“Ice Breakers” and Community Makers: The Importance of the Introduction in Online and Face-to-Face Classrooms

One of the beautiful things about a semester is that we are banded together in a learning experience for a specified period of time. Every class we teach has a unique makeup of students from all across the university. Many will be from different majors and all of them will have different backgrounds, cultures, and ways of seeing the world. It, therefore, becomes important to establish a community where students know their peers and are comfortable speaking to them. We also want them to see the instructors as part of this community, not just as wizened sage, but as a guide for their learning and experiences. This poses the question “How DO we establish a supportive community of learning in our courses?”. This can be largely based upon our introduction activities that pave the way for all other interactions in a course. We need to “break the ice”.

In both online and face-to-face teaching modalities establishing community is important for creating space for discussions, as well as effective collaboration on group projects and presentations. From a “first day of school perspective”, it’s important to give students the opportunity to meet each other. In a 2019 article by EdSurge, the company polled instructors via Twitter about how to establish communities in their classes. Instructors said things like “community is building relationships around common interest and trust” and the article recommends helping students find peers that have common interests outside the classroom by providing time (or space) to share interests across the university. 

The Instructor Introduction

Quality Matters, an evidence-based review process and rubric for online courses, notes that in addition to creating a connection between an instructor and students, the instructor's introduction can set the “Expectations of the relationship and communication style between teacher and learner" which "are culturally influenced". Including information about the role of the instructor in a particular course and how to address the instructor is helpful to students from all backgrounds. (Annotation for Standard 1.8, 6th edition).” The instructor introduction establishes expertise but also approachability and humanity. Whether your course is online or face-to-face, students feel more comfortable if they can relate to you. You can choose to record a video or compose a short speech depending on your teaching mode. You might also consider doing both so that late add students still have the opportunity to get to know you a bit.

An introduction could include: 

• a summary of teaching experience
• your teaching philosophy
• your areas of interest and research
• any personal interests

And don’t forget to share what makes you the most excited about teaching this course!

You could record your introduction using any number of software from Flipgrid (which we will discuss next), YouTube, or Screencast-o-matic, all of which are available to faculty at Arizona State University at the time of this writing.

Teaching Assistant Introductions

Allowing your Teaching Assistants a moment to introduce themselves is also a nice touch and helps establish them as part of the community you are creating. Let them know in advance if you’d like them to record a video for your online course, or say a few words in class. It also gives them practice speaking to the classroom and establishing their own expertise and authority as they grow as professionals.

In our Teaching Assistant training, we employ the software FlipGrid for virtual introductions. Flipgrid is a free video-based discussion platform created to enhance the social-emotional connection to learning in the online classroom. The company describes Flipgrid as ”a simple, free, and accessible video discussion experience for PreK to Ph.D. educators, learners, and families”. And their website provides a multitude of tutorials for implementation.

In order to make introductions conversational we recommend sharing:

• tell us what your research area is,
• what course(s) you are assigned to TA this semester,
• one thing you'd like to learn about teaching
• share something that makes you smile!

Fellow classmates are encouraged to ask specific questions about their research or interests in reply using FlipGrid’s responses. This activity is easily adjusted to the entire course, and the instructor can be as creative as they’d like with questions.

Student Introductions

Students to peers

In order to encourage group dialogue as the course continues we need to get students talking to each other from the first day. Quality Matters also recommends providing a space in courses for students to introduce themselves to each other in Annotation 1.9 (6th edition). In face-to-face classes use activities like small group breakout sessions. Breakout sessions can also be conducted easily in Zoom for synchronous online courses too. Divide students at random, or according to an arbitrary fact like favorite ice cream flavor, TV show, or birth month.

Prompt students to share their thoughts about a course question, or personal interests. We want to get students engaged within and beyond the course. So discussing what they are excited about in the content material might be just as important as asking “What is the ultimate pizza topping?”. Even in the seriousness of our academic pursuits, we should not be afraid to share joy.

In online courses, introductions may look like a discussion thread or can be an opportunity to use a new technology tool that can be incorporated throughout the course in other active learning activities. In addition to FlipGrid, VoiceThread is also a powerful, accessible presentation or introduction tool. We’ve created slide shows in some classes where students can respond via video, text, or voice recording to prompts the instructor has left throughout a presentation.

Introductions are also a wonderful time to encourage students to share their personal pronouns and preferred names at their own comfort level to create a more inclusive space. They can also enable personal pronouns in their Canvas LMS.

Students to Instructors

One way for instructors to get to know their students (beyond interacting in any introduction activities yourself) is to survey students one-on-one at the beginning of your course. Kristina Wilson of Northwestern School of Professional Studies recommends a pre-class survey for students to share with their instructor conducted in the Learning Management System or a service like Google Forms.

Instructors can ask students about:

• the prerequisite knowledge in the topic of your course
• their technological fluency with the outlined tools from your course overview
• individual demographics like student major, career goals, time zone they are working from, if they are working while in school, etc.

Avoid questions about race, gender, or age which could be seen in a context of discrimination. The goal of this survey is to show students you are taking an individual interest in their success and to let you know what types of learners you have in your course and what they are most excited about and concerned with. This will allow you to adapt your teaching in real-time to focus on areas of interest and ease areas of concern. You can also help students outline personal goals within your course and plan to check in with them later in the term. Not all students will have the same goals. And finally, although it can be difficult in large classes, try to learn the names of your students. All of these tools help further establish the community in your course. 

Founding Community

In the end, community building takes time and is influenced by your entire course design. Our goal on the first day is to make students feel welcome and a part of the conversation instead of passive listeners through the use of introductions. Introductions become the foundation of the community in our course. We are planting a seed that will grow into our community over time. 

This post is the second in a series about the first moments of a course. Click here to read our first post, “More than “Syllabus Day”: How the First Day of Class is an Opportunity to Connect”. We hope these guides will help you plan a powerful opening to your course and welcome you to view our Course Overviews and Introductions one-page checklist, here to aid in planning.

ENGAGE: Do you have tried and true tactics for “breaking the ice” and getting to know your students? Let us know your favorite activities in the comments below.

Sources

• How to Build Meaningful Community for Online Learners #DLNchat—EdSurge News. (2019, March 18). EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-18-how-to-build-meaningful-community-for-online-learners-dlnchat
• Teaching Online? Introduce Yourself with a Video | U-M LSA LSA Technology Services. (n.d.). Retrieved July 5, 2020, from https://lsa.umich.edu/technology-services/news-events/all-news/teaching-tip-of-the-week/teaching-online--introduce-yourself-with-a-video.html
• Wilson, K. (2018, April 09). How (and Why!) to Write a Pre-Course Survey or Questionnaire - SPS: Distance Learning. Retrieved August 06, 2020, from https://dl.sps.northwestern.edu/blog/2018/04/write-pre-course-survey-questionnaire/

---

Post-Author:
Lenora Ott is an instructional designer in the Center for Evolution and Medicine at Arizona State University. Lenora assists faculty with developing and launching their online courses and provides long term evaluation, redesign, and support for online coursework. Her passion is empowering faculty to create meaningful learning experiences for their students and themselves online. She has worked in higher education for 7 years and has a Master of Science in Global Technology and Development from Arizona State University and a Graduate Certificate in Educational Technology from Northern Arizona University.