In the Building Community workshop found on the POT site Pilar Hernandez recommends sending a pre-semester email to welcome the students. I have sent an email out about a week before the semester with a lot of info: the text used, the amount of work the course will have, the dates for the on campus classes, the requirements that need to be completed the first week so I will not drop you, etc.
In the past, I've found that students who add after the semester starts end up dropping out. So I've decided to add many students who ask me before the semester starts and none afterwards. My hope is that students will look at my email and blackboard course and drop before the semester if the work is more than they anticipated.
It’s very early days but it seems to be working. I’m holding right at 45. Now it will be interesting to see if I have a better retention rate in the class. I’m hoping that I can keep at least 85% of the students until the end. We’ll see.
After watching Pilar’s workshop I then followed up with a more welcoming Wimba voice email to help build the community.
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