"Redesigning the entry experience"

Redesigning the entry experience is about providing an inviting experience for clients entering a physical setting. http://www.freshtilledsoil.com/redesigning-the-entry-experience/ Can we apply this kind of design thinking to our students'entry experience into our online courses? Do our students find our course site "friendly, inviting and welcoming"? Or do our students experience the "deer in the headlights" sensation that Jeremy Sabath describes in his piece? I wonder if thinking about the "course" as an architectural space would be useful....