Icebreakers

Icebreaker concept: Though the above icebreaker may provide insight into what a student’s reality looks like beyond academia, it’s hard to tell where students are in the country—or the world. Providing students with the opportunity to discuss their geographic background leads to a more humanizing educational experience. It can also provide a way for students to learn who’s in close proximity, making this an ideal icebreaker for international students. 

https://tophat.com/blog/classroom-icebreakers/

Present students with a choice between ‘this or that.’ Topics should be relatively light, such as whether they prefer dogs or cats (though you could also tie this back to course material). Students move to the side of the room that reflects their choice. After a few minutes, encourage one or two members in each group to defend their position among a new group of students. Ask students to repeat this process for several rounds to help familiarize themselves with various viewpoints. Similar to would you rather, this or that is ideal for small or large groups, spurs conversations and makes connections.

https://tophat.com/blog/classroom-icebreakers/

Regardless of class size, this icebreaker question provides students and faculty with humanizing online learning. Have students take a picture of something salient that’s in front of their workspace. Perhaps it’s a wall of photos with their closest friends or their pet that keeps them company during online courses. To keep this icebreaker equitable and ensure that all students are comfortable participating regardless of their living arrangements, an alternative is to ask students to share a photo of their choice and describe the significance behind it.

This virtual icebreaker works well in either synchronous or asynchronous learning environments. If you run asynchronous classes, consider opening a new discussion forum dedicated to this exercise in your LMS.

Students may be split in smaller groups to ensure everyone feels comfortable participating. From here, students can upload imagery at their leisure to their assigned group in the LMS if they feel inclined to do so. Viewing all media at a glance can help strengthen peer-to-peer interactions should students choose to start threads and comment on their peers’ media.

https://tophat.com/blog/classroom-icebreakers/

The path that students have chosen for themselves now may not have been their desired journey when they were young. In this virtual icebreaker, students share what they envisioned themselves as when they grew up, and whether that is still the answer in university. Some interesting patterns may arise should students say they wanted to follow a STEM-related profession when they are now in the humanities—or vice versa. This exercise allows students to reflect on their academic and career trajectories thus far, and helps students compare and contrast their aspirations with their classmates.

This activity works well in either large or small remote teams.

Set up two word answer questions in advance of your synchronous class. Your first icebreaker question may be as simple as “what did you want to be when you grew up?” Have students respond and show the results as a word cloud. Your second question may read “what career do you picture yourself having now?” Again, show the results as a word cloud. The larger the word, the more students responded in that particular way.

Next, open the floor for discussion, where students can ‘raise their hands’ to discuss their previous hopes versus their current ambitions. As an asynchronous alternative, consider embedding the above questions in a homework assignment that students complete before class begins. You can then compare answers at the start of your next class, or post an image of the word cloud in your LMS or active learning platform if you’re teaching solely asynchronously. This helps strengthen a sense of community among your students, who may be on a completely different path than they thought.

https://tophat.com/blog/classroom-icebreakers/

The aim is to learn information about other people. Hence, this activity can be either a great icebreaker or a way for people within an established team to know each other better and communicate.

Instructions

• Split your participants into groups of 3 or more and allocate them to breakout rooms.

• Ask each group to write down all the interesting things they all have in common (ask them to avoid obvious things, such as all being men or women) and something unique to each participant. They will have 5 minutes for this task.

• At the end of the 5 minutes, ask each group to share their list with the rest of the class via an online whiteboard.

Online tools you can use

• Breakout rooms

• Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Google Jam Board

https://symondsresearch.com/icebreakers-for-online-teaching/

This game is good as a warm-up, for participants to familiarize themselves and think creatively. Participants can discuss together or be separated into breakout rooms depending on the number of participants.

Instructions

1. Explain to the participants to imagine they have just won the lottery. They have won 25 million Euros, GBP, dollars or any big amount in the local currency of the country they are in.

2. Give participants 5 minutes to list all the things they would do with the money. There is no limit to the number of things they can put down, as long as they can write them within 5 minutes.

3. After 5 minutes, ask everyone to talk about their list and discuss.

4. If you wish, you can then sort the items on the lists into logical groups that you will find naturally evolve according to:

   • Material items

   • Friends and family

   • Travel and luxury

   • Some other categories may also emerge

5. Allow 5 minutes for the group to discuss the list. This normally will occur easily.

Online tools you can use

• Breakout rooms

• Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Google Jam Board

https://symondsresearch.com/icebreakers-for-online-teaching/