If you're a Cal Poly professor, I have a gift for you. In the dashboard, you'll find the online workshop called "Launching a Course Online with Canvas" that has a template for welcoming students to an online course.
The letter was written for "normal" times, and should be sent out approximately a week prior to the start of class, with a reminder sent out again the day before class starts. For the most part, it works well in our unusual circumstances. I want to share with you what I'm telling my students, and I'll include it below. This is a work in progress, but it will go out to them a full week prior to the start of class (by Tuesday, March 31.)
I want them to have the gift of TIME:
Hello everyone!
Our class doesn’t start for another week, but I want to send this out early to connect with everyone before the mad rush begins. First off, I’m in [location] and doing my part to socially isolate, while keeping my coworker (cat named Lilly) from walking across my keyboard and typing gibberish. I hope you are all healthy and strong, and your families are doing well during this unusual time in our history. We will get through this, and we’ll have interesting stories for our grandchildren!
I have been teaching online for 20 years at about 6 different institutions, and I have complete confidence that we’re going to have some fun getting to know each other online this quarter. Many of you are in your permanent residences outside of SLO, and I realize your parents and younger siblings are competing for bandwidth and computer time. Because of this, I want to keep our “live” interactions to a functional minimum, so we’ll be meeting through Zoom [days and times].
I will also hold office hours on [days and times], or by request via Zoom – watch for those details soon. Most of the materials will be online in the form of digital lecture materials (very short videos, lecture notes, etc.) with some discussions (I will try to keep those fun and lively!) and external activities. At some point we’ll have a guest speaker or two, and I’ll give you advanced notice about when those events are taking place, but all live events will be recorded and captioned/transcribed for you as well. We’ll be using a simulation environment for part of our class, and [information about purchasing the simulation access]. At some point I’ll also put your email addresses in to an automated invite (with the same link) so you can buy it from the emailed link in case you misplace this note.
All other course materials are free, including the [online certification related to the course], where I will send you a special coupon link for the certification exam for FREE. Normally you would have to pay $200 for the exam, so it’s a fantastic bargain. More information about that is in our class materials, and I’ll tell you all about it soon.
I’ll open our course up just a bit early so you can get a head start on Sunday, April 5th, and I’ll email you again just prior to the start of class to remind you.
There are two ways to get to our course materials:
I realize we are experiencing unusual circumstances, and people are feeling anxious and frustrated, or perhaps even a bit afraid of what’s ahead. My goal for our class is to create a calm environment where we can have some fun, and (as is true in my face-to-face course) I realize many of you are experiencing circumstances beyond your control and I want to extend a lot of grace, empathy and understanding.
Let’s keep the communication strong and please let me know in advance if you have any issues accessing the course materials, or if you will need an extended deadline along the way. I want this class to be a positive experience for all of you!
Cheers, Catherine
The letter was written for "normal" times, and should be sent out approximately a week prior to the start of class, with a reminder sent out again the day before class starts. For the most part, it works well in our unusual circumstances. I want to share with you what I'm telling my students, and I'll include it below. This is a work in progress, but it will go out to them a full week prior to the start of class (by Tuesday, March 31.)
I want them to have the gift of TIME:
- to look around the online class (I will open it up on Sunday, April 4th)
- to ask me questions via email if they have any
- to put important items on their calendar, like purchasing the code for our simulation software
- to absorb what they will be completing in the coming weeks
- to get to know my voice and realize I'm calm and upbeat about this
Hello everyone!
Our class doesn’t start for another week, but I want to send this out early to connect with everyone before the mad rush begins. First off, I’m in [location] and doing my part to socially isolate, while keeping my coworker (cat named Lilly) from walking across my keyboard and typing gibberish. I hope you are all healthy and strong, and your families are doing well during this unusual time in our history. We will get through this, and we’ll have interesting stories for our grandchildren!
I have been teaching online for 20 years at about 6 different institutions, and I have complete confidence that we’re going to have some fun getting to know each other online this quarter. Many of you are in your permanent residences outside of SLO, and I realize your parents and younger siblings are competing for bandwidth and computer time. Because of this, I want to keep our “live” interactions to a functional minimum, so we’ll be meeting through Zoom [days and times].
I will also hold office hours on [days and times], or by request via Zoom – watch for those details soon. Most of the materials will be online in the form of digital lecture materials (very short videos, lecture notes, etc.) with some discussions (I will try to keep those fun and lively!) and external activities. At some point we’ll have a guest speaker or two, and I’ll give you advanced notice about when those events are taking place, but all live events will be recorded and captioned/transcribed for you as well. We’ll be using a simulation environment for part of our class, and [information about purchasing the simulation access]. At some point I’ll also put your email addresses in to an automated invite (with the same link) so you can buy it from the emailed link in case you misplace this note.
All other course materials are free, including the [online certification related to the course], where I will send you a special coupon link for the certification exam for FREE. Normally you would have to pay $200 for the exam, so it’s a fantastic bargain. More information about that is in our class materials, and I’ll tell you all about it soon.
I’ll open our course up just a bit early so you can get a head start on Sunday, April 5th, and I’ll email you again just prior to the start of class to remind you.
There are two ways to get to our course materials:
- From the Portal, locate and click the Cal Poly Canvas icon on the left column (looks a bit like a kaleidoscope, but it’s really shoulders & heads in a circle) – this takes you to your Canvas “dashboard”
- Log in directly at [link] with your Cal Poly authentication – this takes you to your Canvas “dashboard”
I realize we are experiencing unusual circumstances, and people are feeling anxious and frustrated, or perhaps even a bit afraid of what’s ahead. My goal for our class is to create a calm environment where we can have some fun, and (as is true in my face-to-face course) I realize many of you are experiencing circumstances beyond your control and I want to extend a lot of grace, empathy and understanding.
Let’s keep the communication strong and please let me know in advance if you have any issues accessing the course materials, or if you will need an extended deadline along the way. I want this class to be a positive experience for all of you!
Cheers, Catherine
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