remind students that they have an online course that is starting, and provide an initial introduction to you. It also needs to have some basic information about the course. The trick, however, is prioritizing key elements that belong in a welcome letter and finding another sport for everything else. If your welcome letter is too short, too long, too cold, or too complicated, it may be the opposite of welcoming, unfortunately.
Tone
First impressions really matter, so before you think about the actual content of your welcome letter, be sure to think about the tone you want to set. When individuals speak, the words are accompanied by a host of cues that help the listener interpret the message. Writing, however, often lacks these cues and can make it difficult to hear someone's tone leaving a potential margin-of-error for misinterpretation.
Some research suggests that writing in online classes, at least some of it, can be effective when it is of an informal nature, invites wordplay, or even includes slang (feel me 😉?). Using emoticons can also help convey tone and meaning (check out the emojipedia website).
Information
Since your online course doesn't have a building and room number, students who are new to online learning will need you to briefly explain how they will access your course, and they will definitely need explicit instructions for when, and where, they need to log in. Since most welcome letters are emailed you may even want to include a link to the Cañada College homepage where students will login. Though it may seem obvious to you, it could be hard to find for a new student.
In addition to instructions on how and when to log in, students will need to know what they should do in the first week of class (and when they should do it!). Think carefully about how you want students to demonstrate that they have not only logged in to your course but have also gotten to work.
Support
Simple barriers can create complex problems. For example, what if a student's password is expired and they cannot access the Learning Management System? Who should they call? If they have a question about using a Canvas tool to complete a week one assessment, are you the right contact or should they reach out to Cañada College support? Making this information explicitly clear, and readily available, can help create simple solutions to such barriers.
Resources
Check out this Sample Welcome Letter Links to an external site. and then watch the following video (5:01). The first approximately 2-minutes of the video specifically discusses the Welcome Letter, however, watch the whole video for a refresher of other key elements that will help your students be successful during your online course launch. When you are done, return to the previous page to learn about using the Student View.