1. In my face2face class, I always have class members introduce themselves, but I have found it best to give fun ideas about what to say or else students are too shy to say much at all. So in my online course, I am doing something similar -- but with an added advantage offered by the reality that the course is online. First, I have created an intro discussion board and asked everyone: "Please post an introduction -- include the basics plus a couple of things that are different or unique about you -- and your favorite ice cream!"

The online advantage is this -- instead of forgetting most of what info goes with what person, the students can refer back to the board since it will remain up all semester with no other posts. I imagine that students will refer to the board when they want to learn more about people in the class. For example, when they are put in groups together they can go to the intro board and read about their new team :)

And of course I will post on the intro board as well -- I think it helps students feel comfortable in a class to know some things about their instructor, including that she is willing to be involved and share her favorite flavor of ice cream.

2. After a peer review session, I realized that my "Welcome" message was not informative enough, and so I re-did it. I realized I had made assumptions about the students' knowledge, and that they may not know as much as I expected. I added an overview of the course and how it would work, and very specific directions about how to navigate the site. I also gave them lots of ways to contact me so they would know there was a real person involved, and offered reassurance that they were not likely to mess anything up by exploring the site -- but that if they did, they could push the Tech Support button :) My hope is that the more comprehensive message will help alleviate anxiety, and make my course seem more do-able and friendly.

Mary-Ann Bowman