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What do you understand by the term ethics 

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What do you understand by the term ethics 

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by having non-academic sessions or events for students to get to know each other better like weekly sessions.

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Originally found by Sarah Abbey and shared on Workplace

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Symonds Research Training Course Materials

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Page Updated on September 13, 2021

Here are 21 free to use icebreakers for online teaching that you can use. Icebreakers are an important part of any training program, as they encourage people to participate from the start of a session, to get to know each other and to feel comfortable working with others.

How do you run icebreakers for online sessions though? We have written a separate post on 'How to run group activities in virtual classrooms for your students here. 🙂

There are many icebreakers you can do in face-to-face training sessions and some of them are classics that corporate trainers all over the world have been using for quite a while.

In this guide, we have put together some icebreakers specifically designed to be done online and others that are normally done in traditional classrooms and we explain how to adapt them for the online environment.

1. 'Two Truths and a Lie' Icebreaker

This is a classic icebreaker, which can be adapted to an online class.

Instructions

1. Ask one participant to write three statements about themselves: 2 true and 1 false.

2. Ask the other participants to vote on which statements are true and which is false.

3. After the first person has shared their statement and the group has decided which statement is false, the first person will reveal which statements were true and which one was false.

4. Move on until each person in the group has shared their statements.

5. The person who manages to correctly guess the most lies wins. Alternatively, you can play this game in a non-competitive way just for participants to get to know each other.

This is intended as a fun icebreaker so it's a nice activity for very early in any training or teaching.

Online tools you can use

2. Table Topics

Table topics are a set of cards, which you can find for sale online, on sites such as Amazon. Each card has a question on it to start a conversation and every pack of cards contains just over one hundred questions.

They are a great way to start a conversation for participants to get to know each other or to start a discussion on a specific topic. You can choose questions pertinent to the topic of your workshop

Instructions

You can type some of the questions from the card on a chat board and ask participants to write down their thoughts.

Alternatively, you could separate the participants into breakout rooms and assign each group one or two questions so that each person in the group can answer.

Some examples of questions include:

Is there such a thing as perfect?

Where would you most like to go and why?

Who's the funniest person you know?

Would you rather live for a week in the past or the future?

What is the meaning of 'peace' to you?

Who do you trust and why?

How would you describe your future in three words?

If you can go back in time to your 15-year-old self, what advice would you give your 15-year-old self?

What is your definition of being wealthy and why?

What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?

Online tools you can use

Breakout rooms (which are available in many web conferencing platforms, such as Zoom).

Online whiteboards and chats.

3. 'Three Words' Ice Breaker

This is a good warm-up activity and it can also be useful to discuss the importance of adapting to changing situations and thinking on one's feet.

Instructions

1. Ask participants to agree on a random topic. It can be anything from food to dogs, to rugby.

2. Explain that each person should contribute with three words to the story (and three words only at a time) and they will take turns to contribute.

3. Encourage the participants to say the first three words that come to their mind. It does not matter if they make sense or not.

4. Try to move from one person to the other quickly.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.

4. 'Same and Different' Team Building Game

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

Online tools you can use

Breakout rooms

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.

5. 'Big Lottery Win' Warm-Up Activity

This game is good as a warm-up, for participants to familiarize with each other and also to 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 that 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 are up, ask everyone to talk about their list and discuss.

4. If you wish to, 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

5. Some other categories may also emerge

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

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.

6. 'Storytelling' Icebreaker | Team-Building Activity

Because of the creative and cooperative nature of this game, it is a good activity to use either as an icebreaker or as a team-building activity. It can also be useful for a training session on creativity.

Instructions

1. In advance of the training session, prepare some documents or boards (you can use MS Word or create boards with an image manipulation program) with a set of 4 pictures on each.

2. On the training day, separate the participants into groups of 4 people in breakout rooms and assign each group one of the files with the photos.

3. Give the groups 10 minutes to look at the photos and to create their narrative that creates a story that connects the four images.

4. When the 10 minutes are up, ask each group to share their story onto a virtual board and to spend up to three minutes to tell the story of their images. Allow other groups to then suggest how they might have developed the story and if they would have used the images differently.

Online tools you can use

Breakout rooms

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.

7. 'Introducing Each Other' - Ice Breaker

This is a good activity to get participants to get to know each other, so that they find themselves in a familiar environment.

Participants can do this activity either before the session, in their own time, or during the session.

Instructions

1. Pair up participants in twos.

2. Give them a list of questions to ask each other.

3. Ask each pair to interview each other, either via email or in breakout rooms.

4. When all the participants convene together in the same virtual room, each participant will introduce the participant they interviewed.

Online tools you can use

8. 'Hope and Fears' Icebreaker

This is a classic icebreaker, which is good as a reflection tool or to assess what the participants' expectations are from the training.

Instructions

1. Ask participants to write down their greatest hope (for example, for the session, for the current year or for a specific project) and then their greatest fear.

2. In a face-to-face class, the participants differentiate the answers by, for example, writing each answer on a sticky note of a different color.
Online, you need to find another way to differentiate them. For example, you could use Padlet or Lino, which allow you to create virtual sticky notes of various colors.

3. Read all the hopes first and then the fears and discuss.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.

9. 'Childhood Dream' Ice-breaker

This icebreaker is useful to start a discussion on how priorities and goals can change throughout a person's life.

Instructions:

Online tools you can use:

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.

10. 'Take a Picture of Something' Class Acitivity

This is a fun activity, which is good to get people to know each other using visuals and creativity.

Instructions

1. Ask participants to take a picture of something.
Typically, you choose a specific theme. For example, ask participants to take a picture of their shoes, or a picture of something that is on their workstation or the view outside their window.
Remember to ask participants to take the picture and upload it before the training session starts, as otherwise it might take too much time out of the training session if they were to do it in real time.

2. Ask participants to share the picture on a virtual board.

3. Start a discussion. For example, you could ask why they chose that particular item on their desk, or what they like the most about the view they can see from the window etc.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

11. 'Asking Questions' Icebreaker

This is a good way for participants to get to know each other in a relaxed manner.

Remember to ask questions that are light-hearted though, as you want to start on a positive note.

Instructions

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

Tools that allow you to create a survey, such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms or a wiki, such as Slimiwiki.

12. 'Show a Map' Fun Teaching Activity

This is a good activity if your participants are located in many different geographical locations.

Instructions

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

Tools that allow you to create a survey, such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms or a wiki, such as Slimiwiki.

13. 'Lost in Space' Online Training Activity

This is a good activity to get to know participants in a way other than just asking the usual questions.

Instructions

1. Ask the participants to imagine that they are living in a space station. All of a sudden, the space station malfunctions and they have to evacuate. They are only allowed to take 5 items with them. Which items would they choose?

2. Ask participants to share their answers in the chatbox, explaining why they chose those five items.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

Tools that allow you to create a survey, such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms or a wiki, such as Slimiwiki.

14. One Word (or One Image) Activity

This is another activity suitable for participants to share information about themselves creatively.

Instructions

Ask participants to choose one word that best describes them or their life and to explain why.
Alternatively, you can ask them to choose an image (they can download it from the Internet or take a picture with their smartphone, for example).

Ask them to share their answers via the chat feature or on a virtual whiteboard.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

Tools that allow you to create a survey, such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms or a wiki, such as Slimiwiki.

15. 'One Random Object' Virtual Training Activity

This icebreaker is a fun game, aimed at making participants feel relaxed and creating a sense of community. You could also use it as an energizer, if needed, when you sense that your participants are losing focus.

Instructions

1. Ask a participant to pick one random object that is in their room and not tell anyone what it is.

2. Explain that the other participants will have to guess what it is, by asking questions that require a yes or no answer.

Online tools you can use

You could use a chat board for this, but it is not necessary. You could just run the activity by speaking and maybe use a virtual board to record the scores. You can also, if you wish to, make it a competition, whereby the participant who correctly guesses the most objects wins.

16. 'Accomplished Goals' Online Group Activity

This is a good activity to focus on positive things (i.e. people's achievements). It is also a networking tool, as participants could be interested in achieving the same goal that another person in the group has achieved and whom they might ask for advice from.

Instructions:

Online tools you can use:

You could use a chat board for this, but it is not necessary. You could just run the activity by speaking and maybe use a virtual board to summarize the discussion at the end and highlight what can be learnt from each person's experience.

17. 'Describe Yourself in a Tweet' Activity

This activity is different from the traditional introduce yourself type activities, in that it has an additional challenge. That is, participants have to manage to communicate as effectively as they can, using a very limited number of characters.

There is a limitation to this activity though, as participants will need to have a Twitter account and not worry about their tweet being seen by everyone as tweets are public (direct messages used to be limited to 140 characters but, in 2015, the limit was extended to 10,000 characters).

Instructions

1. Ask participants to describe themselves in a tweet.

2. You could do this activity before the training session and then take screenshots of the Tweets to show during the online class.

Online tools you can use

Twitter social media account for you and the participants.

18. 'Bingo' Icebreaker

This is a classic icebreaker that can be adapted for online teaching.

In a traditional face-to-face session, you would prepare a table with a series of interesting facts and then give each participant a copy of the sheet so they can move around the room trying to find somebody to whom that fact applies.

Instructions

1. To run the activity online, create a 5 by 5 table with interesting facts, one for each box of the table. For example, you could write things such as: speaks more than two languages, has been to Argentina etc. Or, it would be a good idea to tie the facts with the topic of the class.

2. Share the file with the table with your participants, either in advance or during the session. You can share by email, through the file-sharing feature of the web conferencing system or with an online sharing tool such as Google docs, Dropbox or Evernote. Alternatively, you could do the activity in real-time using a tool such as Padlet or Lino.

3. Ask participants to write their name under each of the statements that apply to them.

4. Ask participants to share the answers and discuss.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

Tools that allow you to create a survey, such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms or a wiki, such as Slimiwiki.

Email

19. 'Interests and Hobbies' Activity Online

This activity helps participants to get to know each other but with an element of fun.

Instructions

Ask participants to post three links that reflect their hobbies.

The other participants have to guess what their hobbies are.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

20. 'Time Machine' Virtual Training Activity

This activity is suitable for those who like history and as a trainer, it can help you to introduce a bit of imagination to your icebreaker.

Instructions

1. Ask your participants: 'If you could go back or forward in time, where would you go?' 'Why?' You can then follow up with questions such as 'Is there a person you would like to meet?'

2. Ask participants to share the answers.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, Evernote, or Lino.

Tools that allow you to create a survey, such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms or a wiki, such as Slimiwiki.

21. 'Where in the World' Icebreaker for Online Training

This is another game that allows participants to know each other in a fun way.

Instructions

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet, or Lino.

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21 Free fun Icebreakers for Online Teaching and virtual remote teams | Symonds Training

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Page Updated on September 13, 2021 Here are 21 free to use icebreakers for online teaching that you can use. Icebreakers are an important part of any training program, as they encourage people to participate from the start of a session, to get to know each other and to feel comfortable working with others.

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My Tours - Turn your walks, museum tours and audio guides into apps

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Engage your visitors with the leading mobile app platform for the tourism, culture, and heritage sector

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Use of padlet for general introduction/ ice breaker

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Encourage 'unsupervised' peer group contact

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Encourage 'unsupervised' peer group contact

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Constantly inviting student feedback on elearning activities and content using various formats - and responding to this

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Constantly inviting student feedback on elearning activities and content using various formats - and responding to this

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ThingLink: Create unique experiences with interactive images, videos & 360° media

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Easily create interactive and immersive visual experiences for online communication and learning. Start a free trial!

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Continuous Positive Vibe - Contact Students Regularly.

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Continuous Positive Vibe - Contact Students Regularly.

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Athina tell the students what ingredients to get and they come cook dinner with her :)

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Quizlet Live Teams in live online sessions

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Quizlet Live Teams in live online sessions

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Regular Videos and Live Sessions with Student Reps

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Regular Videos and Live Sessions with Student Reps

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Students like to see the journey and the vision start to finish, giving this information and chatting  pre arrival or as they arrive gives the students the drive to get involved.

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Have a weekly discussion forum and keep encouraging people to take part - it is a new skill so it doesn't happen quickly

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I recently found out about this platform, where you can upload a video (max 1.5 minute) - Yes, it's really good and it integrates within Teams tabs now. You can set it up with students' ISC accounts. I'm still only tentatively exploring it too.

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Tutor records for feedback.

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I recently found out about this platform, where you can upload a video (max 1.5 minute) and has all different tools like drawing, stickers, whiteboard, ...

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Share a photo of their favourite object/place/person

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Share a photo of their favourite object/place/person

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Ask students to share it first without context, then see if the other students can guess what it is or if they have similar images to others. Then give each student an opportunity to discuss their picture for 5 minutes.

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Breakout groups on blackboard and get them to find 3 facts about someone who they haven't spoken to before

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Students at DUISC get a lot academic and non academic support to prepare them for collegiate life in Durham, which is made up of all ideas, so students can always find something they like, also students like to work with students we have a lot of peer support groups, mentors and tutors, even our ambassadors have supported since we have moved online (from Durham), most or all
of our students within their leadership sessions share their cameras.

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"My highlight of the week"

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Get them to record how to say their preferred name properly!

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Get them to record how to say their preferred name properly!

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Ask questions that aren't subject related - get to know each other!

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Ask questions that aren't subject related - get to know each other!

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Feedback from teacher and comparing/discussing students' responses.

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encourage students to comment on each other's work/ comments/ posts and to give each other feedback as well as tutor feedback

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Getting sts to make a 60 second video introducing themselves then post onto Padlet

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yoga and well-being zoom sessions- mindfulness

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yoga and well-being zoom sessions- mindfulness

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Start the first session of the term with an 'ice breaker' activity. In the past I have used:

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Start the first session of the term with an 'ice breaker' activity. In the past I have used:

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a) Have them write name, area of study, one thing that excites them and one that makes them nervous about the module, and one fun fact or something about them to share. The tutor starts and then goes around with students sharing only the fun fact and collects all the other answers to read afterwards.. Online we do this using a forum.
b) Have them write three facts about them, two must be true and one false. The tutor starts the activity and students have to guess the false one. Then is the tutor turn to guess a few and take the rest home to complete and bring the answers the next session. Online, we use a forum.
Andira (USIC)

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Bring in previous student reps/digital leaders into sessions to talk to new students.

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Bring in previous student reps/digital leaders into sessions to talk to new students.

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One of my colleagues (who is from India) was saying to me that unless you do early lengthy one to ones you won’t be able to develop a sufficient relationships with Asian students in order for them to get comfortable enough to speak in the group sessions

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not always academic - about things that have happened during the week

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use the peer-mark on turnitin so students can see and comment on each others' work

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- Encouragement of using microphones and cameras within sessions
- 'Show and Tell' - something you did this week or something you would like to show

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I was given a group of students in Sheffield to teach, that I never met before.
In order to get to know something about them and increase 'familiarity', I asked them to complete a survey with questions like
- name
- how should I call you
- best place you have visited
- food you like
- ...

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Using the Map on Padlet for placing where you are from etc as part as introductions to the group

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Using the Map on Padlet for placing where you are from etc as part as introductions to the group

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Including non academic information this way students can see themselves 'fitting somewhere' before they start - Student Voice and Leadership helps create a community.

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Invite somebody 'important' for students to meet - may subj specialist from uni?

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We have an incredible student experience team who create our online community and it's fab!
The thing I personally think it really good is the Student Leadership  scheme where we have ambassadors, mentors, tutors, reps and digital leaders. I think it makes the students feel like they have a huge voice and also help each other
Sam (Durham ISC)

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get students to share pictures of their pets (plants if they don't have pets!) as an icebreaker