In our fast-paced world, keeping stakeholders up to date on important updates, current trends, and available technologies can be difficult. Even with the proper channels in place, capturing their attention can be even harder. Learn how to create an engaging, streamlined newsletter that focuses on key information without clogging email inboxes.
At the University of Central Florida’s Division of Digital Learning, active faculty and support staff are subscribed to several suggested and opt-in newsletters designed to inform, prepare, and update readers on the latest divisional news, LMS changes, and pedagogical strategies. However, up until 2021, one population of stakeholders was not captured in these existing newsletters. At UCF, faculty and staff can request empty LMS shells called “special programs” courses to deliver professional development, orientations, and other non-credit online courses. While some of these course creators are subscribed to other DDL newsletters, the majority of these course owners are not. In 2021, two members of the Instructional Development (iDev) team launched a newsletter designed to target those stakeholders. The purpose of this newsletter was to update these instructors on relevant LMS changes, semester-based reminders, and pedagogical best practices for special programs courses. To avoid sending another email that would end up in the stakeholders’ trash bin, statistics on newsletter frequency, topics, and length were gathered prior to the first issue.
Join this session to learn more about the steps involved in creating a newsletter that targets a specific need or gap in existing communication, from initial ideas to newsletter delivery.