Gameful Learning Designs for Digital Icebreaking Situations

Gameful Learning Designs for Digital Icebreaking Situations

Monday 23/05 10:30-12:00h

Outdoor Area B

Abstract

Icebreaker games support participants getting to know each other in any learning scenario. Knowing your peers helps create a better teamwork atmosphere in the class and thus enabling more productive (team)work. While icebreaking games are sometimes used in in-class scenarios, they are seldom used in e-learning scenarios. However, especially large-scale online courses profit from active discussion amongst users. In this workshop, the participants will learn how to use gameful learning designs for digital and non-digital icebreaking situations. Additionally, we will present how and in which meaningful ways icebreaker games are used in general. We will further demonstrate how we used gameful designs in our Massive Open Online Courses. Workshop participants will try out their preferred method in small groups and discuss their results. The workshop will enable them to use more (digital) icebreakers in their own (e-)learning scenarios. Participants will also understand why icebreakers are crucial for social e-learning platforms and the challenges and problems teachers are facing. We will conclude the workshop by discussing how digital icebreakers could be improved and collecting future work for further research in this area.

Needs Analysis

• As most PhD candidates have to teach (on-site or online), setting a friendly atmosphere to courses is crucial
• Let PhD candidates share their experience with icebreaker games (as a student and as a teacher), reflect on what went well and what didn’t work well
• Using icebreakers on-site is much easier than online, so understanding what works online is important in TEL
• Last but not least, the workshop will help me to proceed with my research on the topic by getting expert feedback

Learning Objectives

• TParticipants will understand why icebreakers are crucial for social e-learning platforms and the challenges and problems teachers are facing.
• Participants will understand how to select their own icebreaking activity and adjust it to their needs
• We will together collect ideas how to improve icebreaker games for e-learning and collect further research topics for this area.

Pre-activities

Survey on their prior experience with teaching / icebreaker games to better prepare the workshop according to their previous knowledge.

Session Description

• Ice-breaking session to get started (10 min)
• Presentation of icebreaker games, chances and challenges when using these, and research we already conducted in this area (15 min)
• Selection of an own icebreaker that could be used in an e-learning scenario, developing their own icebreaker in a small group (20 min)
• Presentation of their results (15 min)
• Discussion round of further experience and ideas with icebreaker games (30 min)

Post-activities

None.