Hopes and fears

• Concept: Group the students or pair them up and ask them to spend five minutes discussing their biggest hopes and fears about your course. Share some answers anonymously to help students feel that they are others also who may make similar assumptions.
• Mode and Facilitation:
  • Synchronous: Group activity or Create breakout rooms in Zoom and set time for them to prepare their list.
  • Asynchronous: This can be facilitated through a discussion board or a shared Google Doc.
• Outcome: Clarity of communication and assurance to the students that their fears will be addressed.

Alphabet brainstorming

• Concept: Divide the students into smaller groups and assign each cluster three or four random letters of the alphabet. Ask the students to generate a list of as many topics as possible related to the subject, beginning with that alphabet within a set time frame.
• Mode and Facilitation:
  • Synchronous: Group activity or use breakout rooms to divide students into teams and ask them to create a list.
  • Asynchronous: The same can be facilitated in an anonymous discussion forum thread.
• Outcome: Activates prior knowledge. Chance to share what topics will be covered during the course.

Who said that?

• Concept: Just like a quiz contest, read a famous quote or describe a particular theory/ model/ experiment/ formula and let the students guess the name of the scholar from the list already shared with them.  Video or audio presentations could be leveraged too.
• Mode and Facilitation:
  • Synchronous: Group activity or use breakout rooms to divide the class into smaller groups if needed.
  • Asynchronous: Discussion board.
• Outcome: Activates prior knowledge.

Syllabus questionnaire

• Concept: Before sharing your syllabus with students, divide the class into small groups and ask them to create a list of questions they might have about the course. After each group has their list prepared, distribute the syllabus and have students find answers to their questions using this document. Give students an opportunity to ask any further questions that couldn’t be answered from the syllabus.
• Mode and Facilitation:
  • Synchronous: Group activity or create groups in breakout rooms for discussion, if needed.
  • Asynchronous: Discussion board.
• Outcome: Connects students with the content. Generates curiosity.

Introduce yourself and learning outcome 

• Concept: Ask the students to introduce themselves on the discussion board and identify a learning outcome that is most important to them and why.
• Mode and Facilitation:
  • Synchronous: Group activity or create groups in breakout rooms for discussion, if needed.  Video introductions could also be requested.
  • Asynchronous: Discussion board. Video introductions could also be requested.
• Outcome: Establishes relevance to the content.