A friendly and detailed welcome message will:

• help students become familiar with the instructor and the course;
• help ease any student anxiousness about what to expect in the course;
• give students the feeling that you are accessible, approachable, and a real person;
• set the stage for continued, positive interactions between you and your online students, and
• save you time by not having to field multiple emails with questions from students.

A welcome message is usually separate from the course syllabus, which contains more detailed information about the course expectations, learning objectives, due dates, course policies, assignments and assessments.   See an example welcome message.

Suggested Welcome Message Components

Greeting

• Introduce yourself, the course, and the purpose of the welcome letter/message. You may choose to link to or include more biographical information here; otherwise be sure to provide a little more background about yourself in an initial discussion forum.

How to Access the Course

• Include information about the Learning Management System (LMS) and how to access it.

Support & Troubleshooting 

• Let students know that technical assistance is available provided by EPD Tech Support and DoIT HelpDesk. Technical support information is provided on the course home page.

Next Steps or Tips for Success: 

• Explain how students can be successful in the course and the online environment, and how to get started.

The following elements should be in your course syllabus, but can be highlighted in your welcome message as needed

Course Description

• Provide a brief overview of what the course is about and how it will connect to their lifelong learning.

Course Format

• It is important to clearly state “this is an online course.” Be sure to explain if there will be any required in-person class meetings or required synchronous web conferences, for example, for a group presentation or final exam.

Organization & Structure

• Provide an overview of the course navigation and structure, high-level description of major projects or components of the course. Refer to the syllabus for complete details about the course expectations.

Contacting the Instructor

• Include your preferred method to be contacted, also list office hours and expected timeframes for responses. Consider weekends and holidays and how you will manage responses.

Dates and Time Commitment:

• Include information about the duration of the course, specific start/end dates, and expected time commitment per week.

Textbook or Required Resources:

• This information should also be included in the syllabus. 

Course Technology:

• List any and all technical requirements for the course in one place. (For example, do students need a special calculator or software?)

 Example Welcome Message 

The following example may be used as a template for your own welcome message. Edit and personalize as necessary to fit your course.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the EPD999 course!

My name is Buckingham Badger and I will be your instructor for the course. I am looking forward to working together and getting the semester started of strong. I want to welcome everyone, and I would encourage you to post a short informal hello message in the "Personal Introductions" discussion forum just to let me know you received my welcome message, to briefly introduce yourself to the class, and to say a few words about what you hope to get out of this course. 

Although the official start date for the course is not until Monday, August 31st, all students (who have officially registered) now have access to the EPD999 Canvas course site, so feel free to start exploring a little bit of your online learning environment—All details of the course can be found within the online course site, including syllabus, module overview files, recorded lectures, readings, etc. I also wanted to take a moment to post a couple of points as we get started.

The flow of this online course uses a mix of asynchronous (not live/own time), and synchronous (live/real-time) learning activities. This course will have regular weekly assignments due, scheduled live class sessions (via web conferencing), weekly text discussions via the course discussion forums, as well as readings and course materials that each of student is required to keep on top of each week. This is not a self-paced course. Each student must manage their own time each week, to know when assignments are due, and any other weekly course obligations, and all students move through the course together each week. This will involve regularly logging into the online learning systems to check forums, communications, monitor your UW email address, and virtually interact with classmates, team members, instructors, and course materials.

At this point, I suggest the following actions:

• Begin to familiarize yourself with the Canvas learning management system and the EPD999 course site, which can be accessed here: https://canvas.wisc.edu
• Make sure to read the course syllabus, located on the Modules page, and review the required or optional textbooks that may need to be purchased, the scheduled live web conference dates/times, as well as assignment due dates, so you can plan your semester accordingly and get those dates in your professional calendar.
• We will have our first live web conference on Wednesday this week, so you’ll need to be sure you can access our web conferencing system. Note the Web Conference link is in the course navigation.
• Read through the Syllabus, and the Module 01 Overview so you know the rhythm of course, and what is expected.  This can be found at the top of the EPD999 online course site Modules page.

As you get started, I'll answer any questions as they arise, or point you to our tech support forum for more technical questions. Please post your questions in the appropriate Discussion forum.  I will post a Module One informational message on the official course start date.

I look forward to working with you this semester!

Best,
~ Bucky