Early Engagement & Icebreakers

Learning is, to a large extent, a social endeavor. Helping students get to know each other—and you—as quickly as possible smooths the way for those critical social processes. We are focusing on virtual methods to support online and hybrid courses, but they all can be used for, if they didn’t originate in, the traditional classroom.

Activities

Who? Where? Why?

Let’s start with a classic: ask students to share, in some way, who they are, where they are, and why they are interested in the class. For the traditional classroom, you can change the “where they are” to something about where they are from.

Some ways to supplement or enhance this approach:

• Before sharing, have students watch Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” TEDx talk.
• Use Google Maps for location sharing.
• Integrate video for one or more of the prompts.
• For synchronous sessions, use the “popcorn” technique, in which the student sharing selects the next up.

Course Reflection

Ask students to share a reflection about the course topic or content such as:

• Political science: what was the first time you formed a political opinion?
• Creative writing: what was the first poem (or short story, etc.) that was so good you had to share it with someone else?
• Math: when was the last time you used geometry in your life outside of class?

Story of My Name

Have each student share the story of their name: where does it come from? Why was it chosen? Does it have a particular meaning? Have they met others with their name?

What Do We Have in Common

Divide students into small groups (no more than 3-4) and have them find three things they all have in common. A fun alternative is to task the groups with finding their least common commonality. Either way, having the groups then share their commonalities with the rest of the class helps weave the entire class together.

Make a Menu

A variation on the previous theme: divide students into groups of 4-6 and have them come up with a dinner menu that they can all agree on including at least one drink, appetizer, main course, and dessert.

Introduce Each Other

Divide students into groups of two or more, give them time to prepare for introducing one another, and then have each of them introduce someone else to the class. Pairs well with “What Do We Have in Common.”

Interview and Introduce

A slightly more elaborate version of the previous exercise: provide students with an interview worksheet, have them interview another student, and then introduce them to the rest of the class.

Would You Rather?

The old party game “Would You Rather” is an entertaining way to help students become more familiar and comfortable with each other. Instructors can prepare questions ahead of time using any of a plethora of lists and prompt generators, or have students brainstorm the pool of questions themselves.

Impromptu Networking

Impromptu Networking focuses on dividing students into pairs, having them answer two critical questions, “What big challenge do you bring to this gathering? What do you hope to get from and give this group or community,” and then dividing into new pairs and repeating the process.  Though obviously geared toward synchronous interactions, this method can be used with asynchronous discussions, possibly using the video tool to with a time limit.

Resources

Icebreakers

• 24 Virtual Icebreakers
• 10 Online Icebreakers
• Icebreakers for Online Classes

Tools for Facilitating Icebreaker Activities

• Kahoot
• Mentimeter
• Poll Everywhere

Teaching Tip by Chris Lott <clott@uw.edu> | 12/22/22 | Photo by javier trueba