Issue link: http://ncumarketing.uberflip.com/i/934008
NCU Faculty Handbook | Faculty Teaching Responsibilities | 23 Sending a Welcome Letter Welcome Letters are required to be emailed to students or posted as 'News' items in the course on or before the course start date. Welcome Letters indicate course expectations and the faculty member's communication policies, contact preferences, office hours, and most importantly, welcomes students into a teaching relationship that is the basis for their learning. Faculty will receive a Course Registration Email (CRI) for each student prior to the start date and can email the student a Welcome Letter ahead of time using the information listed in the CRI email. Writing a Welcome Letter Use the Welcome Letter Guidelines in the Commons > Center for Teaching and Learning > Faculty Resource Area > Using NCUOne to help you compose your welcome letter. • Keep your welcome letter to one page – avoid overwhelming the student. • The goal of the welcome letter is to be welcoming – put your introduction and contact information first, and then cover "policies"/resources. • Direct students to NCU resources: Dissertation Center, ASC, Library etc., rather than including additional attachments. • Remind your students how to benefit from feedback. While it can be difficult to work long hours on a project and have errors pointed out, feedback should be seen as empowering, and its purpose is to help students achieve excellence. • PDF your welcome letter to maintain formatting. • When sending the "Welcome Letter" via email, faculty members should abide by the following guidelines: Write a brief message within the email body welcoming the student to the course and inviting the student to have a synchronous conversation (e.g., over phone or Skype) during the first week of the course. The message should contain the word "Welcome" in the subject line Faculty "Welcome Letter" on University letterhead (found on Marketing's FRANK page). Faculty should also post a short welcome in the "News" tool of each course. Use the job aids on posting "News" items the Commons > CTL Faculty Resource Area > Using NCUOne. • Include your name in the headline of your announcement so your students can quickly identify you. • Keep your announcement short and sweet (a few sentences) – do not paste your entire Welcome Letter into your announcement. • Include your name and contact information in your welcome announcement so students can easily find it. • Embed a short welcome video into your welcome announcement. Embedding a video is preferred over attaching a video. • Attach your full welcome letter to your announcement – do not add additional resources if you can direct the students directly to those resources. • Attach release conditions to your announcement so only your students see it.