Module 10 Early Outreach: Preparing Students For Success

In This Section

Why consider methods for communicating with students in advance of the start of your class
Welcome Letters
Using SURF or Canvas to communicate with students on or before Day 1

The “Why”: Reducing Psychological Distance

Humanized communication at the start of a course has been shown to reduce psychological distance - the sense of isolation, anonymity, or uncertainty students may feel in online learning environments. When students perceive their instructor as present, approachable, and invested, we see:

Higher early course engagement
Improved persistence through the drop/add period
Narrowing equity gaps for disproportionately impacted students, first‑generation students, working adults, and students new to online learning

This aligns with Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) expectations for instructor-initiated interaction, and with equity‑minded pedagogy, which emphasizes proactive, humanized communication. Refer to module 5 of this certification course for more background on these ideas.

Below, you'll find some strategies for early outreach and connection with students, helping them to know that your class is where they belong.

Early Outreach Strategies

Teaching responsibilities officially begin on Day 1 of the term. Think of early outreach as removing uncertainty, not beginning instruction. You have no obligation to communicate with students prior to Day 1, and the strategies below can work great on Day 1. But many instructors find that it can save time (e.g. responding to individual messages from enrolled students) and make the class start smoother if they use a strategy below in advance. Just keep in mind that students may continue to add your class even into the first weeks of the term, so a plan for how to ensure that later adding students also receive supportive guidance is important.

Be sure to review each of the three strategies below.

Welcome Letter

A message intended to orient and welcome students to a class may inadvertently add distance through formal tone, dense policies, and no clear invitation to respond. While well‑intentioned, such messages can lead to students feeling intimidated, or uncertain whether they belong. A humanized welcome letter does at least these three things:

Uses a warm, conversational tone
Orients students to what matters right now
Invites a low‑stakes response

Strategy: Writing with a Warm Tone

A warm tone does not mean casual or unprofessional. It means:

Writing as a person, not an institution
Using “I” and “we” rather than passive voice
Acknowledging that students are arriving with varying levels of confidence, experience, and access

Compare:

“This course will require consistent participation and adherence to deadlines.”

With:

“My goal is to support you in building a rhythm that works with your life, while still meeting the course expectations.”

Orienting Students to What Matters

While it may be tempting to turn your syllabus into a welcome letter, exercise restraint! Key elements to include:

Where to start (and where not to start).
Explicitly tell students the one place they should go first (e.g. the home page, or the orientation module) and reassure them they don’t need to review or complete everything yet. If the link to Canvas will work (i.e. the course is published), provide the direct link, or let them know when the link will be active.
What they need to do in the first 24–72 hours when the class starts.
Narrow the focus to immediate, manageable actions such as logging in, purchasing course materials (if they need to), reading a short page, or posting a brief introduction, rather than listing all Week 1 requirements.
What can wait.
Name at least one thing students do not need to worry about yet (quizzes, major assignments, readings). This is surprisingly powerful for anxiety reduction. Assure them that you'll provide follow-up guidance once they are underway.
How to get help early.
Point to the fastest way to get support right now—how to contact you, how to use the Tech Help button in Canvas to contact Canvas or ITS Tech Support.
What success looks like in the first week.
Describe early success in human terms (“If you can log in, find your way around, and introduce yourself, you’re exactly where you should be”).
Signal your openness and support.
Invite students to let you know early if something is getting in the way, and tell them how best to contact you. Communication is expected and welcome.
If you have one, a link to a Liquid Syllabus.
On the next pages, we'll provide more information about a Liquid Syllabus, but it is a mobile-friendly website that exists outside of Canvas and provides students with a humanized intorduction to you and your class.

Review Welcome Letter Examples

The What's in a Welcome Message module in the MiraCosta Teaching Collaborative Canvas course includes some different examples from MiraCosta faculty:

Welcome Letter (Word document) from former NCESL instructor and current Instructional Designer Nadia Khan
Welcome Announcement (in Canvas) from math instructor Angela Beltran-Aguilar

Using SURF for Early Outreach

Canvas courses are often unpublished until shortly before the term begins. When a Canvas course is unpublished, you can't send an announcement or Canvas Inbox message to students enrolled in that class. That doesn’t mean you have to wait to share your Welcome Letter.

Sending Email from SURF

SURF allows you to send an email to all enrolled students in a particular course section, any time. This can be useful before the class starts, as well as if Canvas ever has an extended outage.

Important reminders:

Keep the message informational and invitational
Avoid assigning work prior to Day 1
Students don't always check their email (shocking, I know), and sometimes students don't use the email on file with the college

MiraCosta's SURF guide for faculty about class rosters includes information on emailing students from SURF.

Canvas Publishing Strategies

MiraCosta's minimum expectation is that your Canvas course should be available to your students by the first instructional day of the week in which the class starts. Publishing a course early is never required, but it is another strategy to reduce student anxiety and provide clarity to students. However, it can also overwhelm students if everything is visible at once without clear guidance.

Pros of Early Publishing

Students are assured they’re enrolled in the class and are in the right place
Students can access key information to help them prepare for success, such as the syllabus, instructor info, and support resources

Potential Downsides

Students jump ahead to confusing content or try to start working on assignments
Visibility to the entire class could lead to overwhelm for some students, before they have a chance to form a connection with you as the instructor and guide

Publish Selectively

A common strategy is to:

Publish the course early, but restrict which content within the course is published
Publish only the home page, the syllabus page, and/or Module 0 (the welcome module) prior to the start of the term

In this way, early access to the Canvas course acts as a welcome mat, not a to-do list.

On the next pages, you'll be able to see examples of MiraCosta faculty-created Liquid Syllabi and Canvas welcome modules.