Welcome Letter

Welcome Letters

Four weeks prior to the class finder becoming available for students to view classes you need to prepare your welcome letter and post it for students to review.  The purpose of the welcome letter is to help them start planning schedules, understand the course start and end date, how to contact the instructor, how to log into class, course requirements, time commitment, necessary hardware / software they need to have or purchase, links to student support / tutorials, as well as any mandatory online or on campus meetings they need to attend.

Welcome Letter Checklist: Download Welcome Letter Checklist:

This checklist describes the necessary components that need to be included on your course welcome letter. This checklist was designed by the Distance Education Committee.

Welcome Letter Template: Download Welcome Letter Template:

This template includes all the components in the welcome letter checklist. Please feel free to use it to create your welcome letter, make sure to update the necessary sections to include your course specific information and update based on your course design and preference. Then post your letter as described in the following section.

Posting your Welcome Letter: Download Posting your Welcome Letter:

  Post a welcome letter with details about your course and important information students need in order to register for the class. This PDF file will explain how you to post your welcome letter.

• In addition to posting your welcome letter you should also make students aware of the resources that are available to them on the Cuesta home page such as:
  
  • Canvas Quick Reference for Students Links to an external site. Links to an external site.
  • Distance Education Home Page Links to an external site.
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Links to an external site.
  • Online Student Readiness Tutorials Links to an external site.
  • Welcome Letters for Students Links to an external site.
  • Academic Honesty and Standards of Conduct Links to an external site.

Using the Canvas ePortfolio to post your welcome letters

You may use Canvas e-Portfolio to post your course welcome letter. You can create multiple pages for each course you teach, or use one page for the same course with multiple CRN’s. The advantage to the e-portfolio is you can make changes to it each semester, or during the semester. Make sure you make your e-Portfolio Public and then do it once and you are done!!

Here are some instructions on creating a e-portfolio in Canvas:

• How do I create a new ePortfolio? Links to an external site.
• How do I organize my ePortfolio? Links to an external site.
• How do I create a new ePortfolio section? Links to an external site.

Here is a sample and a short video on creating a e-portfolio in Canvas:

• Sample: https://cuesta.instructure.com/eportfolios/23/BUS_201A
• Video: https://www.3cmediasolutions.org/privid/66517?key=8d7f64a00b2dafd0a410aea0206e225f86a3721d Links to an external site.

Submitting your welcome letters

Once you have prepared your letter and posted it on the Canvas e-Portfolio or on a server, e-mail welcome_letters@cuesta.edu with the following text in the message area (so we can link your letter to the WebReg process), you should email your letter URL each semester to ensure the web-link is updated:

Class name and CRNs (course reference numbers)

Email address that you want students to use to contact you

Your name formatted as you wish it displayed to students

The URL (web address) for your course welcome page