I plan to email students a link to my liquid syllabus (without calling it that) the week before the semester begins. I really like the visual nature of this site, as I think it is much more welcoming than my typical written welcome email. I admit that I plan to streamline it somewhat, since I prefer to keep some of the content in the FAQs area in my Canvas Orientation Module (like the "pact" pieces), and I think students do better with shorter reads. 

The card I created is for a class in Interpersonal Communication, so I chose a photo that shows people interacting. I searched for an image with significant diversity, which this one has. I especially like the gender ambiguity in one of the people featured. I think this image will let students know that they are all welcome in my class.

As I explained in the screencast video, I think the warm welcome at the top, followed by the image of a diverse group of students enjoying each others' company, and the slogan from my department's banner "Your Voice Matters" will let students know that each one of them belongs in my class. I also think providing a link to the "Day 1" page in Canvas will tell them that I value their success and am there to help them achieve it. Finally, the picture of my face next to my contact information at the bottom will let them there is a human behind the screen and it's okay to contact her/me. 

My student survey closely follows the sample, but also focuses on a few additional items. One is a question about the type of device they plan to use to do their work for the class. I think this information will help me understand any trouble they may run into. Another is a question about whether they have sufficient internet or cellular connectivity. I included that question mostly to plant the seed in their mind that this is something they need to plan for. 

I chose the Wisdom Wall for this part of the course. I followed the template pretty closely, but focused the question I want students to answer more closely on online learning, by asking "What do you know now about online learning that you wish you had known at the start of the semester?" I think this will tie in nicely to another feature of my course, which is to require students to participate in a Discussion about their own level of online readiness, after reading an article and taking a self-assessment survey. I think that this fosters a sense of belonging by allowing students to voice their own confidence or nerves about learning online, and also to see and reply to classmates who may be experiencing similar feelings. I often find that students give each other valuable encouragement and advice in this Discussion assignment, so the focus of the Welcome Wall question will provide some nice closure on that topic!

This video provides some brief verbal instruction for a concept that students need to understand and apply for a major writing assignment in the class. I have a written description of the communication competence schema, but I've found that several students have trouble applying the concepts based on that alone. I really think that the verbal explanation, with a few examples, will help them succeed on this assignment.

This microlecture relates to an activity that I ask students to complete in order to write about it in a Discussion assignment. It explains the connection between two course concepts - self-awareness and self concept - and walks students through how they would apply these concepts to themselves. The learning objective is: "Analyze your self-awareness and determine your core self concept." I think it will help students understand the concepts and also gain insight into their own understanding of self.