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See Also: 1st Day/Week of Class Tips/ Best Practices

[QM Rubric Standards #1.9, #4.1, #5.2]

Critical Nature of Week 1

Before we turn you loose on integrating your Activities, Assessment & Goals, The first week of a distance course is important enough it deserves some extra thought.

“The way you engage students on the first day sends powerful messages about the level of involvement and interaction you expect from them.”
-Carnegie Mellon

Beating Distance Retention Averages

With both the demands of the 21st century economy AND the grim fact that retention/completion rates are generally LOWER at a distance in numerous studies and historically here locally at NCSC, it is vital to use best practices to make Week 1 engaging and a retention aid.

"We've found over the years that if you get them engaged in the class, they normally stay past week one.... And so by doing those kinds of pieces up front, and having students engage with one another ...it sets a mood. It sets the stage. And it helps with that issue of attrition that we talked about before. They want to hang in there..."
-Paloff & Pratt,
"Launching the Online Learning Experience"

Week 1 Best Practices

Lang Offers 4 Research-Based Principles to Starting Class Effectively:

1. CURIOSITY
  "...consider the first day (week) as your best opportunity to spark students’ curiosity and invite them into a fascinating intellectual journey.... instructors should build and present learning experiences around deep questions and problems... work to convey the significance of its content to students as well as to their world beyond the classroom."
2. COMMUNITY
  "We teach human beings who are inspired by wonder, driven toward community... The more comfortable the students feel with you and with one another from the beginning, the more comfortable they will be participating throughout the semester...
  
  "Online courses can easily become bloodless transactions of brains behind screens. In the opening of the course, establish your presence as a teacher who cares about their learning, and invite students to help you create a vibrant community of learners."
  
  "in the online environment, you face larger challenges in terms of building community .... Quick videos and discussion boards offer you great opportunities to build community...
  - Introduce yourself through a brief opening video and describe yourself more formally in a 'Meet the Instructor' page included in your course pages. Present your formal credentials and intellectual journey on the page, and speak more informally in the video.
  - Follow the lead of the historian Cate Denial and invite each student to ask you a question about yourself.
  - Have students introduce themselves to one another in a discussion post, through either writing or a video. Post a comment or question in response to each student, just to let them know that you are present for them and interested in their learning."
3. LEARNING
  "You don’t have to wait... for students to start learning in your course... Here are two ways to get them learning on the first day:
  Ask students to try a cognitive task before they are ready &
  What kinds of learning strategies will they have to use in order to be successful in the course?"
4. EXPECTATIONS
  "...you can’t ignore the fact that students will bring a host of expectations — things they will want to know right away ... allot at least some time... to outlining the parameters of the course beyond subject matter: materials, assessments, policies, key dates and deadlines.... Set aside time for questions. Some instructors give students a no-points or low-stakes syllabus quiz ..."
  
  "...How to navigate an online course will not always be evident to your students, especially if they are adults returning to education after an absence or are students taking an online class as a supplement to their face-to-face courses. So it is especially important to provide another video or document that outlines how they can find the assistance they need, how to proceed through the course, and how to make sure their questions get answered. "

Savvy Activity Design

Lang cautions us:

"Don’t think you have to hit all four of the core principles in the first 50 or 75 minutes of the semester (although doing so is less difficult than you might imagine). Some well-designed activities can allow you to hit two or three at the same time."

Starter Ideas for a Meaningful Week 1

Week 1 Activities
Activity	Week 1 Prompt	Final Week Follow Up
The 'Grit' Scale Test	Along with basic intro, have students take the "grit" scale test and share their score and brainstorm strategies or ideas of how they will buckle up and keep going when the going gets tough in the class? Followup of how other students have suggestions or techniques that have helped them?	Have students come back to this Week 1 post and write a reflection on how their strategies did/did not work out and or other insights they gained.
How This Course Can Improve the World	Ask students to write about how they wish the world could be a better place and think about their own goals and how school in general & this course specifically could help them achieve those objectives.	Have students come back to this Week 1 post and write a reflection on how the course has or will be used to help them improve the world and what their next goals will be after the class to put this into action.
What is This Course About/Importance?	Activate what their initial understanding or concerns about the subject matter or course by having them define what the course subject matter is or its importance in our society today and or their concerns about the subject. have classmates post responses contrasting different understandings of the subject and or strategies to address others' concerns??	Have students come back to this Week 1 post and revisit their definition/importance of subject to see what they would change (or not) and why (or why not). For concerns to see if these were unfounded or not or how they worked with this concern.
Personal Future Professional Usefulness of the Course	Have students post what their program of study is and why they are pursuing this area and how they see this specific course fitting into their future professional field (beyond a checkbox on the curriculum worksheet).	Have students come back to this Week 1 post and revisit their view of how why the course will fit into their pro career and how this has changed and or why/not of theirs or classmates week 1 posts.
Students Ask the Questions	“Typical homework assignments ask students to ANSWER questions. This assignment is different. I’d like you to ask questions. What are you curious about? What problems or issues are important to you? What topics matter to you? What questions do you wish you could answer?” - Lolita Paff, "Big Questions -- Paff was “blown away” by the questions students shared... “It’s a little scary. I don’t have all the answers. But perhaps that’s the point. This term students are going to partner in learning with me, not just from me.”	Have students come back to their Week 1 questions and submit what answers they came to and what questions remain or have been raised during the course...

NCSC Model Examples
ITEC-1810-920 - Padlet Visual Intro & Elevator Pitch "Hello, class! Since this is a fully-online class, I've provided this "Introduction Board" so we can have a visual way to meet everyone in the class. Feel free to share your "elevator speech" (explain who you are in < 30 seconds) and a picture of yourself (or link to something of interest to you). " https://padlet.com/cmorrison25/y809ldftamd4

Other Week 1 Resources

First Day of Class Activities that Create a Climate for Learning (FacultyFocus)

How to Teach a Good First Day of Class (Lang, Chronicle of Higher Ed.)
4 Fun Discussion Board Week 1 Ice Breaker Prompts (J. Johnson, NCSC)