2.4 Create a warm and inviting atmosphere to build a learning

What to do?

How to do it?

• Welcome students before the course begins by sending a course email or posting a course announcement. ( See Example 1 )
• Resend welcome email to new students after drop/add period
• Post a personal introduction about yourself ( See Example 2 )
• Write in an informal tone ( See Example 3)
• Provide lots of encouragement and support, especially in the beginning of the course. (For more information about providing support, please see Provide Feedback and Support module)
• Incorporate the "human touch"
• Commend students privately by email
• Encourage students to create their own homepage, or post a short self-introduction to the discussion forum, or set up a “user profile”
• Encourage students to develop some social space by creating a group inside or outside of the course site
• Upload your picture and encourage students to upload their pictures to the CMS

Meet the instructor's page

From RUS 100, Summer 06

Instructor Photo

Galina Khmelkova

S408 Burrowes

Tel: 814-863-7486

Email: Use ANGEL mail system for course mail. I will respond to your emails within 24 hours

Office Hours: Mondays 2:00-4:00 pm and Thursdays 4:00-6:00 pm

I will be available by phone or in the ANGEL chat room at these times.

Zdravstvujte! Hello everyone!

Let me introduce myself. My name is Galina Andreevna Khmelkova. Don't be surprised by reading such a strange name. I am Russian and in Russia especially when we address a teacher, professor or elder person we don't know, we use this combination of the first name, patronymic and last name. The patronymic name is formed from the father's name with the help of suffixes. My patronymic name means that my father's name was Andrei.

I was born in Volgograd, the city, which played a very important role during WWII. At that time my city was called Stalingrad. Before the city got this name it was Tsaritsin. One can find the similarity with St. Petersburg, which also had different names: Petrograd, Leningrad and then the original name was returned.