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You may be excited about making videos - or you may not! While we propose creating videos here, you could certainly modify this in to a "how to" manual with screenshots of myCourses, etc., instead. Either are terrific additions to your courses and increasing communication with your students about your courses.
Welcome Video Instructions
Why create a "Course Welcome Video"?
The goal of this video is to introduce yourself and the course. Plan to be on camera for this video so you can make a connection with students. Aim for 2-3 minutes of video. You may find it helpful to write a script first and practice it. You can use tools such as Panopto to create your video.
Some things to include:
Start with something like “Welcome to __[course name]____. My name is ___[your name]___ and I am excited to be your instructor for this course.”
Talk a bit about your background and your interest in this subject.
Talk about what this course is about (topics, learning objectives, goals for the course).
Talk about what the workload is for your course (what is expected in a typical week including reading, writing, quizzes, etc.)
End with next steps for getting started (watch the course tour, click Content to access learning materials)
Course Tour Instructions
Why create a "Course Tour Video"?
The goal of this tour is to orient learners to the setup of your course. This includes highlighting where key features/resources/parts of the course are, showing how to navigate in the course, and giving an overview of your particular course's conventions. It's important to be in "View as Student" mode when you screen record or take screen captures so that what you place in your tour matches what the students will see.
Tours can be done as a video or written text.
If you are doing your tour as a video, screen record the actual course while narrating what you are showing on screen. Try to say the name of the page or the thing you are clicking on as you are interacting with the course. Aim for about 3 minutes of video. You may find it helpful to write a script first and practice it. You can use tools such as Panopto to create your video.
If you are doing your tour as written text, include screen captures of what you are writing about. It is helpful to crop images or use annotation tools to show key areas of interest (you can do both in Microsoft Word or use a tool like Paint to edit images before placing in a document). Aim for about 500 words of text.
Topics to Cover in a Tour
Some key things to include in your tour:
Start the tour on the course Home page. Show where students can find your announcements and indicate your expectations for how often you will post here. Also indicate the key navigation bar items your course will use.
Show the Content area and describe how you have your modules organized (examples: by week, by topic). Also indicate the cadence that you will use to release new content (example: every Monday at 12:01 am).
Show students where to find key documents such as the syllabus, course schedule, and graded activity instructions. This is a good time to mention things like course mode, weekly workload expectations, and any other core conventions used in your course.
Show the Grades tool and indicate your expectations for when you will return grades and feedback back to students.
Provide highlights about how your course will use other myCourses tools such as Assignment, Discussions, and Quizzes. Also cover how your course uses external tools and integrations such as Zoom, Panopto, and Slack.