A Welcome Email to College Students from a Professor
Preparing for a new semester can feel overwhelming, even for experienced educators. During my years teaching at Penn State, I developed a pre-semester checklist to make sure I had the important pieces in place before students arrived. You can view and download a free copy of the checklist here. One item I always included was sending students a welcome email before the first day of class.
Below is an example of a welcome email I've used with my own students. Feel free to adapt it for your own course and teaching style.
A quick note: This is an actual welcome email I sent to my students while teaching ECON 104 at Penn State in 2021. Some of the specific tools, links, prices, and course policies are now outdated, but I’ve left the email largely unchanged as an example of how I communicated expectations and helped students prepare before the semester began.
**I will be sending this exact announcement out via email & Canvas Inbox for those who do not have announcements forwarded. If you have things set up correctly, you should see this same message 3 times. I suggest having announcements sent to your email as this will be my primary way of communication after this message. You can set that up by reading this how-to here: https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/662894-how-do-i-manage-my-canvas-notification-settings**
Hi Students:
Welcome to ECON104! We start a week from today. Attached to this announcement is the most updated syllabus. The syllabus will be updated a few times when I get more information on our TA, etc, and I will always inform you of any changes. I have also digitized the syllabus in a page-by-page format on Canvas. The rest of the Canvas will open as we get closer to next week.
Please read the syllabus in its entirety and ask any questions regarding the syllabus before the start of class. I have been known to give an extra credit quiz on the syllabus from time to time. There will for sure be syllabus questions as clicker points week one.
I also created a list of items that are optional but successful students have found useful. You can find that here: https://www.tierneyeducation.com/resources/blog/7-must-have-items-for-a-successful-semester
I will be sending out a few different emails between now and the beginning of class. I know reading about school is the last thing you want to do during your winter break, but I like to be as organized as possible and get out as much information as I can to you, my students. If you read every email I send you will be on your way to succeed in this difficult course.
Please note that you must get the required materials ASAP and please have the syllabus read and the first few sections of chapter 9 done before the first day of class if you want to succeed. Below is a breakdown of what is needed for this class. You can get all of this stuff at the bookstore. However, I’ll provide the least expensive avenue:
eText & MyLab
www.myeconlab.com
$99.95
This contains the following:
Textbook
Quiz Questions
Animated Graphs
Unlimited Practice
Study Modules
and more!
15% of your grade will come from weekly MyEconLab quizzes plus the textbook will help you get a deeper understanding of material
iClicker2
https://amzn.to/2N22azv
$29.99 used
$51.25 new
There will be daily clicker questions. These will help me know what the class does and does not understand.
15% of your grade will come from participation and attendance which includes clicker questions as well as other random assignments.
Packback Questions
Integrated into Canvas!
$25
Packback Questions is an online community where you can be fearlessly curious and ask BIG questions about how what we’re studying relates to life and the real world.
15% of your grade will come from Packback participation.
Non-programmable Calculator
https://amzn.to/303oKMC
~$11
Economics has a decent amount of calculations. A calculator will help out during class and exams. However, you cannot use a graphing calculator due to cheating concerns.
I think that’s about it. If you have questions please let me know. Again, you will be getting a lot of emails this first week. They will all be listed on Canvas Announcement so I would check there regularly.
See you on the 14th!
Cheers,
Professor Tierney
More Resources for Educators
I enjoy connecting with other educators and sharing ideas about teaching, learning, and higher education. If you found this resource helpful, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or explore more of Tierney Education’s Resources for Educators.
I’m also always happy to hear from fellow educators interested in collaborating, having me speak with a class or organization, or simply exchanging ideas. Feel free to reach out.