Hello and welcome to our class.

I’m Robb Lightfoot, and I’ve been a communications instructor for, good grief, 40 years. Sounds incredible. And in that time, I have met some wonderful people. And I’m looking forward to getting to know you all.

I’d like to talk a little bit about what you can expect in class and four particular things.

First of all, I want to make it very clear. I know that many of you are anxious or maybe really stressed out about taking a communications class, and I understand. We go to great lengths to make you feel welcome and to take the stakes and the assignments down, and to make sure we have a supportive environment that doesn’t tolerate ridicule.

So you’re going to build a community.

You’re going to get to know your classmates.

We’re going to do get acquainted activities.

You may have a group assignment here or there, but basically you’re going to be part of a team that is pulling for you. Okay? Think that’s really important to know. And we’ll you’ll see how that’s going to play out as the assignments come forward.

So that’s the first thing.

The second thing is I want to talk about my grading philosophy. And basically I like to be transparent. I like to be positive. And I do not grade in a curve. Now I know that this is still that happens out there, but I remember my science classes. I was in a class of 80 people chemistry one day, and the instructor announced on the first day that that also was his grading philosophy. So immediately everyone in the class were rivals. We don’t do that here. If you find someone sitting next to you or on the screen next to you that is doing really well, they’re a resource. They’re someone you can ask, of course you can ask me, and I am here to help.

But your classmates can be your allies, and I want that to be something that’s very, very clear.

Another thing in the same vein, trying to keep stress down is the third point. Because I don’t believe in timed tests or having things that suddenly pop up should you have to deal with. So I try to have a schedule. It’s clear when things are due and what’s expected, rubrics are laid out. You do these things and you’re going to get a good grade because since I don’t grade in a curve, I hope everyone gets a good grade. I have no problems with that, and I’m here to work towards that end.

So those are three things that I want to point out and that, I think will make this class a more convivial environment for you.

The last thing I want to address is that we have in our department a zero textbook approach, zero cost textbook. So there’ll be resources you’ll be expected to read and know and be quizzed on, but they should be free to you. And, there’ll be videos and whatnot.

And to that end I also realize that sometimes there can be unanticipated costs. If you suddenly find that your assignments are eating up a lot of your bandwidth. So I do use a lot of video in class. I think it’s important to do that. But also, if that becomes a problem, talk to me about it and we’ll see if we can find a way for you to have access to the materials without it swamping your cell phone plan.

So those are some of the initial things I’d like to talk about.

Hopefully, if you have questions you feel comfortable asking me, there’s lots of ways of getting a hold of me. They’re laid out all over the website here.

But more than anything, I want to welcome you and let you know you’re in a place that is determined to be in your corner, to have fun, and to help you succeed. So stick around. I think you’re going to find this to be a very convivial environment, and you’ll learn things that will help you for the rest of your life.

Welcome aboard!