Break the ice in online courses on e-learning platforms
Hasn’t it happened to you on several occasions that you arrive at a place where you are all new and you have to introduce yourself? If a standard presentation round is done, it usually happens that you are somewhat anxious about saying your name and that causes you not to hear the names of others. Additionally, many people are uncomfortable being in environments with unknown people, while other people feel comfortable striking up conversations with people they have just met. To encourage both types of people to start talking, games known as icebreakers are often used. Don’t you know what they are? Keep reading!
Discover what icebreakers are and apply them to online training
Icebreakers are exercises that are used to break the ice, as the name suggests. Additionally, they may have another intention, such as increasing the energy level of the study group, which is why they are sometimes called energizers. On the Internet,t you will have the opportunity to find a series of proposals for these icebreakers that will help you. The first thing you should do is locate the objective you want to achieve. Some of them may be:
- Improve work methodologies between different team members.
- Find ideas for a specific issue.
- They mainly make it easier for group participants who meet for the first time to get to know each other and feel comfortable interacting.
- It allows for increasing work energy within the group. If you are running a large online class, we recommend using icebreakers to re-ignite participants’ interest.
Depending on the goals you want to achieve, you can use some icebreakers or others. Icebreakers are usually used in face-to-face meetings, but we want to encourage you to apply them to your online courses. Keep in mind that, in distance learning, the participants are not face to face, that is, they do not have eye contact nor can they interact through gestures, so sometimes it is somewhat difficult to establish a relationship between the components of the group.
As a trainer, you must act as a leader among the group of students in your module. You must modulate the rhythm of the interventions and encourage students to participate and ask questions, since, in this way, the rest of the members will also loosen up and resolve in advance possible questions they may have had. Likewise, it will help them think more about the material that is being explained.
What characteristics should a good icebreaker have? With time and experiments you will find the most effective icebreaker for your online classes, but, until you find it, we want to give you some advice about what your icebreaker can be, to avoid possible mistakes. Your icebreaker should be :
- Short: it is preferable that it does not last longer than fifteen minutes.
- Original: We recommend that you think of a good icebreaker, to avoid students having already done it in other courses. Ideate your own.
- Interesting: it has to be a fun and interesting activity so that your students are active.
- Already tested: you must have previously tested the effectiveness of your icebreaker.
