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Here are some resources for online icebreakers!
Virtual Icebreakers for K-12
10 Online Icebreakers

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This is a great resource for creating "Getting to Know You" activities in an online course!

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This is a great resource for creating "Getting to Know You" activities in an online course!

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Engaging the Online Learning: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction.  (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011)

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Dialogue and interaction with students is important because it helps to build relationships in addition to helping create a more accurate picture of both student and teacher.  Dialogue promotes feelings of familiarity and comfort within a class, providing an environment in which students are more likely to ask for help, to ask thought-provoking questions, and to add their opinions and thoughts to the course, thus enriching and expanding upon the content in ways that benefit all students. This model also enriches student engagement and, ultimately, retention of information. (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011) (Paloff & Pratt, 2005).

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Dialogue and interaction with students is important because it helps to build relationships in addition to helping create a more accurate picture of both student and teacher.  Dialogue promotes feelings of familiarity and comfort within a class, providing an environment in which students are more likely to ask for help, to ask thought-provoking questions, and to add their opinions and thoughts to the course, thus enriching and expanding upon the content in ways that benefit all students. This model also enriches student engagement and, ultimately, retention of information. (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011) (Paloff & Pratt, 2005).

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Description of Lesson: Fishbowl activities allow a student to practice a skill under peer review and audience. In the fishbowl activity, a group of students are chosen to discuss a given topic. The rest of the class watches, listens, or reads the transcript of the discussion. A secondary discussion occurs concerning the outcomes and process of the first. Another technique is to remove one student from a discussion who is then responsible for providing a summary.

Appropriate Content Areas: Useful in speech, political science, advertising, philosophy, and business, but really applicable to most areas. Less useful in procedural-centered courses.

Examples: The first examples are intended for face-to-face instruction, but could be modified for online. The final example includes a sample from an online classroom.
Generic Fishbowl Activity for the Science Classroom, (2004). Annie Chien, http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/genscience/Chien04.html
Student Fishbowl, EdChange Multicultural Pavilion, http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/activities/fishbowl.html
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Fishbowl section as presented in the Tomorrow's Professor Blog at http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/archives/2005/05/629_fishbowls.html#more
Goals & Objectives:
There can be several primary goals of a fishbowl activity. The goals can actually differ based upon whether the student is inside or outside of the fishbowl as well. The following suggestions are separated by the participant's duty.

During and after performing the Fishbowl activity, students will...

If in the fishbowl

demonstrate their knowledge of topic A...

provide a logical argument for a position concerning topic A...

If observing the fishbowl

evaluate the arguments presented by others...

reflect on new insights provided by the discussion.

Everyone

develop a higher awareness of the concept...

have an increased understanding of various viewpoints...

...as determined by successfully attending to 80% of rubric items.
Prerequisites:
The instructor usually decides on the topic. The instructor should provide some carefully constructed questions to help guide the discussion.

Students in the fishbowl must become well versed in the topic and able to discuss it intelligibly.
Materials and Resources:
The instructor provides instructions. Students in the fishbowl may require more active online access during the activity.
Guiding Questions for this Lesson:
How well can the student learn and subsequently discuss a given concept?
Lesson Outline and Procedure:
Students in the fishbowl discuss and possibly debate a point of information or topic currently being learned. Students observing the fishbowl provide feedback and personal observations.

1. First, the instructor introduces materials for the students to learn a given concept.

2. A group of students are then assigned the fishbowl role. These assignments can be made at the beginning of the term in order to facilitate student schedules during the course.

3. Those in the fishbowl then actively discuss the topic. This discussion can be purely informational or it could be in the form of a debate. The students could also be conducting group work while others watch. The bowl may also be synchronous or asynchronous or even both.

4. During the fishbowl discussion, the instructor may provide guiding questions. Only those in the fishbowl should respond or actively participate.

5. Following the fishbowl, the observers compose a constructive critique or summary of the discussion. These can be public or submitted directly to the instructor.

6. All students incorporate what they have learned during the activity into another activity such as a journal or module reflection.

7. The instructor may provide a final summary point for the discussion before beginning the next unit of activity.

Teaching Strategies:

Keep it constructive. Any student comments need to be constructive from the gallery in order to make those in the fishbowl comfortable.

Keep the topic interesting, to motivate some students to actively participate while being observed by others.

Students in the fishbowl must have the opportunity to share what they know.

Be careful of peripheral participation. Some students learn best in the observing role, but everyone must participate at some point in the actual fishbowl in order to demonstrate competence in action rather than just from an evaluative standpoint, although both are important.

Expect some students to get frustrated by this activity. For example, an observer may have what s/he believes to be an excellent point that everyone in the bowl is missing. It can be difficult for some students to keep that idea to themselves until after the activity without getting frustrated.

Allow the students to self-facilitate within the group or appoint a leader if the activity goals include being able to lead a discussion on the given topic.

One advantage of the fishbowl for online education comes when synchronous sessions are used. By limiting the active participants to those in the fishbowl, the online synchronous discussion does not become difficult to manage.

Accommodations:
What accommodations may be needed for students with disabilities or other special needs? In some cases, students with certain physical disabilities will simply not be capable of performing certain actions. Rather than marginalize, an online course can allow for accommodations such as alternative activities or the performance of activities with the help of a physical aid or human helper.
Timeline:
For those in the fishbowl, this can be an intensive activity requiring perhaps 5 hours in a given week. Those in the fishbowl need to be online every day that they are actually assigned to be in the fishbowl. The observers can come in at the end and observe the entire discussion in under an hour often. A typical activity will run one week. There are also options for performing the fishbowl in a synchronous setting, but there will still be about 5 hours for the fishbowl members since they will be required to more carefully read materials under discussion. The timeline may also change depending on whether students have advanced knowledge of the fishbowl activity and their role.
Ideas for Lesson Evaluation and Teacher Reflection:
How did the students like the lesson? End of semester evaluations should ask about the usefulness and learning accomplished through such activities.

How was student learning verified? The instructor can directly observe the activities of the group in the fishbowl. Observers can be assessed based on summaries or other activities concerning their experiences. Observers can also be used to assess the performance of the students in the fishbowl.

Back to index

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Description of Lesson: Fishbowl activities allow a student to practice a skill under peer review and audience. In the fishbowl activity, a group of students are chosen to discuss a given topic. The rest of the class watches, listens, or reads the transcript of the discussion.

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After you've finalized your syllabus, uploaded course information for the next term, and received your student roster, "what might still be missing?" This question begins educator Kelley Clark's recent article titled " Five Practices for Building Positive Relationships with Students" for Education Week Teacher. Her answer? "A strong positive relationship with your students, the kind of connection that makes them want to go above and beyond in your class."

Clark's focus is on best practices for K-12 classroom teachers, but this step is equally important at all levels of education. As we quickly approach the next academic term, there are key components of the title that helped me frame the tips that follow, with online higher education in mind:

Build is an action verb. The relationships, especially the positive ones, don't just happen.

Positive approaches focus on providing support and encouragement to the learners in your online classroom.

Relationship indicates a personal connection and interaction among students and between students and instructor.

Online means we have to accomplish all of this with the aid of technology, and often in asynchronous ways.

What do you need to do to build positive relationships in your classes? Here are a few suggestions designed to help you connect with your online students.

1. "Actually use the information you receive" from your students. Clark recommends creating a "first-day student survey" that includes questions such as "do you like to study alone or with a partner?" An online survey is a great idea, but most of us already ask students to post some kind of an introduction during the first week of class. What if you tweaked the introduction assignment to include a few questions that would not only help students get to know each other, but also make it easier for you to organize groups later in the course? Ask students to identify when they study, their geographic locations and time zones, and preferences for the use of technology.

2. Develop your presence in the course. How are your students getting to know you? Providing a clear and thorough bio is an effective way to introduce yourself to the members of your class and tell them more about your experience and academic areas of interest. Consider going beyond the typical text and photo introduction to include audio and/or video. Washington State University's Distance Degree Programs office produces recorded "course previews and faculty bios" and is an example of the possibilities.

3. Be an active course participant. Think about how and where you can interact with individual students and the class as a whole within the course site, to make connections and build working relationships. From your participation in discussion forums to posting announcements and providing feedback on assignments, develop your role as a member of the class who is engaged with others in the learning experience. Howard Rheingold writes about the positive results of becoming a "co-learner" with his students and demonstrating that he is "attuned to learning from them while they are learning from [him]." Being present and active in your course also allows you to model the kinds of polite and respectful interaction you are expecting from your students.

4. "Give students permission to communicate directly with you." This advice is from educator John Savery whose VOCAL* approach to online teaching [PDF] includes the C for Compassionate. He reminds us that "many adults choose an online format because of the conditions they face in the real world," such as work and family obligations. Your communication frequency and tone can go a long way in creating a place where everyone feels comfortable enough to engage in conversations, discuss issues that are causing problems, and ask questions when they have them. (* Visible, Organized, Compassionate, Analytical, and a Leader-by-example)

5. Know the capabilities of the communication tools available to you. We tend to lean on the things we are most familiar with, whether it's email, class announcements, or even text messaging. Learning Management Systems (LMS) offer a full range of options for connecting with your students to provide feedback on assignments, as well as updates on schedule changes. Where (virtually) are your students spending time in the course and how are they using other technologies? Consider conducting your own trial with a new-to-you social media platform or LMS feature that you haven't used before. Check with your institution's faculty development group for more ideas and training on school-sponsored systems. They may also have guidance on institutional policies about how various technologies are used in class.

There's no denying the power of a strong student-instructor relationship. Taking advantage of opportunities for interaction requires a commitment of both time and effort for instructors and students alike. But purposeful participation that is encouraged from the first day of the term can alleviate concerns and promote communication that makes a positive difference in the learning process.

What's your favorite way to kick-off a new online class? What do you consider the most important relationship-building task in online learning? Share your tips and activity suggestions with us here.

Join Melissa Venable on Twitter and Google+
Image credit: Ryan Tir, Flickr, CC-BY

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5 Ways to Build Positive Relationships with Your Online Students - OnlineCollege.org

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After you've finalized your syllabus, uploaded course information for the next term, and received your student roster, "what might still be missing?" This question begins educator Kelley Clark's recent article titled "Five Practices for Building Positive Relationships with Students" for Education Week Teacher. Her answer?

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Further Reading

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References                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Picciano, A. G. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of interaction, presence, and performance in an online course. Journal of              Asynchronous learning networks, 6(1), 21-40.                                                                                                                                                                             Sher, A. (2009). Assessing the relationship of student-instructor and student-student interaction to student learning and satisfaction in web-based online learning environment. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8(2), 102-120.                                                                                        So, H. J., & Brush, T. A. (2008). Student perceptions of collaborative learning, social presence and satisfaction in a blended learning environment: Relationships and critical factors. Computers & Education, 51(1), 318-336.

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References                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Picciano, A. G. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of interaction, presence, and performance in an online course. Journal of              Asynchronous learning networks, 6(1), 21-40.                                                                                                                                                                             Sher, A. (2009). Assessing the relationship of student-instructor and student-student interaction to student learning and satisfaction in web-based online learning environment. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8(2), 102-120.                                                                                        So, H. J., & Brush, T. A. (2008). Student perceptions of collaborative learning, social presence and satisfaction in a blended learning environment: Relationships and critical factors. Computers & Education, 51(1), 318-336.

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 Student relationships are important  because the feeling of connectedness to others in the class helps impact individual student motivation to engage in activities. (So & Brush, 2008)                                                                                       Both student-student and student-instructor interactions are significant contributors to the level of student learning and satisfaction in a technology-mediated environment. (Sher, 2009)                                                                     Research indicates a positive relationship between student perceptions of their interaction in the course and their perceptions of the quality and quantity of their learning. (Picciano, 2002)

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 Student relationships are important  because the feeling of connectedness to others in the class helps impact individual student motivation to engage in activities. (So & Brush, 2008)                                                                                       Both student-student and student-instructor interactions are significant contributors to the level of student learning and satisfaction in a technology-mediated environment. (Sher, 2009)                                                                     Research indicates a positive relationship between student perceptions of their interaction in the course and their perceptions of the quality and quantity of their learning. (Picciano, 2002)

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Relationships are necessary because it helps create a sense of comfort amongst participants. This comfort could lead to more engagement and learning. Many learning theories emphasize the importance of socialization or interaction to guide the learning process (Social Development Theory, Constructivism). In online classes, interaction can be difficult and learners can become disengaged with the curriculum.

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Relationships are necessary because it helps create a sense of comfort amongst participants. This comfort could lead to more engagement and learning. Many learning theories emphasize the importance of socialization or interaction to guide the learning process (Social Development Theory, Constructivism). In online classes, interaction can be difficult and learners can become disengaged with the curriculum.

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Why are relationships necessary?         

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Why are relationships necessary?         