Our first interactions with our students are an opportunity to set the tone for the rest of the course. Whether we are meeting them face to face, via Zoom or asynchronously via VIULearn we can use this time to connect with students, have students connect with each other, have them connect with the content and give them a sense of what the rest of the term will be like. 

I have often started off a semester by saying “I am going to talk a lot today while I go through the syllabus, but that won’t be how classes will usually be run.” I would then be surprised when students resisted speaking up or working in groups to explore content. In reality, I had introduced  the course one way and taught in another. I realized that it was far more effective to begin in the way I meant to go on. So, the first day of class became interactive. Everyone was invited to speak, students worked in groups and we started exploring content right away.

We all have our own teaching styles and philosophies, so there is no magic formula for creating the perfect start to a semester, but here are a few ideas and resources that can get you started.

Building Community

As noted in the video above, building community is an essential part of learning . When students feel connected in a positive way to their instructors and fellow learners they are more likely to be successful. There are many ways that you can start building this sense of community from the very beginning of the term. In fact, you can start building community even before the first day of class. Think about using VIULearn to communicate with your students before the term starts. You can use the Announcements tool to welcome students to the course and provide them with some information about how the course will work. You can also provide some information about yourself to help them feel like a real person will be teaching them. 

Here are some other ways that you can start building community in your first interactions with students.

• Before the first class, consider the classroom (or learning environment) to set up the space effectively to create a welcoming comfortable atmosphere that emphasizes collaboration. 
• Create a video to introduce yourself and/or provides a tour of the course on VIULearn.
• Are you doing group work in class? Have the students meet each other that first day and starting thinking about how they want to work together.
• Greet students as they enter the class or Zoom room. If you are teaching asynchronously, you can set up a forum for introductions and make sure you respond to them.
• Connect students with low risk activities (introductions, name tags, group chats, icebreakers) tha help students learn about each other and something about the course content. Here is an example of a “Find Someone Who” activity that incorporates concepts from Geology. 

Promoting Student Engagement: Why wait to get to the good stuff?

I suspect that nobody has ever signed up for a course because they wanted to read the syllabus. While the syllabus is an important document, it is not inherently interesting. Students are there, in fact we are there, because we are interested in the content. What are the problems students will be able to solve because of this course? What are the complexities of your field? What pulled you into this area? All of these things are far more compelling than the course syllabus, so what don’t we lead with them? Don’t be afraid to jump right in and get them thinking about the kinds of things they are going to be learning. 

For example:

• In a Cultural Geography class you could give students a map of BC or Vancouver Island and a list of Indigenous language groups and have them plot them on the map.
• In a writing class you could give students a list of 10 sentences where 6 have grammatical errors and 4 are okay.  Have students work on their own, and then in small groups to determine which are correct, which are incorrect and then possibly how to fix them.
• In a math class you could list the names of the math theorems that you will be using and have them match them to real life applications.

Setting vs Co-Creating Expectations: Correcting the Power Imbalance

There is often an unspoken and unintended power imbalance that happens between instructors and students. This can reduce the agency that students have over their own learning. This can lead to lack of engagement, lack of autonomy and lack of ownership in the learning process. 

There are strategies in the sections on Building Community, Well-being and Inclusivity that can be used to adjust this imbalance. Another way you can do this is to have your students become actively involved in creating expectations for the class.  While there may be some things in your course that are non-negotiable (e.g. you won’t answer email 24/7), there may be other parts of your course that you are willing to be flexible on. These elements might include:

• Communication (ie. email etiquette)
• Class attendance vs participation
• Assignment due dates
• Zoom Code
• How to prepare for class
• What is expected of them in class?
• Lab safety

One way to do this is to have students work in groups (face to face or online) to identify 2-3 expectations that are most important to them. They can then present their ideas and you can discuss them as a class. Have the groups send you their ideas for you to take away and compile with your own expectations. You could even create a rubric and have students assess themselves once or twice throughout the semester. 

The end result is that you have a set of “rules” that are not set out by you, but are created by the class community. This allows students to play an active part in the creation of their learning environment and how they interact with it.

Don’t Forget about the Syllabus!

The syllabus is a mainstay of the beginning of term for a good reason. It is the document that lays out the course learning outcomes, learning materials, assessments and often the course schedule. It tells students what they need to do in order to be successful in the course. However, for something that is so important it is seldom referred to after that first day of class. Therefore, it can be a good idea to think of ways to engage your students meaningfully in the content of your syllabus. How can you get them to engage in the content? One approach is to have an Annotated Syllabus in which students are actively engaged in creating the syllabus. You can read more about it in this blog post by Remi Kalir.

Other ways to get students engaged with the syllabus are

• Teach your students how to use the syllabus to answer their questions about the course.
• If possible, choose a different or additional format link this. 
• Connect the elements of the syllabus together.
  • How do the readings fit with the assessment?
  • How do the concepts fit together?

Written Content: Well-being and Inclusivity

During the COVID pandemic, the need to incorporate practices of well-being and inclusivity into our teaching practice has become even more apparent. In some cases the  pandemic  highlighted the existing  imbalances and barriers in our education system. It also demonstrated how important it is for us to look out for the well-being of our students and ourselves.. In fact, the 2021 Horizon Report notes Mental Health as one of the significant Social Trends in education and states “Already a perennial concern on campuses, mental health issues have been exacerbated by recent disruptions and changes to our social, political, and educational landscapes and have presented institutions with additional challenges in ensuring the safety and well-being of not only students but also faculty and staff”

 In response to this, the CIEL has curated resources that offer initial and accessible strategies to begin the journey towards the creation of inclusive and healthy classrooms. These resources have been added to a VIULearn course. Some of the topics are

• Creating an Inclusive Course Syllabus
• Acknowledging Territory
• Biophilia
• Universal Design for Learning
• Alternative Assessments

If you would like to be added to the course to access all the resources, please email learnsupport@viu.ca.

Want to Learn More?

Check Out these Additional Resources:

• 12 Icebreakers to Kick Off the Semester [Infographic]
• Community: The Hidden Context for Learning  [Book Chapter]
• Inclusive Syllabus: What Is It? [3 Page PDF]
• Pulling Together: Foundations Guide [Open Text from BCampus]
  • Print copy also available via the CIEL Resource Library
• Teaching Tips: How to Make a Lasting Impression for Learners [Video: 1:48]

And, as always, we encourage you to contact us for a conversation about this or any other teaching and learning topic.