How to Build Student Trust Early: 10 First-Week Teaching Strategies

Student trust starts forming before anyone submits an assignment.

It shows up in whether class begins on time, whether an online course feels inhabited, whether a question gets a real answer, and whether the syllabus sounds like an invitation or a warning label.

So how do instructors build student trust early?

Often, it's by making reliability visible. Preparation, presence, name recognition, access to help, and fair course design all give students evidence that they are in a class where asking questions and succeeding might actually be possible.

In the most recent episode of The What & Who of EDU, 11 educators share ten first-week teaching strategies that help make a course feel more human and navigable. None requires a personality transplant. Though, to be fair, one does involve three cases of Tootsie Pops.

1. Show Up To Class Ready

Trust can evaporate before the first slide appears. Dr Edward Lee, an Instructional Associate Professor and Director of Service Laboratories in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M knows the little things matter and arrives prepared and on time. He also creates unstructured space for questions and speaks honestly about moments when the material was difficult for him, too.

“Even just showing up to class late early in the semester can dissolve some of the trust students have in what the expectations are for them… I also talk about when I was a student trying to learn the material, how I didn’t have success the first time I encountered it, and how I had to find another approach that worked for me.”

Why it matters: Students are already being asked to meet deadlines and arrive prepared. Seeing the instructor meet those expectations turns preparation into evidence that respect runs both ways.

2. Be a Person, Not a Portal

An online course can feel like a very organized escape room. Tabs everywhere. Deadlines blinking. No obvious human being in sight. Betsy Langness, Psychology Department Head at Jefferson Community and Technical College, gets ahead of that uncertainty with a welcome video, clear expectations, and fast, supportive replies during the first few weeks.

“To build student trust, especially in an online class, I like to show up as a real person. In the first week, I post a welcome video. They need to know that I’m a real person, too, This is a two-way street, and we are working on this together.”

Jennifer Duncan, Associate Professor of English at Georgia State University's Perimeter College, keeps that presence going with weekly video check-ins.

“If they don't trust me to be someone who can listen because they don't see me as a person, then I'm not going to be able to teach them the content.”

Why it matters: Duncan connects instructor visibility directly to learning. Together, the welcome video and the weekly follow-through tell students there's a person behind the course — and that the person is still showing up after week one.

3. Humanise Yourself From Day One

Students do not need a professor’s complete origin story. They may benefit from one honest glimpse behind the professor voice. Marissa Dahari, M.Sc., Undergraduate Course Coordinator in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph, talks openly about her children, difficult weeks, and the ordinary complications of being human. She connects that openness to Living Pedagogy, an approach that reclaims the relational side of teaching.

“I am a human, I have a life outside of here, I can respect and honour that you do as well. And this is how I'd like us to relate, human to human. If I can say something to share my own vulnerability early on, I think… they respond to that in ways that surprise me still… if they are struggling… they're more willing to come to me and to share that.”

Why it matters: Appropriate vulnerability can lower the distance without lowering the standard. It tells students that they can communicate about what is happening before a difficult week becomes an academic emergency.

4. Learn Names Early

Names are small, but they are not trivial. Dr. Kendra Thomas, Associate Professor of Psychology at Hope College and author of The Developing Person Through the Life Span, know that few things say “I see you” faster than using a student’s name before they have decided they are invisible.

“Learn names quickly. It feels a little bit like a friendly flex to be able to use a student’s name very quickly in the semester, just affirming a comment they gave or when they walk into the room. Especially when it's very clear that you have a lot of students,” Kendra said.

Why it matters: A name interrupts anonymity in a place where students sometimes feel like they're just a number.

5. Let Them Bring Backup

Going to see a professor one-on-one can feel intimidating, especially for first-year students. Dr. Kevin Revell, who authored General Chemistry, Atoms to Reactions, teaches chemistry at Murray State University and serves as assistant dean for the Jones College of Science, Engineering, and Technology, takes the solo pressure off.

“You're welcome to grab two friends, come see me. Just schedule a time, bring a couple people, we'll work problems, it'll be low stress, we're all friends here, let's get this thing figured out.”

Why it matters: Asking for help alone can feel like admitting failure. Asking for help with two friends feels like a study session. Revell doesn't lower the stakes on the material, just the ask.

6. Put Help on the Calendar

Office hours have a branding problem. Too many students treat them like the glass box around a fire extinguisher: break only in case of emergency. Dr. Christin Monroe, an Educational Research Associate at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, makes the first office-hours visit a graded assignment.

“I always tell my students that deadlines are my kryptonite, but my superpower is problem-solving and fixing. So the sooner they can tell me information about something that might affect their academics, the more I'm… the more power I have to fix it.”

Why it matters: Requiring the first visit removes the social risk from seeking help. The student does not have to decide whether their problem is serious enough, introduce themselves during a crisis, or figure out the unwritten rules of office hours. The first conversation is already on the calendar.

7. Make Five Minutes Personal

A roster tells you who is enrolled. It does not tell you where home is, what someone loves, or what they hope to do next. Dr. David Myers, Professor of Psychology at Hope College and author of the world’s best-selling introductory psychology textbook, schedules a five-minute office conversation with every student at the beginning of the semester.

“On the very first day of the semester, I walk into the class and see 35 students who are strangers to me. I'll invite every one of them to sign up for a five-minute time the next day to speak to me in my office. I ask them: Where’s home for you? What drew you here to Hope College, where I am and where you are? What do you love? What are you dreaming about doing?”

Why it matters: The power is not only in what David learns. Every student has already entered his office once, answered a personal question, and heard that the door remains open. A future visit no longer has to begin with an introduction.

8. Make Authority Feel Human

A syllabus has a voice. Sometimes it says, “Welcome.” Sometimes it sounds like it is already disappointed in you. Dr. Daniel M. Look, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Mathematics at St. Lawrence University, helps students meet their professors as people before the rules arrive. He also invites students to catch his mistakes.

“Anytime I make a mistake, if a student calls it out, the student rolls a four-sided die .The benefit of this is that they're rewarded for calling out errors that I make… They're not going to be punished for correcting me. I'm not embarrassed if I make a mistake. It's part of the process. It's part of what happens.”

Why it matters: Daniel is lowering the distance from two directions. Students meet the person before they meet the authority, and then they see that authority can be corrected without collapsing. The four-sided die is memorable, but the deeper signal is that noticing an error is participation, not insubordination.

9. Use Play to Lower the Stakes

Low-stakes play can do serious work. Dr. Jennifer Ripley Stueckle, Teaching Professor and Non-Majors Biology Program Director at West Virginia University, introduces the scientific method with Tootsie Pops. Students form a hypothesis, define what counts as a lick, identify variables, and conduct an experiment with no point value attached.

“It’s a very simple, cheap experiment that I can do with any size class. It allows them to see that we’re gonna have a fun semester, we’re going to learn together, and it’s okay to be silly. Their professor is probably going to be one of the silliest, because I always participate as well.”

Why it matters: The candy makes the activity memorable, but the absence of points may be just as important. Students can participate, laugh, debate a variable, and watch the instructor commit to the activity without worrying that one awkward contribution will follow them into the gradebook.

10. Make Success Look Possible

Students do not need a course to look easy. They need it to look navigable. Dr. Ryan Herzog, Associate Professor of Economics, Program Coordinator, and Faculty Fellow at Gonzaga University, designs his courses so students can see a realistic path forward. He communicates expectations, starts deliberately, and welcomes respectful questions about grades and deadlines.

“I try as much as possible to design a class that students can look at and see that they should be and can be successful. I’m not there to weed out students or say we have to have a necessary curve in the grades. We start pretty slow, and I’m very open with them about my expectations.”

Why it matters: Ryan is not promising an easy course. He is making the course legible and allowing students to question decisions without treating the question as a challenge to his authority. That distinction lets rigor remain rigorous without making confusion part of the assessment.

Trust Is a Pile of Tiny Receipts

Trust is rarely built through one dazzling first-day performance.

It is a pile of tiny receipts, where you showed up ready, answered honestly, remembered a name, and made help easier to find. Sometimes you also bought three cases of Tootsie Pops.

The useful question may not be, “How do I make students trust me?” It may be, “What evidence does my course give them during the first week?”

For all of the tips, be sure to check out the whole podcast: 10 Ways to Build Student Trust Early On. No Trust Falls Required on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.