Writing a welcome email
Use Case
Revising a text is sometimes easier than writing one from scratch: the educator receives three versions of a welcome message, which invite selection and adaptation rather than straight adoption. To get there, they specify the content, how they see their own role, dates and forms of address; anything missing is asked for first. Note: Adapt the wording to your own style. Do not enter any personal data in the prompt.
Example Prompt
In the coming semester, I am teaching a course titled “Theories of Motivation” at the University of Hamburg. My participants are third-semester bachelor’s students in psychology. I would like to send my students a message before the start of the course so that they feel welcome. The subject line of this message should be appealing and should clearly relate to the course at first glance.
The message should include the following content:
- Express my enthusiasm for our upcoming course together
- Some notes on how I see my role in the course. I see myself as a moderator of the learning process, not as a classic “lecturer” who just explains content.
- Students will have many opportunities to shape their own learning process. However, this also means that they must take responsibility for their learning and be able to tolerate some uncertainty. I will be there to support them.
- A question about participants’ prior knowledge regarding technology and their technical equipment, with a link to a questionnaire (www.questionnaire.de)
- Important access data for our shared learning platform (www.learningplatform.de)
- Date, time, and place of the first meeting: 01/01/2025, 10:15 am, Sofa-Weg 1
- As a final and very important point: an invitation to contact me in advance if participants have special needs that I should take into account when designing the course
I would like you to support me in writing this message. Please first check whether you have all the information necessary to write the message. If anything is missing, please ask me for it first.
Once I have given you this information, please write 3 versions of the message. This will allow me to choose the one that fits best.
Please note that I address my students formally: I use “Dear …” as a greeting and “Best regards,” as a closing. I do not want to include my name here yet; I will add it myself later.