You've made it to the first week of the semester - congratulations!

In our recent Faculty Roundtable on Engaging Design for Equitable Teaching, SSU Biology faculty member Tess Killpack spoke about the importance of building trust and making connections in the first days of the semester - and the way she uses a student survey to do so. Screenshot of first several questions on Tess Killpack's student survey

If you'd like to use her approach as a model, you can see her slides or read her publication on how she uses the info sheets all semester long. You can also use this link to create an editable template of her questions (link will prompt you to sign in to Google and make a copy - you can use your SSU email to log in). Learn more about your options for making digital surveys at our page Surveys: Gathering student feedback.

Icebreakers can also help students connect with each other, with you (their instructor), and the course itself. Here are some digital strategies to help students make these connections - good for synchronous or asynchronous courses.

Why do these activities? There's decades of research on the "why" of some of these early-semester activities, and how they can help close student opportunity gaps. Michelle Pacansky-Brock (whose suggested survey questions are below) reminds us that the phenomena Getting to know you survey suggested questions: name pronunciation, pronouns, in one word describe how you are feeling about this class, please share one thing that may interfere with your success in this class. of "stereotype threat, imposter syndrome, and belongingness uncertainty" affect us all, but, "disproportionately impact the students students from non-dominant groups (Black, Latinx, Indigenous, other students of color; LGBTQIA students; poor students; women in STEM; older students; students with disabilities; students who speak English as a 2nd/3rd language)."

She points out that these small "kindness cues" help relieve anxiety and prepare students to learn, comparing them to "marbles in a jar" that accumulate slowly over time.

marbles in a jar For more on her work, I encourage you to check out her Webinar or slides on "Identifying your High Opportunity Students", (which includes the slide at the right) and her archive of materials from a course on humanized online teaching.