I will take the time when I respond by email and follow some of the writing strategies listed here. 

Creating a welcome video is a great start to a class -and one I will try next!

I will try to engage students more during lecture and also keep promoting an "open door policy" to reach out and communicate with me should there be confusion towards course material.

Tinto's module  has been in practice for many years and continues to be a module to review and learn from.  It makes sense to work to cultivate a relationship early on with students and find ways to offer an open door policy or open channels of communication.  In particular, being a new freshmen on a larger or busy campus can be overwhelming and intimidating.  

An online course should contain a myriad of different forms of assignments that allow for engagement and student submissions to differ and give opportunities to suit the personality types.  In particular, when submitting for presentations, allowing for differing forms of submission (e.g. PPT vs. recorded video, for example) can provide those options.

Instructors can present with a variety of different "colors" so to speak about their online teaching styles. 

The corresponding colors can help us to reframe how we perceive ourselves and our students.

I would like to have students complete one of the personality traits tests, most likely the Myers Briggs - they can learn about their personalities and share with others in the course. 

I will work to try and understand about the students and their learning styles, study habits and levels of procrastination.  We can do this via meetings or through an email discussion. 

Checking in with students throughout the course to garner their opinions towards their progress and the nature of the course.  Also, start each session with some "small talk," and open up the floor for students to share.