Welcome Letter
It is a Distance Ed best practice to send your students a welcome letter prior to the first day of classes. Students new to online learning may need extra help to understand how to get started in your class.
What should my welcome letter include?
Your welcome letter should provide resources that help students successfully begin your course. Since this will be your first contact with students, make sure to write in a friendly, welcoming manner.
You are welcome to view and/or adapt LPC's model welcome letter. After downloading this optional template, you can edit it to reflect your contact information, course details, and personality.
How do I email students before the semester begins?
Your most accurate roster of registered students is available to you in Class Web, where students officially add or drop courses. To email students before the semester begins:
- Log into Class Web / My Portal.
- Click the "Menu for Faculty, Staff, Advisors."
- Click on the "Faculty Class Roster (available throughout the term)" - not the "Attendance Reporting Rosters," which are meant for add authorizations, census, and W's.
- Select the term from the drop-down menu and click "Submit."
- Select the course from the drop-down menu and click "Submit."
- Scroll down and click the "Email class" button at the bottom of your roster.
- Check that the email automatically populated to send from your work email and that
students emails are in the "BCC" area. (This will send each student a copy individually
from your LPC account, which is important to protect student privacy. Students who
reply will send a message only to you, not the whole class!)
- Tip: If you are doing this process on a personal device, with the default email account set to your personal email address, you can copy the email list and instead manually create a message to send from your LPC email account!
- Add a welcoming email title and then copy and paste your welcome letter to students in the body of the email.
- Click "Send."
- If your class has a wait list, you can also find a separate button to email students on your wait list on Class Web by scrolling to the bottom of your roster.
- Finally, don't forget to log off of Class-Web, especially if you are on a shared device.
Note: You should also post this letter in your Canvas shell for students who add the class after the letter has been emailed out. For example, you could add your welcome letter as a file in your introductory module or post it as an announcement to welcome students on the first day of class.
If you need any technical help with this process, please don't hesitate to reach out to your Instructional Technology Team for support!