Welcoming Our Students

As Flower Darby describes in Small Teaching Online, imagine a student showing up to the first day of class only to find the classroom door locked and the lights off.  And then imagine the student finding a pile of paper by the classroom door, only to realize that it's the syllabus for the class.  What might that student feel?  What questions would that student have?  Would that student even attempt to complete the class?

This is what it can feel like to students who are working in an online environment.  They may know that their class is on Canvas or Zoom, but they may not be able to log in.  And if they log in, they might find that there's nothing in the class except the syllabus.  And that's it.  We should ask the same questions.  What might that student feel?  What questions would that student have?  Would that student even attempt to complete the class?