The Instructor Introduction

What is an Instructor Introduction and Why is it Important?

An instructor introduction is a great way to introduce yourself, your online persona, and share your teaching philosophy with your students. Due to less weekly personal contact with students than a weekly face-to-face course, it is important for instructors to "humanize" the online environment and more importantly begin to create an online presence in their course. Without such a presence, students may feel abandoned or lost or maybe even feel that the instructor does not care about them or even feel like teaching the course. A class that showcases the instructor's personality also makes the content relevant and improves student motivation.

Intro Types of Instructor Introductions

There are three types of instructor introductions that we recommend for digital learning courses. 

  1. Written Introductions: A written introduction is a good place to start whether you plan to create a written, video, or audio course or instructor introduction since this may serve as the basis for a video or audio script. 
  2. Video Introductions: Some instructors prefer to create a video or audio introduction to help portray their personality or engage their students. If you choose to create a video introduction, you should always start by creating a script. This will help you organize your thoughts and make the production process more efficient. To address accessibility, the script may be used to create closed captions for the video, or it can be used to provide transcripts for the audio portion.
  3. Audio Introduction: An audio introduction is an alternative to a written or video introduction.  Begin by writing a script to follow as you record the introduction. You can then post the script along with the audio recording to address any accessibility issues.

Note about including Images: It would be helpful to add a photo of yourself, but if you choose not to share a photo of yourself, consider using an avatar. Note that it's up to you how much you want to reveal to your students, and the students also choose how much to show of themselves. Developing an online persona helps the instructor guide students through the course materials and assignments. 

Try This Samples available.

Review the Samples: Instructor Introduction page to see how other instructors introduce themselves to their students.