Gameful Learning Designs for Digital Icebreaking Situations

Thematic Workshop

Icebreaker games help participants in any kind of learning scenario getting to know each other better. This helps creating a better teamwork atmosphere in the class and thus enabling more productive teamwork or work in general. 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 gameful learning designs can be used for digital and non-digital icebreaking situations. On the one hand, we will present how and in which meaningful ways icebreaker games are used in general. On the other hand, we will 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 individual results. This 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 as well as the challenges and problems teachers are facing. The workshop will be concluded by a discussion how digital icebreakers could be improved.