The course overview includes the course feed and activities, the participants and the coursework. The course feed can be used by you, the instructor and the learners as a place where information can be shared and everyone can be kept in the loop for any news or updates before, during or after the course has finished.
We suggest that you send a welcome message in the course feed that includes a writing prompt that the learners can reply to. It will help establish the expectation that the message system will be used in a serious manner with complete sentences and proper grammar.