Welcome back to another school year! We hope you feel refreshed from the summer and are ready to welcome your new colleagues and our new students to campus. This post will focus on ways to welcome your students to class. It is the first in a series aimed at helping you start your semester on the right foot with your students. Look for posts each week in August that will cover syllabus design, ideas for the first day of class, and ways to communicate your growth mindset about your students’ abilities.

Get to know your students

The first step towards welcoming students is getting to know them. Welcoming students and taking time to build a learning community can support your students’ academic success in your course and beyond. Research shows that a sense of community is a strong predictor of psychological well-being, student satisfaction and intention to graduate (Boyd, et. al., 2022). Additionally, students with a higher sense of belonging are less likely to consider dropping out of school, are more motivated, and report higher levels of academic enjoyment that lead to higher levels of academic achievement (Pedler, et. al., 2022).

1. Use the Canvas Reports and Dashboards tool: it provides an overview of the demographics, academic level and background of your class.
2. Conduct a survey: Consider using the “Who’s in Class?” form by Tracie Addy and Derek Dube, as discussed in their article, “A Tool to Advance Inclusive Teaching Efforts: The ‘Who’s in Class?’ Form”, in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. Ask questions to determine students’ interests, background knowledge and experience related to your course. This information can help you tailor parts of the course to help students see the relevance between the course and their interests and aspirations. Join our Get to Know Your Students Canvas site to view and import the “Who’s in Class?” questions.
3. Help students get to know you and each another: Create a short video to introduce yourself and your course. If you have other members on the teaching team, ask them to do the same. You could also use an introductory slide and ask students to add a slide to briefly introduce themselves to the class. Use icebreakers to help students get to know one another but avoid intrusive questions.
4. Use NameCoach: Record the pronunciation of your name and invite students to do the same. Alternatively, add a NameCoach assignment in Canvas.

Think about the messages you want to send to students

Consider the messages that can help your students at the beginning of the semester to help them persist in your class. Possible topics include

• We all experience challenges: Consider sharing your academic struggles and how you overcame them. This can be a great segue into discussing how you plan to support your students’ learning journey. Discussing the languages, norms and expectations of higher education can be helpful for first-year students as they transition from high school. For more specific issues, see the blog post “Unspoken Expectations and Student Success: Revealing the Hidden Curriculum.” One way to counteract the effects of the hidden curriculum is to be more transparent about your teaching. Implementing the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework will enable your students to understand the purpose of any particular assignment, the task they are expected to complete, and your criteria for success.
• Normalize asking for help when you struggle: Learning is an uncomfortable process and students should know that this is normal, but that they can ask for help. There are many reasons why students might be hesitant to ask for help. Explain that asking for help is a sign of investment in their own success. Let students know when they might struggle in your course and provide concrete steps they can take to recover.

Orient students to your course

Let students know how you plan to communicate with them, how you will share content, and what they need to do to get started in your course. If you are teaching first-year students, do not assume that they know how to use Canvas or other technologies. Let them know that there are online resources and that they have access to 24/7 help through UITS. If needed, take time in class to show them how to use the technologies or ask them to help one another with troubleshooting issues.

Your syllabus can be a great tool for orienting your students to your course and sharing the messages above. As you review your syllabus, look for ways to signal to students that they belong at IU and in your class. Read our next blog post for more information about creating a student-centered syllabus.

References and further reading

Addy, T.M., Mitchell, K.A., Dube, D. (2021). A tool to advance inclusive teaching efforts: The “who’s in class?” form. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education 22(3). https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00183-21

Artze-Vega, I., Darby, F., Dewsbury, B., Imad, M. (2023). The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching. United Kingdom: W.W. Norton.

Boyd, N. M., Liu, X., & Horissian, K. (2022). Impact of community experiences on student retention perceptions and satisfaction in higher education. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 24(2), 337-365. https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025120916433

Pedler, M. L., Willis, R., & Nieuwoudt, J. E. (2022). A sense of belonging at university: Student retention, motivation and enjoyment. Journal of Further and Higher Education 46(3), 397-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1955844